Unraveling leadership potential: conceptual and measurement issues

The status quo of the leadership potential literature is best represented as a “hot mess” of conceptual and measurement issues. In our view, the prior literature tends to conflate different constructs (i.e., predictor constructs, job-related leader behaviours, and organizational outcomes) that need to be unravelled in order to lay the foundation for future leadership potential research. To advance the field, we conduct a systematic literature review and apply a personnel selection lens to recent (35 years; 62 studies in 31 journals) leadership potential research. Our study contributes to the literature by (a) disentangling various constructs related to leadership potential and (b) proposing a guiding framework to classify and select constructs and measures for future research. Drawing on a construct and criterion validation framework widely used in personnel selection, we identify six core themes that link to construct-based theory development and disentangle various constructs in the predictor and criterion domains related to leadership potential. Specifically, our framework proposes that leadership potential is a referential concept rather than a stand-alone construct. Therefore, leadership potential research should focus on the measurement of valid predictor constructs that relate to future growth in leadership effectiveness.