Knowing is half the battle

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea that action makes knowledge more consequential for being deemed an emergent leader among peers. The authors hypothesized that mastery of teamwork knowledge has a stronger relationship with advancement potential when combined with a strong propensity to work toward collective success (i.e. greater action). Design/methodology/approach – The authors tested the hypothesized interaction with moderated path analysis of data from two field studies on team-based trainees in a military leadership-development program. Findings – The findings suggest that to be deemed an exceptional leader among one’s peers, an individual must have both relevant expertise and a propensity to use that expertise to the benefit of others. Either of these attributes matters more when combined with a great deal of the other, such that they are interdependent rather than independent. Practical implications – Informed by the findings, the authors discuss several ways for organizations to build a sufficient internal supply of future leaders. Such interventions include personal coaching and mentoring as means of developing possible candidates, for higher level leadership roles, who are deficient in one or both of the focal attributes (i.e. knowledge and action). Originality/value – The authors propose the role of action in relation to knowledge as one of augmentation rather than compensation. This represents a unique theoretical specification, in that few models have specified interactions among individual-level factors in explaining leader emergence. The finding that action is pivotal in shaping the extent to which knowledge is conducive to establishing oneself as a candidate for higher level roles of organizational leadership represents a unique empirical contribution to the leadership development literature.