Leader group prototypicality and supervisor's organizational embodiment: A response to critique

Abstract

In a recent study, van Knippenberg and Lee concluded that supervisor's organizational embodiment (SOE) is another name for leader group prototypicality (LGP) and that given LGP's primacy in time and research presence, the field should forego the SOE label and refer to the construct as LGP. In a commentary on that study, Gonzales-Morales, Stinglhamber, Neves, and Becker criticized our conclusions. In this essay, we respond to their criticism. We agree that more evidence allows for stronger conclusions (one of their points of critique). Most of their critique, however, is grounded in misrepresentation of the social identity theory of leadership, the research concerning the theory, and the publication history of LGP and SOE. We conclude that the van Knippenberg and Lee conclusions stand as strong as before.