The collective endorsement of James Meredith: Initiating a leader identity construction process
通过分析詹姆斯·梅雷迪斯历史性整合密西西比大学的档案证据，研究集体认可如何启动领导者身份建构过程，对比梅雷迪斯与州长巴尼特的身份建构差异。
DeRue and Ashford (2010) proposed a social process of leadership identity construction, asserting that leadership identity is co-constructed by way of claims and grants of leader and follower identities. In addition, these authors suggested that the collective endorsement of the broader social context might serve as a catalyst to initiate the leader identity construction process. As a result, they called for qualitative studies to further develop this idea. During archival research of James Meredith’s historic integration of the University of Mississippi, we discovered evidence to support and extend their theoretical arguments. Accordingly, we interpret the archival evidence of support and opposition of Meredith’s defiant integration to contrast the leader identity construction processes of Meredith with his contemporary antagonist, former Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. We use this analysis to illustrate how the distinctive social context broadly recognized the key element of defiance and collectively endorsed Meredith as a leader, thereby initiating his leader identity construction process.