Abstract
Research concerning the antecedents of leadership is reviewed using a cognitive-contextual model that focuses on factors affecting conscious, script-driven, and programmed behavioral choice. Causal relationships are suggested among several categories of contextual variables that affect behavioral choice and enacted leadership through their effects on cognitive processes. The model recognizes that leadership involves intervening in a social situation by affecting the meaning that other parties give to specific events, and as a way of fulfilling organizational functions. The review identifies gaps in current knowledge about cognitive and social processes that intervene among events that occur, problems that require management, and the leading activities of organization members. Implications for senior management strategies to influence leadership at all levels of an organization are discussed from cognitive, role, and symbolic interaction perspectives.