Abstract
This study replicates and extends findings reported by Ghosh, Motowidlo, and Nath (2015) that Indian medical students’ prosocial knowledge is positively correlated with their clinical performance. It examines the antecedents of medical students’ charismatic leadership behavior and its contribution to their clinical performance. This study also investigates whether the strongest personality determinant of prosocial knowledge and charismatic leadership behavior is different in a high power distance culture (conscientiousness) than in a low power distance culture (agreeableness). In a sample of 343 Indian medical students, students’ prosocial knowledge positively correlated (.21, p <.01) with their clinical performance. Although Indian medical students’ (N = 96 – 109) charismatic leadership behavior failed to show significant association with their clinical performance (.07, NS) and prosocial knowledge (.18, NS), it positively correlates with agreeableness (.43, p <.01), and conscientiousness (.40, p <.01). Contrary to expectations, conscientiousness failed to show stronger association with knowledge and leadership constructs, than agreeableness in India’s high power distance culture which demonstrates agreeableness’ role as a global predictor of prosocial knowledge. Practical and theoretical contributions of this study are discussed with recommendations for future research.