Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of repression-sensitization communication network change, task change, and situation change on leadership continuity. Twenty-four five-man groups, homogeneously composed of either repressers or sensitizers, participated in a wheel network, a completely-connected network, and a leaderless group discussion (LGD) setting. Before the LGD setting they received either a success, failure, or no evaluation. Represser groups exhibited greater leadership continuity than sensitizer groups between the wheel and the completely-connected networks. However, through the three group settings, discontinuity tended to predominate regardless of personality or evaluation. A secondary analysis of the data investigated the reasons for these findings.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

BALES, R F. (1953). The equilibrium problem in small groups. In: Parson, T. , Bales, R. F. & Shils, E. A. (eds), Working papers in the theory of action. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press , 111-151.

BASS, B. M. (1949). An analysis of the leaderless group discussion . J. appl. psych. 33, 527-533 .

BASS, B. M. (1954). The leaderless group discussion . Psychol. bull. 51, 465-492 .

BAVELAS, A. (1950). Communication patterns in task-oriented groups . Journal of the acoustical society of America 22, 725-730 .

BYRNE, D. (1961). Repression-sensitization scale: Rationale, reliability, and validity . J. pers. 29, 334-349 .

BYRNE, D. (1964). Repression-sensitization as a dimension of personality. In: Maher, B. H. (ed.), Progress in experimental, personality, research. New York: Academic Press .

COHEN, A. M. (1962a). Changing small group communication network . Adminis. science quarterly 6, 443-462 .

COHEN, A. M. (1962b). Predicting organization in changed communication networks-I . Journal of psychology 44, 391-416 .

COHEN, A. M. (1964). Predicting organization in changed communication networks-IV . Journal of psychology 48, 115-129 .

10.

COHEN, A. M. & BENNIS, W. G. (1962). The effects of changes in communication networks on the behaviors of problem solving groups . Sociometry 25(2), 177-196 .

11.

COHEN, A. M. & BENNIS, W. G. (1961). Continuity of leadership in communication networks . Human Relations 14, 35 1-367 .

12.

FIEDLER, F. E. (1967). A theory of leadership effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill .

13.

GIBB, C. A. (1969). Leadership. In: Lindzey, G. & Aronson, A. (eds), Handbook of Social Psychology. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley . pp. 205-282.

14.

HARE, A. P. (1962). Handbook of small group research. New York: Free Press .

15.

HAMBLIN, R. Leadership and crises . Sociometry 21, 322-335 .

16.

HAMBLIN, R. , MACCOBY, N. & MORSE, A. N. (1959). Productivity, supervision, and morale in an office situation. Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center, University of Michigan .

17.

KATZ, E. P. , BLAU, M. & STRODBECK, F. (1957). Leadership stability and social change. An experiment with small groups . Sociometry 20, 36-50 .

18.

LIPPITT, R. , POLANSKY, N. , REDL, F. & ROSEN, S. (1960). The dynamics of power. In: Cartwright, D. and Zander, A. (eds), Group Dynamics: Research and theory. Evanston, Illinois: Row and Paterson . pp. 745-765.

19.

MAIER, N. R. F. (1950). The quality of group decisions as influenced by the discussion leader . Human Relations 3, 155-174 .

20.

SHAW, M. E. (1955). A comparison of two types of leadership in various communication nets . Journal of abnormal and social psychology 50, 127-134 .

21.

SHERIF, M. & SHERIF, C. (1956). An outline of social psychology. New York: Harper and Row .

22.

SIEGEL, S. (1956). Nonparametric statistics. New York: McGraw-Hill .

23.

STOGDILL, R. (1948). Personal factors associated with leadership: A survey of the literature . Journal of psychology 25, 35-71 .

24.

ZILLER, R. C. & BEHRINGER, R. P. (1960). Assimilation of the knowledgeable newcomer under conditions of group success and failure . Journal of abnormal and social psychology 60, 288-291 .

Leadership Continuity in Problem-solving Groups: An Interactional Study

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References