LEADERSHIP AND GROUP DYNAMICS.

The reported experiment is based on a few assumptions. First that people perceive each other in the two dimensions of tower as the ability to satisfy needs, and acceptance defined as the willingness to do so. A new research tool, based on these assumptions, the statogram, has been introduced. The second assumption (tested in other experiments) is that human groups should be divided into Instrumental, Mutual Acceptance, and Vectorial ones according to the objectives of their members. The experimental group reported here was an Instrumental one. Leadership in an Instrumental group has been studied experimentally in the reported experiment. Leadership has been defined as a relationship between two parts of a group in which one part, the leader (s), initiates, stimulates, and sometimes even determines the activities of the other part called follower (s). This study emphasizes the situational factors in leadership. Leadership is a function of the specific situation in a group. Specific hypothesis has been brought forward that in an Instrumental group, leadership is rather a function of power than of acceptance. A group of six subjects was assembled, two of them especially instructed, one of them had to behave like a strong but unfriendly person while the other had to be very friendly and weak. The results of statogram and of observers, mutually highly correlated, did prove what has been anticipated. A series of experiments are being conducted to develop the new research tool applied in this study and to corroborate further and on larger samples the hypothesis proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]