Social identity, self-categorization, and leadership: A field study of small interactive groups.

Abstract

This article describes a social identity and self-categorization analysis of leadership. As people identify more strongly with a group, they increasingly confer leadership on fellow members who are group prototypical. They grant them power and influence through consensual social attraction and attributional processes. Leadership schemas, group membership variables, and leadership effectiveness perceptions were measured 1 week apart in Outward Bound groups. As predicted, (a) group identification, perceived leadership effectiveness, and social attraction increased over time, (b) leadership effectiveness was a positive function of social attraction and group prototypicality of the leader and was amplified among high-identifying participants, and (c) perceived leader schema typicality of the leader was a predictor of perceived leadership effectiveness, but was uninfluenced by identification. Unpredicted attribution effects are discussed. Copyright 1997 by the Educational Publishing Foundation.