Groups and Leadership

Question 1

What is a group

Answer 1

Two or more people who share a common definition and evaluation of themselves and behave in accordance with that evaluation

Question 2

Group Entitativity

Answer 2

The property of a group that makes it seem like a coherent, distinct and unitary entity

Question 3

Common bond groups

Answer 3

Based on direct attatchment among members

–> personal goals are more salient - egocentric principle

Question 4

Common identity groups

Answer 4

based in direct attatchment to the group

–> group goals are more salient - altruistic principe

Question 5

aggregates

Answer 5

not all groups are groups - sometimes merely social aggregates (lowes entitativity)

Question 6

Social facilitation theory

Answer 6

an improvement in the performance of well learned/easy tasks and a deterioration in the performance of poorly learned/hard tasks in the mere presence of others

Question 7

Drive Theory

Answer 7

the mere presence of the same species instinctively causes arousal that motivates performance of habitual behaviour patterns

Question 8

Evaluation Apprehension Model

Answer 8

The argument that the physical presence of members of the same species causes drive because people have learnt to be apprehensive about being evaluated

Question 9

Distraction conflict theory

Answer 9

The presence of an audience creates conflict between attending to the task and attending to the audience

Question 10

Self awareness Theory

–> non drive theory

Answer 10

people focus their atttention on themselves as an object

–> they make comparisons between actual self and ideal self

Question 11

Self discrepancy theory

–> non drive theory

Answer 11

discrepancy between actual self and ideal self increases motivation and effort to bring the two in line

Question 12

Self presentation

–> non drive theory

Answer 12

people focus on self presentation - the best possible presentation of themselves –> increases or decreases task performance

Question 13

Task Taxonomy

Ivan Steiner 1972,1976

Answer 13

Classification of group tasks

1. Whether a division of labour is possible
2. whether the is a predetermined standard to be met
3. how an individual´s inputs can contribute

Question 14

Social loafing

Answer 14

A reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task, compared with working either alone or coactively

• -> effect of group size might be caused by social impact
• -> the responsibility the expereimenter gives to the participants is more and more diffused when its more people

Question 15

Ringelmann effect

Answer 15

the individual effort on a task diminishes as group size increases

Question 16

Free rider effect

Answer 16

Taking advantage of a shared public resouce without contribution to its maintenance

Question 17

When do we loaf

Answer 17

1. Output equity - we believe others loaf so we try to maintain equity
2. Evaluation apprehension - we loaf less when we feel evaluated, when we are anonymous we loaf
3. Matching to standard - missing knowledge of the group´s standards produces loafing

Question 18

Social compensation effect

Answer 18

Sometimes people work harder collectively then coactively, to compensate for anticipated loafing by others

Question 19

Group cohesiveness

Answer 19

The property of a group that actively binds people as group members to one another and to the group as a whole
Entails: - attatchment to the group
- mutual support
- uniformity of conduct

Question 20

Group socialisation

Answer 20

Dynamic relationship between the group and its members that describes the passage of members through a group in terms of commitment and of changing roles

1. Evaluation,
2. Comittment,
3. Role transition

Question 21

Model of group socialisation

Moreland and Levine

Answer 21

Explains passage of individuals through groups over time

Question 22

Group norms

Answer 22

Attitudinal and behavioural uniformities that define group membership and differentiate between groups.

Question 23

Ethnomethodology

Answer 23

The violation of hidden norms in order to reveal their presence

Question 24

Moral foundation theory

Answer 24

Disagreement between people on what is morally good rests on the fact that they prioritise different moral principles in their moral reasoning

Question 25

Roles

Answer 25

Patterns of behaviour that distinguish between different activities within the group, and that interrelate to one another for the greater good of the group

Question 26

Role identity theory

Answer 26

Roles can influence who we are, our identity, our concept of self

• -> Social expectations about behaviour can create enduring, real identities for people
• -> Correspondence bias - we have the tendency to attribut the roles internally to the role player –> therefore avoid lower status roles

Question 27

Status

Answer 27

Consensual evaluation of the prestige of a role in a group or of the prestige of a group and its members as a whole

Question 28

Expectation states theory/status characteristics theory

Answer 28

Theory of the emergency of roles as a consequence of people´s status-based expectations about others´ performance

1. specific status characteristics (e.g. ability)
2. diffuse status characteristics (maybe no relevance e.g. high social status)
   - -> also leadership theory

Theory of influence in groups that attributes greater influence to those who possess both task-relevant characteristics and characteristics of high-status groups in society

Question 29

Communication networks

Answer 29

set of rules governing the possibility or ease of communication between different roles in a group

Question 30

Schism

Answer 30

The division of a group into subgroups, that differ in their attitudes, values or ideology

Question 31

Subjective group dynamics
(Marques, Abrams)
–> Marginal members

Answer 31

Marginal members are either

1. anti-normative deiviant - towards an outgroup
2. pro-normative deviant - away from the outgroup

Question 32

Uncertainty-identity theory

–> why do people joing groups

Answer 32

To obtain social identity and reduce uncertainty we join groups

Question 33

Social ostracism

Answer 33

Exclusion from a group by common consent

–> can lead to fatal reaction like low self-esteem or aggression

Question 34

Leadership

Answer 34

Getting group members to achieve the group´s goals

Question 35

Great person theory

Answer 35

Perspective on leadership that attributes effective leadership to innate or acquired individual characteristics (personality)

Question 36

Three leadeership styles

Answer 36

1. Autocratic leader - style based on giving orders to followers
2. Democratic leaders - style based on consultation and obtaining agreement and consent from followers
3. Laissez-faire leaders - style based on desinterest in followers

Question 37

leader behaviour description questionnaire (LBDQ)

Answer 37

Scale devised by ohio state leadership researchers to measure leadership behaviour and distinguish between

1. Initiating structure –> task oriented
2. consideration –> relationship oriented

–> most effective leaders score high on both of the scales

Question 38

Contingency theories

Answer 38

Theories of leadership that consider the leadership effectiveness of particular behaviours or behavioural styles to be contingent on the nature of the leadership situation

Question 39

Fiedler´s contingency theory

Answer 39

distinguishes between

1. task oriented leader - most effective when situational control high or low
2. relationship oriented leader - more effective when between the extremes

Question 40

Normative decision theory

–> contingency theory

Answer 40

Contingency theory of leadership that focuses on the effectiveness of different leadership styles in group decision making context
3 strategies:
1. autocratic - leader makes decisions
2. consultative - consulting subordinates but leader makes the decision
3. group decision making - shared decision making process

Question 41

Path goal theory

–> contingency theory

Answer 41

Contingency theory of leadership that can also be classified as a transactional theory - focuses on how structuring (task oriented) and consideration (relationship oriented) behaviours motivate followers

Question 42

Transactional leadership

Answer 42

approach to leadership that focuses on the transsaction of resources between leader and followers

Question 43

Idiosyncrasy credit

Hollander

Answer 43

Transactional theory, that followers reward leaders for achieving group goals by allowing them to be relatively idiosyncratic

Question 44

Leader-member exchange theory

Answer 44

Theory of leadership in which effective leadership rests on the ability of the leader to develop good quality personalized exchange relationships with individual members

Question 45

Transformational leadership

Answer 45

Approach to leadership that focuses on the way that leaders transform group goals and actions – mainly through the exercise of charisma

Question 46

Leader categorization theory

Answer 46

We have a variety of schemas about how different types of leader behave in different leadership situations. When a leader is categorized as a particular type of leader, the schema fills in details about how that leader will behave

Question 47

Social identiy theory of leadership

Answer 47

when group becomes a salient and important basis for self-conception and identity, group prototypicality becomes perhaps more important than leader schemas for selecting a leader

Question 48

Social dilemma

Answer 48

Situation in which short-term personal gain is at odds with the long-term good of the group

Question 49

Role conguity theory

Answer 49

Role congruity theory proposes that a group will be positively evaluated when its characteristics are recognized as aligning with that group’s typical social roles

Mainly applied to the gender gap in leadership – because social stereotypes of women are inconsistent with people’s schemas of effective leadership, women are evaluated as poor leaders

Question 50

Brainstorming

Answer 50

Uninhibited generation of as many ideas as possible in a group, in order to enhance group creativity

Question 51

Illusion of group effectivity

Answer 51

Experience-based belief that we produce more and better ideas in groups than alone

Question 52

Groupthink

Answer 52

Mode of thinking in highly cohesive groups in which the desire to reach unanimous agreement overrides the motivation to adopt proper rational decision-making procedures

Question 53

Group polarization

Answer 53

Tendency for group discussion to produce more extreme group decisions than the mean of members’ pre-discussion opinions, in the direction favored by the mean

Question 54

The bandwagon effect

Answer 54

people in discussion may compete to appear to be stronger advocates of that position

Question 55

Pluralistic ignorance

Answer 55

people sometimes behave publicly in ways that do not reflect what they actually think
–> e.g. confroming to a norm because you think everyone thinks so but the others actually don´t either but act the same way as you do

Question 56

Example: Evaluation apprehension model and distraction conflict theory
–> bottle

Answer 56

people were supposed to rate a facial expression on a tv but at the same time squeez a bottle as firmly as possible

• -> they were either watched closely or alone
• -> they performed better when watched

Question 57

Example Ringelmann effect

–> pulling a rope

Answer 57

• -> young men were supposed to pull on a rope either alone, or in groups of two, three or eight
• -> the force exerted per person decreased as a function of group size

Question 58

Example study
Zimbardo: stanford prison experiment
–> roles influence on behaviour

Answer 58

The studends complied to well with the roles they were assigned
–> roles can influence our identity and concept of self

Question 59

Transactive memory of groups

Answer 59

Group members have a shared memory for who within the group remembers what and is the expert on what
–> they might remember things better together