Leadership & Cooperation and Competition

what quality promotes perceived leadership status?

communication; leaders of groups engage in more communication than nonleaders.

Kurt Lewin’s study on leadership styles

situation: boys in an after-school program were organized into groups with three different leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire.

findings:

1) laissez-faire groups were less efficient, less organized, and less satisfying for the boys than democratic groups;

2) autocratic groups were more hostile, more aggressive, and more dependent on their leader, with greater quantity of work;

3) democratic groups were more satisfying and more cohesive, with stronger work motivation and interest

cooperation

acting together for mutual benefit so that everyone can obtain a goal

competition

acting for one’s individual benefit so that they can obtain a goal that has limited availability

the prisoner’s dilemma

Muzafer Sherif’s Robber’s Cave experiment

situation: group of 12-year-old boys at a boys’ camp were split into two groups; tasks where given in order of within-group cooperation, between-group competition, and between-group cooperation.

findings: 

1) within-group cooperation: emergence of status hierarchy, role differentiation for various tasks, and norms for behaviors.

2) between-group competition: generation of between-group hostility, desire for no further contact, and ineffectiveness of mere contact

3) between-group cooperation: joint effort on superordinate goals (goals best obtained through intergroup cooperation) dramatically improved intergroup relations