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150 P. F. Lazarsfeld
tion and leadership are bound to evolve. One example should suffice to show how
this concept enriches a more static approach. It has long been known that persons
in power positions were attributed superior qualities in all sorts of matters.
But what does this mean? Would not more attractive persons be the ones to get
into leading positions ? Mulder created communications networks where he
could, arbitrarily and at random, place different people into positions which
provided them with superior kno~ledge.~3~ Consistently the other participants
considered each ‘power holder’ more attractive to work with in his new position.
The various experiments along this line have been integrated by the Australian
Gibb into what he calls an interactionist theory of leadership.237 He summarizes
tliese ideas and evidence in a number of points, of which we quote two:
2. A group is a system of interaction within which a structure emerges by the devel-
opment of relativelys table expectations for the behaviour of each member. Such
expectations are an expression of each member’s interactional relations with all
others and are, of course, determined by the other members’ perceptions of his
personal attributes and his performance on an earlier occasion.
5. Leadership is but one facet, though perhaps the most readily visible facet of this
larger process of other differentiation. Leadership is simply this concept applied to
the situation obtaining in a group when the differentiation of roles results in one or
some of the parties to the interaction influencing the actions of others in a shared
approach to common or compatible goals.
Some of Bales’ work should be mentioned here.238 He noted that in many
groups there are two kinds of leaders - the efficient person and the kindly, sup-
porting person, He found that, at the beginning of a task, the efficient leader is
preferred, but that later on the status of the supporting leader increases. Here
lie the elements of a psychological foundation for the ‘circulation of elites.’ In a
more speculative vein Bales has also reflected on a related problem of social
equilibrium: an increased division of labour makes the group more efficient
but the individual member more uneasy. What is the optimum balance? How
can it be discovered? How achieved?”39
The diffuseness, but also the richness, of the work on leadership and problem-
solving by groups leads to the expectation that anyone who has to organize
work teams or guide the activities of committees would do well to use this ma-
terial. But, as far as I know, no one has drawn together such contributions. It
would also be difficult to develop a style which would not be a cookbook, but
would combine utility with documentation of the evidence.240
c. Finally we have the area of social perception: how people see each other and
themselves. How the understanding of other people’s emotions and how ourselfesteem
are affected by other people’s behaviour toward us has been studied for a
long time. It is therefore no surprise that few really new ideas have developed in
the last two decades. But here, too, authors have turned from the description of
enduring properties of interaction to interest in ongoing processes ; they concentrate
upon the ‘sequential give-and-take properties of interaction,’ and their interest
is in ‘discovering the order and regularity that underlie this fluid proces~’~41
Thus Rosenthal gave fictitious information to teachers as to which of their
pupils had great potential learning abilitie~.~4~ A subsequent test showed that, on