Abstract

The role of leadership and its effect on small group function and efficiency has led to a wealth of research data. Of particular importance to the real world outside the laboratory and the classroom are the leadership variables of sex and task orientation. In the last two decades, women have assumed more leadership positions in the business and political world than at any other time in the past (White, De Sanctis & Crino, 1981). In addition, there has been a call to examine the many different ways a leader can approach the group to accomplish a task (Fiedler, 1978). Two basic approaches are those of task orientation, which involve the leader concentrating on completion of the task with little consideration of any other elements, and social orientation (also known as leader consideration) which concentrates on the social maintenance of those members in the group. While a great deal of research has been done on these variables and their interaction with other variables, none of these studies has examined the dynamics of these variables from an information processing perspective. Is it possible that male and female leaders may stimulate different types of group member cognitions under task or social orientations? If indeed this is possible, could the type and direction of these cognitions affect the overall performance of the group? The purpose of this study is to examine if the leader's sex and orientation preference affect the type and direction of group members' cognitions, and further, if these member cognitions will have any relationship to the overall group performance.

Notes

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Graduation Date

1988

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Taylor, K. Phillip

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Communication

Format

PDF

Pages

126 p.

Language

English

Rights

Public Domain

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Identifier

DP0021939

Subjects

Arts and Sciences--Dissertations, Academic; Dissertations, Academic--Arts and Sciences

Accessibility Status

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Communication Commons

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