A SURVEY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A TASK ROLE AND A GROUP-MAINTENANCE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP

Abstract

The purpose of this survey is to investigate into the following questions concerning the two functional roles of leadership. (1) What is the trait of the member's personality who takes the roles? (2) Is there any difference, as to followers' attitudes toward a task leader and group atmosphere felt by members, among the following three kinds of groups: (a) the “integration” group in which one member takes the two roles exclusively; (b) the “differentiation high-favor” group in which one member takes the task role and another takes the group-maintenance role, and the group-maintenance leader is favorably disposed toward the task leader; and (c) the “differentiation low-favor” group in which the group-maintenance leader is unfavorably disposed toward the task leader?
Members of 30 male basket-ball clubs in senior high schools served as subjects.
Results are as follows: (1) The members who take the group-maintenance roles make, on ‘general activity’, ‘rhathymia’ and ‘social extraversion’ scales of the Yatabe-Guilford Personality Inventory, higher scores than ones who do not. (2) The task leaders receive more favorable social-supports from the followers in the integration groups than in others, but in the differentiation groups there is no significant difference between the high-favor and the low-favor groups. (3) The group atmosphere felt by the group members is less congenial in the differentiation low-favor groups than in others.