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Leadership From a Social Psychology Perspective

Abbey Haynes

Salt Lake Community College

PSY2500 - Social Psychology

Marcia Flocken

7/22/23
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Abstract

The intent with this Literature Review is to explore the topic of Leadership from a social

psychology perspective. There are many types of leadership, such as climbing the corporate

ladder, parenthood, or even amongst friends. The questions that were posed consisted of “What

type of individual gets more leadership opportunities?”, “What behaviors can a leader show to

gain loyalty of followers?”, and “What does leadership look like in other cultures?”.

Understandably, there weren’t many examples of studies done focusing on leadership, let alone

recently. However, these results still translate to helpful information and are summarized in this

Literature Review.
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Discussion

“The Under-Utilization of Women’s Talent: Academic Achievement and Future

Leadership Positions” was led by Yue Qian and Jill E Yarvosky in 2021. This study examines

how gender and high school academic achievement early on affects parents and their leadership

opportunities later in life (Qian & Yarvosky, 2021).

The demographic of the research participants in this study are parents; both mothers and

fathers. The researchers carried out this study by using case-study. They used NLSY79, which is

a “nationally representative sample of 12,686 people aged 14–22 years at the time of their first

interviews in 1979. The NLSY79 is ideal for our study, because it collected high school

transcript data, followed adolescents over time, and collected information on whether

respondents supervise people at work and if so, how many people they supervise until their

middle-age adulthood” (Qian & Yarvosky, 2021).

Results

Three main takeaways from this study: First, it’s revealed that men consistently attain

higher leadership levels than women at nearly every GPA level. Second, the individuals were

tracked from adolescence to working age and used high school transcripts instead of

retrospective memory, as that could cause bias and misreporting. Third, “Sociologists have

identified that motherhood is associated with lower income and reduced labor force participation,

with the opposite being true for fatherhood” (Qian & Yarvosky, 2021). The average high school

GPA in academic courses is 2.46, with nonparents having slightly higher GPA in high school

than parents (2.52 vs. 2.44). “These findings suggest that fathers with higher GPA in high school

are more likely to attain higher educational levels, and higher educational attainment is

associated with greater leadership positions at work” (Qian & Yarvosky, 2021).
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Discussion

Choi and Mai-Dalton published this article about how self-sacrificial tendencies leaders

can have affect their followers and their perceptions and attitudes, based on charisma and

legitimacy from the leader, which may create reciprocity. Self-Sacrifice is defined as “the

total/partial abandonment, and/or permanent/temporary postponement of personal interests,

privileges, or welfare in the (1) division of labor, (2) distribution of rewards, and (3) exercise of

power” (Choi & Mai-Dalton, 1999).

The researchers carried out their study via survey. They asked the participants were

students and industry employees. There were eight scenarios that the participant would read 1 of,

then complete the survey. Each participant was “required to think of themselves as employees of

the company while they were reading the scenarios and to respond to the questionnaire

immediately after reading the materials” (Choi & Mai-Dalton, 1999).

Results

“Although the effect of self-sacrifice is substantial whether leader competence is high or

low, self-sacrificial behaviors are perceived more saliently when leader competence is low. This

could mean that self-sacrificial leader behaviors might be able to compensate for the lack of

leader competence to some degree” (Choi & Mai-Dalton, 1999). “Overall, the results suggest

that self-sacrificial leadership will positively influence the followers' perceptions about the leader

and their attitudes toward the leader. Followers will respect and be proud of being associated

with a self-sacrificial leader (charisma), accept the leader as their own (legitimacy), and intend to

reciprocate and follow the example of the leader (reciprocity)”(Choi & Mai-Dalton, 1999).
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Discussion

Rabbie and Bekkers conducted experiments exploring the decisions of intergroup

competition versus intergroup collaboration. The purpose of this research is to understand the

choice of a threatened leader - using their bargaining power for conflict or cooperation within

their intergroup.

The demographic was college-aged psychology students. They carried out this

experiment with 42 students who were randomly assigned conditions. This is an experiment of

management-labour negotiations (Rabbie & Bekkers, 1978). The students were assigned as

leader of these groups, but could not interact with these groups; he could only listen in via phone,

which was a pre-recorded conversation. “His task was to make a decision on the basis of the

proposals he received from his own and the other group. There were three negotiation issues (1)

the division of profits, (2) the participation in decision making and (3) the level of vacation

allowance” (Rabbie & Bekkers, 1978). “During the discussion about the proposal made by the

leader, two members appeared to be dissatisfied about his performance and were threatening to

depose him. In the unstable leadership condition the subjects were informed that the leaders

would be deposed when two group members were in favour of it. Since the leaders in both

conditions could hear the same discussion, the stable leader would be more certain of his

reelection and thus of the additional rewards than the unstable leader” (Rabbie & Bekkers, 1978).

Results

“Consistent with our expectations, the unstable leader shows a greater tendency to opt for

intergroup competition than cooperation as compared with the stable leader” (Rabbie & Bekkers,

1978).
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Discussion

Leadership means different things to different cultures. China has a collectivist culture.

Through surveying Taiwanese employees, this study explores paternalistic leadership, focusing

on three dimensions; authoritarianism, benevolence and morality. “Authoritarianism is expected

to promote subordinate compliance and dependence, leaders’ benevolence is expected to increase

subordinates’ gratitude and reciprocation, whereas leaders’ morality is expected to promote

subordinates’ respect and identification; all three paternalistic leadership dimensions are

expected to increase subordinates’ work motivation (Farh & Cheng, 2000)”. While it’s common

to follow the chain of command in corporate settings, having trust and respect from your leader

goes far, and that spans all cultures. “Although authoritarian leaders set up strict discipline and

high performance standards for their subordinates, subordinates may not comply with their

leaders’ expectations unless the subordinates are motivated by reciprocation concerns or look up

to the leaders as role models” (Niu et al., 2009).

Results

Most hypotheses were proven correct. Results show that high morality and high

benevolence are attributed to a strong, well-followed leader. When high benevolence and/or high

morality joined with authoritarianism, the trust with the leader was still higher than low

benevolence and low morality. “Our results suggest that compared to ‘indulgent’ leaders, who

primarily influence subordinates through acting nicely, or ‘ideological’ leaders, who mainly rely

on personal virtues and social modeling as the influence vehicles, individuals playing a role of

‘selfless benefactors’ are most effective supervisors in the Chinese context” (Niu et al., 2009).
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Conclusion

In conclusion, as expected, leadership has a different meaning to many people. When the

questions posed in the Abstract were answered, some answers weren’t expected. For example,

fathers tend to have the most leadership opportunities, as they are more willing to put in long

days and have higher commitment, rather than mothers who are more likely to exit the workforce

for long periods of time. Although, there is little difference between men vs. women when it

comes to ability to lead. Another rather surprising outcome - followers will look to the leader

even if they lack competence if they are seen as self-sacrificing. This shows that people will trust

a leader and reciprocate if the leader leads by example and sacrifices for the betterment of the

team. When it came to cooperation compared to competition, team cooperation came out as more

productive. Intergroup competition may get the task at hand completed, but the lack of

collaboration impacts the effectiveness of the team over time.

A strong leader will encourage cooperation and collaboration. They will be

self-sacrificial at times, but also carry benevolence and a high sense of morality as well. Being a

firm authoritarian or having low competence as a leader doesn’t mean the task or team will fail,

but it may not be as effective for everyone involved. These attributes span many different

cultures, both individualistic and collectivist.

References

Choi, Y., & Mai-Dalton, R. R. (1999). The model of followers’ responses to self-sacrificial

leadership: An empirical test. EBSCO.

https://web-s-ebscohost-com.libprox1.slcc.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=baf4e420-f4

e7-4bff-b54e-ba344977809f%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1z

aXRl#AN=2543624&db=pbh

Niu, C.-P., Wang, A.-C., & Cheng, B.-S. (2009). Effectiveness of a moral and benevolent leader:

Probing the interactions of the dimensions of paternalistic leadership. Asian Journal of

Social Psychology, 32–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-839X.2008.01267.x

Qian, Y., & Yarvosky, J. E. (2021, December). Under-Utilization of Women’s Talent: Academic

Achievement and Future Leadership Positions Yu. EBSCO.

https://web-s-ebscohost-com.libprox1.slcc.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=99904386-7

16f-4213-af73-e53d5994ff71%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1

zaXRl#AN=153191802&db=pbh

Rabbie, J. M., & Bekkers, F. (1978, March). Threatened leadership and intergroup competition.

EBSCO.

https://web-s-ebscohost-com.libprox1.slcc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=b2e

0c4b5-6f17-4a85-a4c6-a852d38bbe36%40redis