Anxiety
as a Determinant of Leadership Emgergence in Leaderless Groups
M. Hafsi |
The
present study deals with leadership emergence in leaderless groups.
It examines experimentally the relationship between the amount of
anxiety in the here-and-now and the probability of emerging as a
leader. Thirty seven groups (randomly constituted) of 4 members each
participated in the experiment. The psychoanalytically-rooted hypothesis
of this study was that the emergent leader corresponds to the most
anxious member of the group. To test this hypothesis, emergent leaders
and non-leaders were compared, using a questionnaire designed to
measure anxiety within the group. As hypothesized, the findings revealed
that emergent leaders were significantly more likely to display a
higher anxiety score than other group members. Based on these findings,
the author discusses the implications that this exploratory study
may have for the understanding of psychoanalytically-oriented group
research.
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