The Group Therapist's Absence and the Substitute Leader

When a group is led by a single individual the therapist's absence creates a management problem. This article presents several options for the solo leader. The author has used a substitute leader, and this experience is presented and evaluated. Discussion includes selection of a substitute, group preparation, ongoing use of the substitute, and benefits of this alternative for the management of the leader's absence.     

„Bei der Vertretung bin ich viel tiefer an meine Probleme drangekommen …“

In inpatient group therapy it is necessary to substitute the group leader during times of vacation orillness. Problems for therapists, teams and patients, arising by the situation of substitution, arediscussed. The institutional framework of a hospital is characterized by different interests, thatsometimes lead to conflicts about the amount of substitution. It is helpful for therapists working assubstitute, to use group cohesion and not to bond the group too much to the leader. In this way the change of group leaders can be overcome better both by the group and the therapist.     

公共资源困境中领导对群体成员合作行为的影响

过去社会困境的领导研究大多都以被试作为领导, 发现贴上领导标签后, 被试倾向于拿取更多的公共资源, 从而有碍公共利益的实现。本研究指出, 如果领导的背叛行为能够使群体成员表现出自我节制行为的话, 那么设置领导则有可能促进公共利益的实现。研究通过三个实验, 考察领导与普通群体成员不同的行为方式以及领导的产生方式对群体成员行为的影响, 并检验公平理论和社会认同理论的解释力。研究结果表明, 领导表现出背叛行为时, 被试表现出更多的自我节制行为; 指派领导及外群体选举领导背叛时, 被试表现出更多的自我节制行为, 验证了社会认同理论的正确性。     

Money and psychodynamic group psychotherapy.

Money may be the most upsetting and therefore the most avoided topic in group psychotherapy. To overcome this resistance, the leader must secure prospective members' willingness to speak openly about financial matters. Financial issues particular to group therapy emerge when money is normalized as a topic for discussion. These include lowering or not raising fees, rescheduling, leaves of absence, combined and conjoint therapy, and nonverbal behaviors. Several case examples are provided. Members' strong feelings toward the leader around financial transactions often find expression in angry accusations. Suggestions for dealing therapeutically with countertransference reactions to these accusations are offered.     

"A right to lead": The role of leader legitimacy on group reactions to transgressive leadership

Research on the transgression credit shows that groups may sometimes turn a blind eye to ingroup leaders who transgress moral norms. Although there is substantial research investigating the underlying criteria of what makes a “good” leader, research often neglects to investigate the role of followers in leader-group dynamics. In this paper, we offer a novel approach to transgressive leadership by proposing that leader legitimacy is a key factor that determines whether followers’ reactions to transgressive leaders are positive or negative. Across two experiments, participants ascribed transgression credit only to transgressive ingroup leaders perceived as legitimate (Studies 1–2, total n = 308). Transgressive illegitimate leaders were viewed as more threatening to the group, were targeted for formal punishment, received less validation for their behavior, triggered negative emotions (anger and shame), and raised higher consensus for their removal from the leadership position than did legitimate leaders. This effect also occurred irrespective of the absence of formal social control measures implemented toward the transgressive leader (Study 2). Mediation analysis showed that leader illegitimacy triggered stronger feelings of group threat and stronger negative emotions which, consequently, fuelled agreement with collective protest against the transgressive leader. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Attribution of leadership in a resource management situation

In a resource management game we investigated how regular group members respond to a leader who promotes group success or fails to do so, while operating in a predictable or totally unpredictable environment. The subjects (N = 110) were confronted with a bogus leader who purportedly took decisions on behalf of the whole group. Performance of the leader and Predictability of the environment were manipulated by means of a 2 × 2 factorial design. As predicted, a failing leader received weaker endorsement than a successful leader (Performance main effect). The Performance × Predictability interaction effect was ascribed to two circumstances: (a) As predicted by the attributional approach of leadership (Calder, 1977; Pfeffer, 1977), endorsement of a successful leader was weaker in the Unpredictable than in the Predictable environment. However, (b) endorsement of a failing leader was not significantly weaker in the Predictable than in the Unpredictable environment. Additional data showed that regular group members' attributions played a mediating role.     

领导人际情绪管理和员工建言的关系：有调节的中介效应分析

近年来,领导人际情绪管理（LIEM）作为一种管理和调节下属消极情绪的领导行为正逐渐受到学界关注。本研究通过问卷调查,搜集了314份员工和领导的配对数据。研究结果显示：领导人际情绪管理积极影响员工建言行为;下属信任在领导人际情绪管理和员工建言行为间起到部分中介作用;权力距离对下属信任的中介效应起到调节作用。     

Challenging the Leader or the Follower: Influence of Need for Emotion and Equality Violations on Emotional and Retributive Reactions in Social Dilemmas1

Research has shown that if equality is violated in public‐good dilemmas, group members react with more anger if another group member (a follower), rather than if the leader violates equality. The present research argued that people's personality—particularly, need for emotion—moderates group members’ reactions if equality is violated by either the leader or a follower. Results revealed that group members low in need for emotion reacted with more anger and were more inclined to exclude the violator if this person was a follower, rather than the leader of the group. Group members high in need for emotion, however, reacted with more anger and wished to exclude the violator more if this person was the leader, rather than a follower.     

Choosing between conciliatory and oppositional leaders: The role of out‐group signals and in‐group leader candidates' collective action tactics

In this paper, we examine the role of out‐group signals and in‐group leader tactics in the choice and evaluation of rival in‐group leader candidates. Study 1 found preference for a negotiating in‐group leader over an oppositional leader, mediated by perceived leader effectiveness and prototypicality. In Study 2, participants chose a leader who had received out‐group endorsement, and in Studies 3 and 4, participants chose a negotiating in‐group leader where the out‐group was prepared to negotiate and an oppositional leader where the out‐group was not prepared to negotiate. In the latter three studies, there was evidence for participants being strategic in their choices: effects were mediated by effectiveness but not prototypicality. These findings suggest our understanding of collective action will be enriched through attention to the situational cues provided by out‐groups, and to the context of competing voices of collective action leadership.     

Hindering Events in Interpersonal Relations Groups for Counselor Trainees

A taxonomy of hindering events that have a negative impact on the group therapy process is identified in this analogue study, A total of 40 critical incident reports collected from various times across the lives of six different interpersonal relations groups were used for the study. Student group participants completed the critical incident reports after each session and described the most hindering event occurring in each group session: the reports were then sorted into categories by judges, and the sorted categories were combined on a proximity matrix for use in cluster analysis. Eight discrete categories of hindering events were identified: absence, discounted-misunderstood, withheld self-disclosure, member disconnection, member attack, leader actions-interventions, unwanted activity, and late group.     

Social dilemmas and leadership

Subjects acted in a social dilemma situation. Two variables were experimentally manipulated: use and variance. One third of the subjects thought that the others in their group were overusing the common resource, one third thought that the others were underusing it, and the remaining third were led to believe that the others were using the resource optimally. Moreover, half of the subjects thought that the others took relatively similar harvests (low variance) while the other half thought the others differed greatly (high variance). Support was found for Homans' assumption that the internal function of leaders is to allocate outcomes equitably over group members, whereas their external function is to deal efficiently with the external environment. The results indicated that more subjects in the overuse condition voted to give up free access to the resource and to hand over the management of the resource to a leader than in the other me conditions. Moreover, more subjects in the high variance condition voted for a leader than in the low variance condition. Over all conditions, furthermore, subjects preferred themselves most as prospective leader. In addition, group members who were similar to the subject, competent at the task and concerned for the group were preferred as Leader. When subjects acted as leader they were more moderate in withdrawing harvests from the resource than as regular group member. Moreover, leaders allocated outcomes equitably to the group members.     

The impact of chief executive officer personality on top management team dynamics:one mechanism by which leadership affects organizational performance

This article explores 1 mechanism by which leader personality affects organizational performance. The authors hypothesized and tested the effects of leader personality on the group dynamics of the top management team (TMT) and of TMT dynamics on organizational performance. To test their hypotheses, the authors used the group dynamics q-sort method, which is designed to permit rigorous, quantitative comparisons of data derived from qualitative sources. Results from independent observations of chief executive officer (CEO) personality and TMT dynamics for 17 CEOs supported the authors' hypothesized relationships both between CEO personality and TMT group dynamics and between TMT dynamics and organizational performance.     

Leader mistreatment,employee hostility,and deviant behaviors: Integrating self-uncertainty and thwarted needs perspectives on deviance

Integrating self-uncertainty management and thwarted needs perspectives on leader mistreatment and workplace deviance, we examine when and why leader mistreatment is associated with workplace deviance. We propose that competence uncertainty strengthens the relationship between leader mistreatment and workplace deviance and that hostility mediates this interactive effect. Four field studies and one experiment support the hypotheses. The first two studies provide evidence for the predicted interaction between leader mistreatment and competence uncertainty, and the next three studies demonstrate that hostility mediates this interactive effect. We discuss an extended social exchange explanation of workplace deviance and highlight the psychological interplay between motives, cognition, and affect in reciprocating leader mistreatment.     

What is a writing group? Dilemmas of the leader

A writing group can serve to reinforce literary and therapeutic goals. The model outlined here assumes a leader with literary and clinical training, including expertise in group dynamics. The group format is adapted to support exploration of the writer's main problem, the absence of the reader at the moment of writing. The group modifies the writer's "mythical" reader through member interactions with writer and writing. Giving and receiving feedback are central to the group process. The leader's dilemma in a bifocal form like this is to know when and how far to interpret group members' psychological issues. The best rule is to interpret "toward" the group (i.e., to bring up material that can be safely and readily processed there), but to be cautious about interpretation of patterns of early character formation.     

领导情绪智力对团队绩效和员工态度的影响——公平氛围和权力距离的作用

本研究共收集了74个工作团队的数据, 探讨了领导情绪智力对团队层面绩效(任务绩效、利他行为)和态度(满意度、团队承诺)的影响、公平氛围的中介作用以及团队权力距离的调节作用。研究结果表明：领导的情绪智力对团队绩效和态度均有显著的正向影响; 程序公平氛围中介了领导情绪智力对团队任务绩效和利他行为的影响, 交互公平氛围中介了领导情绪智力对团队任务绩效、满意度和团队承诺的影响; 团队权力距离调节了领导情绪智力和交互公平氛围的关系, 该调节关系通过交互公平氛围的中介作用影响团队任务绩效、满意度和团队承诺。     

权力何以授予：目标理论视角下领导授权行为的形成机制

随着组织所处环境的深刻变化, 如何促进管理者更加积极地表现出授权行为, 成为领导实践和研究的重要议题。现有围绕领导授权行为形成的研究存在理论基础薄弱、“以领导者为中心”倾向突出等不足, 导致其未能很好地解答现实议题。因此, 以目标理论为视角, 并整合性地考察领导者和下属的作用, 以工作团队为研究情境, 对领导授权行为的形成机制进行深入探讨。首先, 通过多案例研究, 探索出促进领导授权行为形成的目标融合类型及其作用过程, 构建出领导授权行为形成机制的理论模型; 其次, 将收集纵向的团队主管下属对子数据, 明确这些目标融合关系对领导授权行为的影响效应; 最后, 将通过进一步数据收集, 对提出的领导授权行为形成机制模型进行整体验证。这将拓宽并加深对领导授权行为形成机制的认识, 从而更好地把握领导授权行为形成的规律, 并有助于企业更好地开展与此相关的管理实践。     

Autocratic leadership in social dilemmas: A threat to group stability

This paper investigated the impact of leadership style on the stability of small social dilemma groups. In two experiments, group members were more likely to exit their group and take their resources elsewhere if they were supervised by an autocratic style leader than by a democratic or laissez-faire style leader. The destabilizing influence of autocratic leadership is due to the procedural rather than distributive aspects of this leadership style: More members exited their group under an autocratic style leader, relative to a democratic style leader, regardless of whether or not they received favorable personal outcomes from the leader. Hence, autocratic leadership is not a stable long-term solution to the problem of public goods in groups.     

Object relations and regression in groups.

This article uses a psychoanalytic ego-psychological framework to examine the regression experienced by an individual group member and the defenses mobilized to counter it, focusing in particular on the defensive functions of constituting leadership somewhere in the group. The leader, regarded as an internal object in the member's object world, is hypothesized to be a combination of projected and personified part-objects and at the same time an integrating whole object. Various phenomena of group life are discussed from this viewpoint, notably the lability of the relationship with the leader, the externalization of various endopsychic regulations, and the conditions supporting the defensive utility of the leader for the group member. The foundation for the emergence of social roles and consensual perception of the group and its leadership becomes apparent. A strictly intrapsychic view is maintained throughout.     

Changing the guard: new leadership for an established group

When the leader of an established therapy group decides to leave, the group may wish to continue with a new leader. This decision deserves careful exploration. The transfer of leadership to a new leader is a powerful event in a group. New leaders often experience strong countertransference reactions. Specific recommendations for new leaders include meeting individually with each continuing member, helping the group stabilize and process the meaning of the change, and developing ownership of the leader role. When managed successfully, a leadership transition can strengthen the group cohesion and offer important therapeutic opportunity.     

Ethical standards for group leaders

A group leader is one who assumes the responsibility for a group dealing with interpersonal relationships. The leader is committed to a belief in the dignity and personal worth of each member of a group with whom he works. While demanding the freedom to function as a professional, he also accepts the responsibilities this freedom implies and defends the rights and freedom of his group members. He maintains integrity in his relationships with other professionals and the public. He does not use his specialized knowledge to take personal advantage of group members, nor does he permit himself to be used by others for purposes inconsistent with his own ethical standards. The group leader is expected to abide by and practice the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association and the American Personnel and Guidance Association. He is also expected to practice the following ethical standards that were developed for, and are more directly applicable to, working with groups.