Effects of leadership style,personality characteristics and method of leader selection on members' and leader's behavior

The purpose of the present study was to show the effects of the method of leader selection, leader's personality characteristics and styles of leadership and the combined effects of these variables on selected behaviors of leaders and members in discussion groups. One hundred and forty-four Ss selected from a pretested subject pool of 306 male participated in the experiment. The methods of leadership selection done on the basis of experimental manipulation were varied in one of three ways, i.e., appointment, election, and rotation. The findings suggest that the relatiomhip-oriented style leader were more effective than the taskoriented style leaders in making the discussion group to generate more ideas. The rotational and elected leaders showed more democratic and accommodative attitudes and behaviors in comparison to appointed leaders. Significant interactions among the variables indicated that predictions of leaders' and members' behaviors are most accurate when the joint effects of such factors are considered.