Role Schemata and Member Motivation in Task Groups

It was conjectured that occupying the minimal leader role (i.e., having the title of group leader without having any of the attendant legitimacy, power, authority, or formal responsibility) might trigger a leader role schema that prescribes greater responsibility for group performance. In an experimental study, the effects of occupying such a minimal leader role and its complementary, minimal nonleader role on three distinct group motivation losses were explored. Occupying the minimal leader role did not, as conjectured, attenuate these motivation losses. However occupying the minimal nonleader role did affect task motivation. The clearest such effect was an accentuation of the typical social loafing effect by subjects when someone else in the group had been selected as a group leader.