Leadership Status Congruency and Cohesion in Outdoor Expedition Groups

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between status congruency and group cohesion in outdoor expedition groups in an educational setting. Specifically, three aspects of status congruency were assessed in relation to group cohesion in four adventure canoe groups. The groups participated in 2-week expeditions in the northern areas of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The participants were 32 upper-year undergraduate students enrolled in a central Canadian university (Mage = 22.41, SD = 2.43 years). Results indicated that (a) individuals who ranked themselves higher in the group's status hierarchy compared to where their peers ranked them had lower perceptions of their attraction to their group's social pursuits; (b) perceptions of group cohesion were greater when individuals occupying formal leadership positions were higher in the group's status ranking (i.e., greater congruency between formal and informal status hierarchies); and (c) individuals who were members of groups that had some level of consensus regarding status rankings perceived their groups to be more cohesive than those who were members of the group that had no consensus.