Instrumental and Expressive Structures in Small Groups

Abstract

Bales's early view of relations between instrumental and expressive structures (dual leadership) and the work on legitimacy of instrumental structure to which it led is reviewed. Then, legitimacy of instrumental structure is conceptualized in terms of integration of distribution of members' skills and instrumental structure, showing that this integration creates distributive justice. Next, Blau's conception of primary and secondary differentiation and inequality structures is presented along with relevant work, showing that Blau's conception applies at an interpersonal rather than a group level. Finally, a conception of the expressive structure is presented. It is shown that this conception makes it possible to formulate the ways and conditions under which the expressive structure can compensate for illegitimacy (injustice) of the instrumental structure.