Personality in Social Influence Across Tasks and Groups

Abstract

In a study on the person-by-situation interaction on leadership, 9 unacquaintedfemale and male students completed a personality-adjective list before they cooperated in 3 triads on 4 different assessment-center tasks, each time with 2 new partners. The rotation design was run with 4 samples of 9 subjects each, half of them men, half women. Each subject's contribution to the group process was ranked by the team members and by 2 observers. In each of the 4 9-person samples the main effect of persons was much larger than the person-by-task (and group-composition) interaction effect. The personality pattern Low Emotional Stability/Low Independence was clearly a hindrance to influence for men, butnot for women. Social roles modify the influence of personality characteristics on leadership behavio, attenuating the personality influence more with women than with men. Finally, some practical conclusions are drawn.