WHO GETS THE CREDIT - PERCEPTIONS OF IDIOSYNCRASY CREDIT IN WORK GROUPS

Although Hollander characterized idiosyncrasy credit as the product of perceptions group members have of one another no one has ever capture d these perceptions. We suggest that perceptions of idiosyncrasy credi t are directly accessible as an empirical and measurable concept. To d emonstrate this, we followed seven naturally occurring, on-going work groups and asked group members to report the level of idiosyncrasy cre dit measured as latitude to deviate and seriousness of consideration-t hey allocated to each other: Our results indicated that perceptions of idiosyncrasy credit were internally reliable across items, across tim e, and across group members. Further perceptions of idiosyncrasy credi t were predictably related to leadership and socially dominant behavio rs. Group performance moderated these relationships. implications of t his study for research on idiosyncrasy credit, leadership, and group p erformance were discussed.