Identification and leadership in small groups: Salience, frame of reference, and leader stereotypicality effects on leader evaluations

Two studies rested the prediction that people who identify strongly with a group base leadership perceptions on the group prototypicality of the leade r whereas leadership schemas diminish in importance. Leadership and prototy picality were operationalized as relational constructs grounded in people's salient social comparative frame of reference. Study 1 (N = 82) had partic ipants nominate a group leader and measured perceptions of the leader relat ive to nonleaders on leadership effectiveness, group prototypicality, and l eadership stereotypicality. In Study 2 (N = 164) prototypicality, stereotyp icality, and group salience were experimentally manipulated. As predicted, leadership stereotypicality became a weaker basis for leadership among high identifiers. The role of prototypicality in leadership was complexly affec ted by identification, which (a) accentuated leader-follower similarity on perceived prototypicality and leadership effectiveness, (b) changed the sal ient frame of reference, and (c) thus changed relative prototypicality of g roup members and leadership perceptions.