The effect of participatory and supervisory leadership on group creativity.

This study compares the creativity of 4-man groups under 2 conditions of leadership. The Ss were 90 freshmen and sophomore Navy ROTC midshipmen and 30 NROTC seniors who served as group leaders. In 15 of the groups, the leaders acted as chairmen who directed the group discussions and contributed to the task solution. In the other 15 groups, leaders acted in a supervisory capacity: they directed and guided group discussion and they were allowed to encourage members or to reject ideas, but the leaders were prohibited from contributing to the solution of the task. Groups having participatory leaders were generally superior in quantity of output while groups under supervisory leaders were superior in the quality of the product. Although leaders in the 2 conditions did not differ in their satisfaction with the group product, the participatory leaders were more satisfied with their own individual contribution to the task. The leadership styles did not produce differences in the members' esteem for the leader or in the members' morale and satisfaction with the task. Differences were found in the influence of the leader intelligence and ability scores on group creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)