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Leading Small Groups: Theoretical Perspectives 189

adhering to the group’s task. We know this is unusual; most groups can and should
use the services of a designated leader. However, this case verifies the important point
that we made earlier: leadership belongs to the group.
There is support for distributed leadership. Barge compared two models of group
leadership—one in which the leader exerted active, directive influence in the group
and a leaderless model, in which all members engaged in the leadership process. He
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discovered that overall leadership activity, as opposed to the activity of the designated
leader alone, was the better predictor of group productivity. Barge concluded that
although an individual leader’s behavior may not necessarily help a group achieve its
goals, the overall group leadership behavior does. Gastil’s studies of small group
democracy show that democratic leadership distributes responsibility among mem-
bers, empowers them by improving their general abilities and leadership skills, and
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helps the group in its decision-making process. The self-managed work teams men-
tioned in Chapter 1 are unique because they are composed of peers who are leaders in Leader as Completer
their own right and are good examples of shared or distributed leadership. This kind A leader who
of leadership helps them build relationships together and learn about their task as a functions as a
team, even forecasting who might lead on future projects. 105 participant-observer,
We hope you agree that it is good for the group and good for the members when monitoring the
leadership is distributed among them. But you may be wondering, if members assume group’s process,
leadership duties for the group, where does the leader fit in? The metaphor we suggest noticing what is
is that the members are the bricks that provide support and substance to the group, missing, and
and the leader is the mortar that binds them together and allows the group to hold its providing what is
shape, as shown in Figure 7.3. This is the picture of the leader as completer, a needed.

FIGURE 7.3 The
leader as “completer”
of the group
Leader

Member A

Member D
Member B

Member C

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