Seminar Series

Stephen Humphrey (Penn State)

Title: Like Children Do:  Forming Dyads in Groups and Teams

Abstract:  We take a novel perspective to studying group and team leadership by examining the core dyad within a larger collective—an unexplored social phenomenon that could change how we study groups and teams. We argue that social collectives (groups or teams) naturally resolve status conflict stemming from prestige hierarchies by creating a core dyad (a leader and a sidekick) that direct the activities of the collective. We test our ideas in two contexts, using different methodologies: a qualitative study of children at summer camp and a laboratory study of teams engaged in a business task. Our results support our arguments, demonstrating the prevalence of core dyads within groups and teams, the speed at which they are created, and the impact on the team.