Leadership as Group Regulation

Groups often fail to successfully regulate all of the competing tensions they experience (e.g., efficiency versus effectiveness, task versus relationship, etc.). Past research suggests, for example, that groups often mis-regulate these tensions by focusing on one force to the exclusion of others (e.g., focusing exclusively on consensus leads to groupthink). Relatively little research attention has been paid, however, to how groups manage the natural tensions in their lives, with virtually no attention at all focused on any potential role for leaders in helping groups balance these tensions. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by proposing that effective groups have leaders who play a critical role in the regulation of these tensions. We use self-regulation theory to derive hypotheses about what makes group leaders effective, including, 1) promoting self-awareness among group members, 2) setting clear standards and goals for the group, and 3) motivating group members to reduce the discrepancy between the goals and the current performance of the group. We end the paper by developing a number of novel hypotheses that derive from this theoretical perspective.