Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
Organizational and Business Psychology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jul 12;9(1):10118. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-45931-4.
A common assumption is that good leaders are driven by a power motive that motivates them to influence others. However, leaders need to restrain themselves in social dilemmas where cooperation maximizes collective outcomes. We theorize that in social dilemmas, a desire for positive relationships (affiliation motive) is more beneficial than a power motive because it draws attention away from short-term self-interest towards understanding others. In a game of Settlers of Catan in the laboratory, we find that a functional variant of the affiliation motive relates to verbal encouragement of cooperation, to fewer occurrences of oil spills, to higher ratings of transformational leadership and, in a field survey, to fewer selfish business decisions. Furthermore, a dysfunctional variant of the power motive relates to two of three indicators of selfishness. Group members perceive selfish individuals as assuming leadership roles which indirectly relates to slightly higher ratings of transformational leadership. This pattern of evaluation may privilege men who, on average, show more selfish behaviour which can be partially attributed to their motives. Mere awareness of gender-based discrimination does not enable raters to circumvent this pattern of evaluation. This work suggests a need for interventions that increase appreciation of cooperative leaders.
人们通常认为，优秀的领导者具有权力动机，这种动机促使他们去影响他人。然而，领导者需要在社会困境中约束自己，因为合作可以使集体利益最大化。我们的理论认为，在社会困境中，对积极关系的渴望（亲和动机）比权力动机更有益，因为它可以让人从短期的自身利益中转移注意力，转而理解他人。在实验室的《 Settlers of Catan 》游戏中，我们发现亲和动机的一个功能变体与合作的口头鼓励、石油泄漏的减少、变革型领导的更高评价以及实地调查中自私的商业决策的减少有关。此外，权力动机的一个功能失调变体与三个自私指标中的两个有关。小组成员认为自私的人会担任领导角色，这间接导致变革型领导的评价略高。这种评价模式可能会偏向男性，因为男性平均表现出更多的自私行为，而这种行为部分归因于他们的动机。仅仅意识到基于性别的歧视并不能使评价者避免这种评价模式。这项工作表明，需要采取干预措施，提高对合作型领导者的认识。
