Tactics of ingratiation among leaders and subordinates in a status hierarchy.

High and low status personnel in a Naval ROTC program were instructed to exchange written communications about themselves. Half of these pairs com­ municated under instructions stressing the importance of mutual attraction; half were under instructions emphasizing accuracy. From the communication messages it was possible to draw the following conclusions: (a) Conformity— low status subjects conformed more than highs as an increasing function of the relevance of the issue to the basis of the hierarchy, (b) Self-presentation—high status subjects became more modest when under pressure to make themselves attractive; low status subjects showed the same tendency on important items but became more self-enhancing on unimportant ones, (c) Other enhancement— low status subjects were more positive in their public appraisals of the high status subjects than vice versa. Th e present study explored some of the consequences of varying the importance of compatibility in pairs whose members clearly differ in status. Our hope was to shed some light on the social behavior of leaders and followers in task oriented groups. Pre­ sumably, all such groups face maintenance problems as well as problems associated with task achievement. This is clearly indicated by Homans' (19S0) well-documented distinction between the internal and the external systems. If the members of a functioning group are not at least minimally attracted to each other, the strain of interacting in the achievement of group goals should in the long run impair task performance. But how is this mutual attraction main­ tained when there are clear differences in role and status in a group? The research literature has thus far concentrated on affec