Participation and Leadership in Small Groups

This paper suggests the fruitfulness, for studies of verbal participation in discussions, of shifting from studying participation per se to studying the interpersonal control of participation. Focusing first on the nature of the data to be analyzed, the paper then analyzes the data and reconciles it with other findings in the literature to develop the concept of a hierarchical structure of communication. In this concept, leadership roles and levels of participation are seen as coincidental, arising out of interpersonal interchanges ultimately directed toward achieving coordination and consensus.