Group Stress, Criticism by a Subordinate, and the Use of Power

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Abstract
This study investigated allocation of rewards by 60 appointed group leaders to fictitious members of a work crew under varying conditions of group stress. The general design of the experiment took the form of an industrial simulation. The presence of a work crew in the next room was simulated by comments made to the group leader through an intercom system. Subjects were expected to perceive group stress at its highest level in an experimental condition that depicted a member of the work crew as disparaging the experimental task and as thereby having a discernibly deteriorating influence on the morale of the remainder of the group. An internal analysis of the data revealed that student supervisors who rated amount of group stress as subjectively high distributed rewards differently from those who rated stress as low. Specifically, they gave higher creativity ratings on models constructed to a worker who criticized the supervisor's performance (p < .05) and higher pay raises both to the critic (p < .05) and to a noncritical compliant worker (p < .05).

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