A Study of Reputational Community Leaders Using The Concepts of Exchange and Coordinative Positions*

The general purposes of this study were to investigate the group and organizational affiliates of reputed community leaders in a rural community. The specific hypotheses were that the higher one is ranked as a reputational leader, (1) the more exchange influence he will likely have accumulated through occupying economic, kinship, occupational, ownership, and political-governmental positions which are reputedly influential in the community, (2) the more likely he is to be an active participant in formal and/or informal coordinative interstitial groups in the community, and (3) the more likely he is to be an active participant in those formal coordinative groups which are reputed to be influential over community affairs. The hypotheses were tested by comparing the sets of rankings of twenty-eight reputational leaders with (1) their rankings in terms of exchange positions scores, (2) their rankings in terms of social participation scores, and (3) their rankings in terms of weighted social participation scores. The results of the study tended to support the hypotheses, as stated, for the community involved.