| Abstract: | This study of differentiation in task groups focuses on valued behaviors and the rewards given to individuals who can perform them. Two exchange models are used to investigate three types of reward: status, likeability, and power. Model I reflects a cooperative model of differentiation in which competent people are rewarded with both status and liking while Model II reflects a competitive process in which highly competent people are respected but not liked. A mathematical correlation design incorporating magnitude estimates procedures is utilized. Subjects are 125 registered nurses employed in a university hospital. Path analysis is used to examine the two models. The results of study give unequivocal support to neither model but instead support portions of both. The three rewards, status, likeability, and power seem to be used for specific purposes in the group of nurses studied. Status is given for behavior which is scarce and valued. Competency is assumed to be such a characteristic and the data show that competency is, in fact, the sole determinant of a person's status. Power is also a reward for valued behavior, for the power one has comes directly from her status and competency. Likeability is given to individuals who are willing to help others and thus, it is suggested, that likeability is a reward given for personally pleasing rather than normatively valued behavior. It would seem, therefore, that status and likeability, while positively correlated, arise from divergent sources. |
