Effects of Social Distance on Perceptions of Leader Behaviour

A law school dean must develop an awareness of himself before attempting to lead the school and demonstrate an awareness of his faculty to the importance of the law school. If his faculty perceives him to be competent as a leader he will be better able to administer the law school. Increasing the frequency and intimacy of contact with faculty members will bolster the perceptions among the faculty of his leader behaviour. A study of how differently law schools and their faculties perceive the leader behaviour of deans and to what degree social distance relates to law school deans' leader behaviour as perceived by themselves and their faculties shows a significant difference between the leader behaviour of law school deans as self‐perceived and perceived by their faculties. As deans inter‐related more frequently in a meaningful way the faculties tended to view their deans as exhibiting more leader behaviour. Eighty‐one deans and 1,001 faculty members from 81 law schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia participated in the study between 1981 and 1982.