. . . And some men have leadership thrust upon them.

Viewing leadership behavior as a joint function of situational factors, individual predispositions, and followers' responsive behavior, this study used 64 subjects, half of them high and half of them low in measured leadership self-concept. Half had a high and half a low stake in a group task. Each subject was twice appointed leader of a three-man group, once exposed to "followers" (experimenter's condederates,) altercasting him to lead, once to followers alter-casting him to follow. Multivariate analyses of variance showed effects of followers' behavior on profiles of a subject's behavior (when subjects were pushed to lead they led, when pushed to follow they increased socioemotional activity) and perceptions of followers. These effects were specified by leadership self-concept (little difference between groups when confronting pushy followers, more when confronting passive ones), prompting an interpretation in terms of role incongruity.