ABSTRACT
The most salient positive social identity attributes match well to the expectations of leader behaviour. If we assume that social identity follows behavioural expectation, then investment in the group is perceived as optimal by leaders. Leaders have been evaluated against the positive social identity categories and are evaluated by members as having an absolute deviation from the ideal, that is being neither too much nor too little, implicitly, within the situation. Leaders are also evaluated by their subordinates according to their perceived trustworthiness and the trust they have in them. Formal leaders then are associated with positive psychological attributes of social identity closely related to salient moral norms. They also invest in behaviour towards subordinates that yields a social resource of trust on which their ability to maintain or transform ethics is enhanced or degraded. Utilitarian evaluation of dilemmas dominates in advice and therefore in those involving leadership.
