ABSTRACT
Ralph Stogdill’s theory is a systems theory with the usual emphasis on inputs, mediating variables, and outputs. As originally presented it represented on attempt to model its organizational behavior theory on work in psychology, and more specifically on group dynamics (Stogdill 1959). This version deals at length with group processes; there is relatively little that involves the organization as a whole and its exchange with the environment. The definitions and discussion are largely behavioral and are concerned primarily with actions. Thus the focus is on conscious processes and not with the unconscious. In Stogdill (1962) environmental processes are given some attention, but there is also further development of the group model. Later work by Stogdill (1966) recognized the fact that the theory lacked a truly organizational underpinning and a more fully developed open systems perspective; thus such considerations as mores, norms, intuitions, and cultures were added, marking the theory’s trend toward including factors of an unconscious nature.
