Psychology of management

- Humor inherent to a leader 
A leader needn’t be the soul of a company, but his/her present is always tangible, be it a 
corporate party or just a pastime with friends. (S)he always speaks to the point, and never speaks 
too much or not to the point even having drunk a little alcohol. A leader’s jokes and remarks are 
always witty and in many cases they motivate other people. 
Functions of leader
arise from the two contradictory sides of group’s life. 
In relation to the outer aim, to the business sphere of group’s life, one can distinguish such 
leader’s functions as: 
- Realizing the group’s aim; 
- Analysis and control of the environment; 
- Development of a plan to achieve the aim; 
- Control of the approaching the aim and correction of group’s activity. 
In relation to the inner life of a group the leader has the following functions: 
- providing outer security of the group, maintaining contacts and interaction with other 
groups; 
- providing involvement of group-members in group activity; 
- maintaining independence of group members for them not to lose their individuality, 
because the threat of such a loss causes them to act destructively; 
- providing workability of group structure, control and influence of one group members on 
others needed for achieving the aim of the group, for fulfilling the developed plan; 
- control limiting, optimal distribution of responsibility and power in the group; 

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- ensuring sufficient psychological proximity and compatibility of group members, preventing 
squabbles; 
- prevention of redundant personal sympathies because this threatens prevailing of personal 
relationships over the movement to the goal, that is, the same squabbles; 
- coordination of individual approaches to problem-solving so that they did not contradict, but 
supplemented one another; 
- maximizing the involvement of abilities and aptitudes of group members for achieving the 
aim. 
Some of these functions seem to nearly contradict the others. It is necessary both to ensure 
involvement and to limit it, to organize control, and to limit it at the same time, to strive for 
psychological proximity, and make sure that there isn’t too much of it… 
All these contradictions are stipulated by the very nature of a group. For a group is a 
process, a system in the process, and like any other system it evolves in the unity of opposites, 
and conflict-solving between them is the very source of movement. In these conditions the 
function of a leader is to stabilize this movement, to keep it within the limits. That is why the 
leader has to compensate in life of the group what it lacks at the moment. If there’s not enough 
proximity, it should be established. If there’s an excess of it, it should be destroyed. 
In this is manifested the compensatory, or using Shutz’s word, the complementary function 
of a leader. A leader is a stabilizer of group interaction. 
But a leader is also a destroyer of stability. (S)he has to do it directing the group towards 
the outer goal attainment. So, the leader’s function is of dual nature, and he himself is a 
personified contradiction. And only be combining these contradictions can (s)he establish 
themselves as a leader.