SOME CORRELATES OF RURAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCiAL POWER AMCSNG INTER-COMMUNITY LEADERS Thais for fht Degree cf Ph. D. MICHBGAN STAKE UNIVERSETY' Wade H. Andrsws 1§5$ This is to certify that the thesis entitled Some Correlates of Rural Leadership and Social Power Among Inter-Community Leaders presented by Wade Huff Andrews “x. has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. 8003' olopy F; Anthropology . l \ MM degree in Major professor Date May 23, 1956 0-169 un .. l\\\\\\\\\\\\\“W\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\l 3 1293 10381 4095 RETURNING MATERIALS: MSU Flace lnhfii thdrop tof remove t s c eckout rom ”mum‘s your record. FINES M“ be charged if book is returned after the date stamped beIow. ___— SOME COnRELATES OF RURAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL POWER AMONG INTER-COMMUNITY LEADERS By Wade H$JAndrews AN ABSTRACT Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies of Michigan State University of Agriculture and.Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Sociology and Anthropology Year 1956 Approved Wade H. Andrews Ph.D Thesis Abstract SOME CORRE TBS OF RURAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL POWER AEONG INTEi-COMMUNITY LEADERS This study is concerned primarily with the study of inter-community county level rural leadership. More specifically the purposes are to (l) analyze formal leader- ship patterns at the county level; (2) to study the informal networks of social relations in the inter-community social system including interpersonal resources among the sample respondents and those named as important influentials; (5) to consider the inter-relations between formal leadership and influence by studying the configuration of formal positions and interpersonal resources that make up the power and decision making structure of rural organizations of the county. The method used in this research included a participant observer reconnaisance followed by the use of a schedule in interviewing a random sample of county rural organiza- tional officers. The third phase included interviewing those named as the most important influentials. The schedule included questions covering all organiza- tion activity, patterns of acquaintance and interaction including those worked with and those they get advice from, Wade H. Andrews 2 the important action organizations, the channels through which they affect decisions in important groups, key legitimizing leaders, and patterns of interpersonal re- sources with influentials. These elements were analyzed both statistically and empirically by charts. Three pro- fessional leaders were included among the influentials named. Holding offices was found to be an important character- istic of those interviewed both at the county level and in local groups. There was interlocking of authority roles in county organizations and offices were an important means for legitimizing leadership. There was a tendency for more important policy-making roles to cluster around a relatively few persons that were also tOp influentials. The statistical analysis of relationships revealed that county leaders are well acquainted in general but that influentials were better acquainted and had a more exten- sive acquaintance pattern than other leaders, also secondary leaders tended to over rate their claims of acquaintance I with top influentials; For the access elements, getting advice from and work- ing with leaders, there was generally a high rate of activity and no significant difference between influentials and other leaders, however, the interaction of influentials Wade H. Andrews 3 was higher between themselves than with the sample leaders. Thus, access with important decision makers was more avail- able to top influentials. Interpersonal resources included friendship and associational relationships, tOp influentials had a sig- nificantly higher average number than did the sample re- spondents. The networks of association between influentials are shown on sociometric charts. The county level leaders were not limited in associa- tion by space, but some types of interaction was associated with local areas while others were not. The networks of resources furnish a potent means for spreading and gather- ing information, Opinions and policies. These systems show an ongoing structure through which leadership can function both inside and outside of the formal organizations. Respondents named their channels of influence and key leaders largely from among the top influentials, however, this varied for some groups. Choices of non influentials seemed to indicate less efficiency in affecting decisions. Through offices and informal resources leaders were able to affect decisions both directly and indirectly. Since offices and resources were related a knowledge of the organized social structure would give a leader important insight into the decision making structure and process in the county. Several case studies illustrate the function of Wade H. Andrews ' 4 influential power, particularly in regard to the role of the professional leader. SOME CORRELATES OF R‘RAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL POWER AMONG INTER-COMMUNITY LEADERS By WADE HUFF ANDREWS A THESIS Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies of Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF HILOSOPHY Department of Sociology and Anthropology 1956 5/28/57 3 [2.2! .. v, '1, “ye-‘4'. ACKNONLhDGmELT It has not ceased to amaze the writer to see the number of persons who become involved in the process of a work such as this. Indeed, a study might well be made of the social system in the development of a thesis. In this case the system included professional colleagues who gave guidance, advice and instruction; institutions that furnished the machinery through which it could all happen; ones family that had to live with the writer, the problem and the sacrifices required; relatives who had.faith and gave encouragement as well as tangible support and who never faltered nor allowed the writer to falter; friends who also understood and minimized their demands for time; and finally the cooperation of the people who supplied the data and typists that made it legible. The whole operation included people in many states from coast to coast. Such is the range of people to whom the writer wishes to extend sincere appreciation. Special mention must be made of a few who have been superlative in making completion of this work possible. First is Dr. Duane L. Gibson, advisor extraordinary, fair, rigorous, insightful and one who gave friendly helpful assistance above and beyond the call of duty. Other mem- bers of my advisory committee Dr. Charles P. Loomis, Dr. Charles R. Hoffer, Dr. John Useem and Dr. Lawrence W. Witt, ii Acknowledgments (continued) who have given unreservedly of their high professional skills and insight in the process of training and guidance. Dr. Mervin G. Smith who as a friend as well as employer has been a most understanding and c00perative "chief". The assistance and support of my mother, Elva Huff Kunz, along with my wife Kathryn must be listed with those of highest mention, no sacrifice was too great or too small for them in this endeavor and they were never found wanting. Further acknowledgment is extended to the Ohio Agri- cultural Experiment Station who supported the general study of which this was a pioneering part. Finally I dedicate this work to my four children Richard, Janice, Stanford and Bradley whose contribution has been indirect but nonetheless real, by having contributed a father. iii Wade Huff Andrews candidate for the degree of Doctor of PhiIOSOphy Final examination, May 25, 1956, 4:00 P. M., Sociology and Anthropology Conference Room Thesis: Some Correlates of Rural Leadership and Social Power Among Inter-community Leaders Outline of Studies Major subject: Sociology Minor subject: Agricultural Economics Biographical Items Born, July 5, 1916, Ogden, Utah Undergraduate Studies, Weber Junior College, Ogden, Utah, 1934-35, Utah State Agricultural College, 1955-1947 Graduate Studies, Utah State Agricultural College, 1947-48, M.S., Michigan State University 1948-56, Ph.D. Professional Experience: Graduate Assistant, Utah State 1947-48, Graduate Assistant Michigan State 1948-1950, Assistant professon The Ohio State University and the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station 1951-56. Other Experience: Farm hand, ranch hand, forestry technician, missionary, warehouse- foreman, Air Force flight commander Mediterranean Theatre, Boy Scout Field Executive. iv CHAPTER I SOME CORRELATES OF RURAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL POWER AMONG INTER- COMMUNITY LEADERS. . . . . . . . . . PROBLEM ORIE‘4ITATION . . . . . . CONCEPTS CENTRAL TO THE PROBLEM . REASONS FOR THE STUDY . . . . . . PURPOSES OF THE STUDY . . . . . . HYPOTHESES. . . . . . . . . . . . Formal Leadership and Organizations. . . . . . . . Influential Relations . . . . Formal Leadership Positions and Informal or Influential Leader Relations . . . . . . SCOPE... 0.0.0.000. LTETHODOLOGY. . . . . . . . . . . Choosing the County. . . . . Phases of Field Work . . . . Schedule Development . . . . Statistical Analysis . . . . II THE COURTY RURAL SETTING AND T.“ PEOPLE OF THE STUDY. 0 o o o o o o o The Geographical and Physical Setting. 0 o o o o o o o 0 Historical Setting. . . . . . The Population Setting. . . . The Agricultural Setting. . . The Industrial Setting. . . . CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RESPOIVDEiJTS. . o g o o o o o 0 THE SAMPLE POPULATION . . . . . . Demographic Factors . . . . . Agricultural Factors. . . . . CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOP ”WADEIRS. O O O O O O O O O O O 0 Demographic Factors . . . . Agricultural Factors. . . . . III FORHAL LEADERSHIP PATTERNS. o o o _ DISTRIBUTION OF POSITIONS AIIIOIIG LFJADERS Q Q Q Q g . . g 0.... 00.... 00.0.0 16 19 19 20 55 35 36 57 39 41 42 43 46 49 49 51 53 Table of Contents (Continued) CHAPTER III MULTIPLE OR OVERLAPPING LrADL‘RSI IIP P1’XI‘;‘..’I1 RIIS. . . . . . . KULHIIPLE LhnuuP‘DIP PATTERNS, . IIIHOUGH TIRE. o o o o o o o o o 0 A83 OCIAIICN OF TOP INFLUENTIALS IN ORGANIZATIONS. . . . . . . . . ADL HO; {I‘lY ROLES. Q g g o o o o o 0 Types of Positions . . . . . . Clustering of Authority R0183. o o o o I? CIARD AND OUTJARD ORIENTATION OF LLADJIRSHIPQ o o o o o o o o o SUI‘JII'IEAE1YOOOOOOOOOOOO00 IV PATTJRNS OF INTEI P RSONAL RESOURCES. Resources Studied. . . . . . The Important Influentials . Levels of Influence. . . . . LEVLL OF ACQUAINTANCE. . . . . Reciprocity of Acquaintance Resources. . . . . . . . . Access Factors in Interaction PATTERNS OF ERIENDSNIP AND ASSOCIATIOIIAL RL‘SOURCES. Q o o o SUTJLA.1Y............¢¢ V NETWORKS OF RESOURCES AMONG THE IMPORTANT IT‘FLWLJTIALS . . . . . . . Factors for Analysis in the Resource Charts . . FRIENDSHIP RESOURCES . . . . The Kinship Network. . . Acquaintance Network . . Friendship Network of Wives. .0. O Clique Networks. . . . . Home Visiting Networks . Network of Home Socials. Networks of Talking Over Personal Problems. . . Networks of Good Turns. ASSOCIATIONAL RESOURCES . . Church Activity Network Neighbor Network. . . . vi Page 60 65 66 69 69 7O 74 78 80 81 85 86 .91 95 101 107 110 112 116 116 118 120 122 124 127 127 151 155 154 156 CHAPTER V VI VII VIII Table of Contents (Continued) Networks of Business InteraCtiono o o o o o 0 Networks of Participation of Wives in The Same Groups. . . . The Meaning of Networks of Interpersonal Resources . . Influence Score and Interpersonal Resources . . SUI-‘tIvIARYooooooooooooo PATTERNS OF INFLUENCE CHANNELS AND KEY LEADERS FOR ORGANIZED GROUPS. . CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE. . . . . . Channels and The Top InfluentialSQ o o o o o o o The Rural Council. . . . . The Farm Bureau Board. . . The Agricultural Extension Service.......... KEY LEADERS . . . . Key Leaders and the Sample. Key Leaders and the Top InfluentialS. o o o o o The Rural Council. . . . The Farm Bureau Board. . The Co-op Board. . . . . Choices of the Sample and the Top Influentials. SUIYIIYEARYoooooooooo OBLIGATION PATTERNS OF RURAL LEADER S C O O O O O O O O O O O O O S Mary 0 O O O C O O O O O O 0 THE RELATION RIP EETWE TIN FORLAL POSITIONS AND INFLUENTIAL RELATIONS. Formal Leaders 0hip and Levels of Influence. . . In’PORTANT ACTION ORGANIZATIONS AND ITFLUE NTIAL LEADERSHIP . . PATTERNS OF ORGANIZATION AND Direct Means of Influence . Indirect Means of Influence vii Page . 158 140 142 145 144 148 149 156 156 158 . 161 165 I 164 166 168 171 175 175 179 . 182 . 187 . 189 . 189 o 190 194 . 195 . 196 CHAPTER VIII IX APPENDIX A Table of Contents (Continued) viii Page CHOICES OF II. IF ILNTIALS AND ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITY. . . . . . . 200 SOM FACTORS AFFECTING 11W ORMAL AND ORGANIZED ACTION. . . . . . . 204 SUNNARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 SUENARY AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE WORK. . . 209 FORmAL LEADERSHIP. . . . . . . . . 209 ACCESS AND INTERFERSONAL L{1.1:}OUT-{C138 000000.000000210 Acquaintance and Access FaCtorSOOOOOOOOOOOOOZJ-l Interpersonal Resources . . . . . 213 Influence Channels and Key Leaders. . . . . . .,. . . . . . 216 Obligation Resources. . . . . . . 216 Formal and Informal Relationships. . . . . . . . 217 Professional Roles in Rural Power Systems. . . . . . . . . . 219 PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION . . . . . . . 220 The Differentiation of Rural and Political Power. . . . 225 SOME METHODOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS. . . 226 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY. . o . 226 CASE STUDIES OF SOCIAL POWER. . . . 252 CASE I A CASE STUDY OF THE . FUNCTION OF INDIRECT INFLUENCE BY A PROFESSIONAL LEADER. . . . . . 252 CASE II A CASE STUDY OF THE INDIRECT ROLE OF A PROFESSIONAL EADER IN RELATION TO PREPARING FOR A GROUP NEETING. . . . . . . . . 255 CASE III A CASE STUDY OF THE DIRE 'CT ROLE OF A LEADER IN THE ACTION CONTEXT OF A IIFETING. . . . . 258 CASE IV A CASE STUDY OF AUTHORITY AND THE USE OF DIRECT AS WELL AS INDIRECT INFLUENCE BY AN . INDIVIDUAL AND A GROUP. ... . . . .A 253 Table of Contents (Continued) APPENDIX A Page CASE V A CASE STUDY OF THE OPERATION OF INDIRECT INFLUENCE. o . 266 CASE VI A CASE OF INDIRECT INFLUENCE OF LAYTJEN AFFECTII‘IG CHANGE Al‘flONG PROF.SSSIOI‘~IALS. . . o o o 267 CASE VII A CASE STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PISCORDAN PERSONAL FEELING AIJIOI-IG II‘.'IPORTANT I‘IFLLUZNTIALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2'70 APPEIIDIX B TEE SCIEDULE. Q o g Q Q Q Q o . Q o o 275 BIBLIOGRAPI-IY O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 285 ix TABLE 1. 2. 4. 5. 8. 10. LIST OF TABLES Page CHARACTERISTICS OF THE s MPLE: DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS. . , , , . . . . . . 44 .__fl CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE: ACRICULTURAL FACTORS. . . . . . . . . . 48 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOP LEADERS: DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS. . . . . . 50 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOP LEADERS: AGRICULTURAL FACTORS . . . o . 52 AVERAGE NUMBER OF LEADERSHIP. POSITIONS HELD BY THE SAKPLE POPULATION AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW AND FOR PREVIOUS YEARS BY COUNTY WIDE POSITIONS AND ALL POSITICI: 1’1:ng . o . . . . . . . . . . . 56 W”- AVERAGE NUMBER OF LEADERSHIP POSITIONS HELD BY THE 21 MOST INFLUENTIAL LEADERS AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW AND FOR PREVIOUS YEARS. . . . . . . . . 57 M,w~* AVERAGE NUMBER OF POSITIONS FOR THE SAMPLE POPULATION AND THE 21 MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENTIALS INCLUDING PRESENT.AND PAST OFFICES. . . . . . . . 58 NUMBER OF OFFICES HELD BY SAMPLE LEADERS BY RANKED QUARTILE DIVISIONS AND ACCORDING TO LOCALITY LEVEL AT THE TIRE OF THE INTERVIEI. . . . . . . . 61 NUMBER OF OFFICES HELD BY THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS BY RANKED QUARTILE DIVISIONS AND ACCORDING TO LOCALITY GROUP AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW . . o 62 NUMBER OF TYPE A AND B OFFICES HELD BY THE SAMPLE LEADERS RANKED BY NUMBER OF OFFICES REPORTED AND DIVIDED INTO QUARTILES ACCORDING TO LOCALITY GROUPS. . . . . . . . . . . .71 X List of Tables (Continued) TABLE Page 11. NUMBER OF A AND B TYPE OFFICES HELD BY THE TOP INFLUENTIALS BY NUMBER OF OFFICES REPORTED AND DIVIDED INTO QUARTILES ACCORDING TO LOCALITY GROUPS. 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o 73 12. AVERAGE NUMBER OF LOCAL OFFICES AND OFFICES OF ALL LEVELS FOR THOSE IN THE SANPLE POPULATION BY THOSE WITH AND THOSE WITHOUT SUPRA- COUNTYOFFICESOOOOQQoooooooo76 15. PERCENT OF ALL POSITIONS HELD THAT ARE LOCAL BY THOSE WITH AND THOSE WITHOUT SUPRA-COUNTY POSITIONS FOR TI—‘IE SALIPLE. O O O C O O O O O O O O O O O 77 14. DEGREE OF ACQUAINTANCE OF THE RESPONDENTS WITH THE 91 LEADERS OF 19 RURAL ORGANIZATIONS. . . . . . . . . 87 15. DEGREES OF VARIATION IN DESIGNATING ACQUAINTANCE ON THE FIVE POINT SCALE BETWEEN THE TOP INFLUENTIALS WITH EACH OTHER, TOP INFLUENTIALS WITH SECONDARY LEADERS AND SECONDARY EADERS WITH EACH OTHER. . . . . . . . . 93 16. NUMBER OF RATINGS AND DEGREES OF VARIATION BETWEEN RESPONDENTS ON A FIVE POINT SCALE OF LEVEL OF ACQUAII‘JTANCE FOR TOP II‘IFLULNTIAL LEADERS WITH EACH OTHER, TOP INFLUENTIALS WITH SECONDARY LEADERS AND SECOND RY LEADERS WITH EACH OTHER. 0 . 96 17. MUTUAL AND NON-MUTUAL NOMINATIONS FOR NTERACTION BETWEEN PERSONS ON THREE ACCESS FACTORS FOR 21 TOP INFLUENTIALS AND 29 SECONDARY LEADERS IN COUNTY LEVEL ACTIVITIES. o . o 102 18. AVERAGE NUMBER OF FRIENDSHIP AND ASSOCIATIONAL RESOURCES FOR THE SAMPLE POPULATION AND FOR THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS. . . . . . . . . . . .107 xi List of Tables (Continued) TABLE Page 19. NUMBER AND PERCENT OF CHOICES NADE FOR CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE ”HAT WERE AMONG THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS FOR THREE RURAL RGANIZATIONS BY THE SAMPLE POPULATIOI‘I. O O O O O O O O O O O O O ‘ O 151 20. NUMBER AU PERCENT OF CHOICES MADE FOR CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE THAT WERE AMONG THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS FOR THREE RURAL ORGANIZATIONS BY THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 er"”” 21. TOP INFLUENTIALS AND OTHER PERSONS NAMED BY THE SAMPLE AS CHANNELS OF INF UENCE IN THE RURAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT GROUPS IN WHICH THEY WERE N.EE . . . . . . . . 154 22. TOP INFLUENTIALS AND OTHER PERSONS NAMED BY THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS AS CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE IN THREE RURAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT GROUPS IN WHICH T SY W’ERE NALTEDO o o o o O o o o O o o o o o 159 25. NUMBER AND PERCENT OF CHOICES OF KEY LEADERS THAT WERE FOR PERSONS IN THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS IN THREE RURAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE SAMPLE POPULATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 24. DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONS NAMED BY THE SAMPLE AS KEY LEADERS IN THREE FTIIRAL ORGAINIZATIOTIS. . . g g g . g g . .167 f”) 25. NUNBER AND PERCENT OF CHOICES OF KEY LEADERS THAT WERE FOR PERSONS IN THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS IN THREE RURAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 26. DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONS NAMED BY THE TOP 21 INFLUENTIALS AS KEY LEADERS IN THREE RURAL ORGANIZATIONS. . 169 xii TABLE 27. 28. 29. SO. 51. 52. List of Tables (Continued) Page AGREEMENT BY THE SAMPLE AND THE TOP INFLUENTIALS ON THE THREE PERSONS BY RANK AS KEY LEADERS IN THREE ORGANIZATIONS. . . . . . . . . . 174 AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SAMPLE AND THE TOP INELUENTIALS ON THREE PERSONS BY RANK NAMED AS CHANNELS AND AS KEY LEADERS FOR TWO ORGANIZATIONS. ... . . . . . . . . . . . .178 MPORTANCE OF OBLIGATION IN ACCEPTANCE OF COEMUNITY LEADERSHIP o o . .183 NUMBER AND PERCEFT OF RESPOL ENTS REPORTING A FEELING OF OBLIGATION TOWARD THE TOP INFLUENTIALS. . . . . . . .185 ERCEI‘IT OF TIE RESPOIWENTS REPORTING THAT THE TOP INFLUEFTIALS WERE { OBLIGATED TO THEM. . . . . . . . . . . . .186 RURAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE COUNTY NAMED.AS MOST IMPORTANT FOR ACTION OF A COMMUNITY NATURE BY RANK OF CHOICES FOR THE SAMPLE POPULATION. . o . 192 xiii FIGURE I II III IV VI VII VIII IX XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI LIST OF FIGURES CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO, WITH TOWNSHIPS, CITY AND VILLAGES. . ... . . . . . . . DISTRIBUTION OF ALL POLICY TYPE, COUNTY WIDE POSITIONS AMONG SELECTED RURAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE 21 MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENTIAL PERSONS FOR BOTH PAST AND PRESENT. . . . . . . . . NETWORKS OF KINSHIP RELATIONS. . . . . WELL ACQUAINTED OR CLOSE FRIEND. . . . NETWORK OF WIVES THAT ARE GOOD FR ENDS. mvv-v NETWORK OF BELONGING TO 113 SAME FRIENDSHIP GROUP. . . . . . . . . . . HONE VISITING N*TWORK. . . . . . . . . NETWORK OF ATTEI-IDANCE AT THE spam .HOLZE SOCIAI-S. o o o a o o o o o o 0.0 NETWORK OF TALKING OVER PERSONAL PROBLEMS WITH OTHERS. . . . . . . . . NETWORK OF FAVORS OR GOOD TURNS. . . . NETWORK OF ACTIVITY IN SAME CHURCH GROUPS. 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O NETWORK OF NEIGHBORS. . . . . . . . . . NETWORK OF BUSINESS DEALINGS. . . . . . NETWORKS OF WIVES THAT PARTICIPATE IN THE SAME GROUPS. . . . . . . . . . CHOICES OF CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE FOR THE RURAL COUNCIL. . . . . . . . . CHOICES OF CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE FOR THE COUNTY FARM BUREAU FEDEIEA CPI O Ii 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O xiv Page . 34 . 67 119 . 121 .123 .125 .128 .130 .132 .135 . 137 . 139 .141 . 157 .159 FIGURE XVII XVIII XIX XX List of Figures (Continued) Page CHOICES OF CHANNELS OF INFLUENCE FOR THE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION COUEJCIL. O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O .162 CHOICES OF KEY LEADERS IN THE ZRURAL C OU:‘:C I L g Q Q o o o O . o o O Q g o o 1 7O CHOICES OF KEY LEADERS IN THE COUNCY FARM BUREAU BOARD. . . . . . . . . 172 CHOICES OF KEY LEADERS IN THE COUNTY CO‘OP BOARD. O o o o o o o o o o o 174 TOP INFLUENTIALS THAT HAD TWO OR MORE FRIENDSHIP RESOURCES WITH THOSE TOP INFLUENTIALS THAT WERE OFFICERS IN FOUR SELECTED ORGANIZATIONS. .198 XV SOME CORRELATES OF RURAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL POWER AMONG INTER-COMMUNITY LEADERS CHAPTER I PROBLEM ORIENTATION The purpose of this research is to study and analyze rural leadership in both the formal organizational rela- tions of rural leaders and the patterns of informal rela- tionships of these leaders at the inter-cemmunity or county level of participation. It is intended to discover the patterns of relationships among rural leaders as well as the structure of relationships of a personal nature that exist among influential rural leaders. It has been suggested that there is a need for more data On the structure of relationships in social organiza- tion. This is needed in order to understand more clearly the causes and the processes involved in making decisions in rural society. The lack of data makes further scientific investigation and documentation imperative if the struc- ture of informal influential relations and the function of influence in ordinary day-to-day relations in rural society is to be clearly understood. 1 2 Charles P. Loomis and others have clarified the struc- ture and function of informal group relationships in the clique or friendship group.1 It therefore seems feasible to go on to examine the informal relationships that may play a part in leadership behavior in the wider inter- community area. In addition to clarifying informal rela- tions, several writers have discussed the problem of influ- ence and power in leadership. The literature related to this field was reviewed and yielded a number of suggestive ideas and concepts.2 A synthesis of these ideas assisted in the development of the following basic assumptions and concepts for this study. In writing about innovative leadership, Dexter stated 1Charles P. Loomis and J. Allen Beagle, Rural Social Systems, Prentice Hall, 1950, p.133. 2Three recent writers have done extensive reviews of the literature in this area. These are: Paul A. Miller, in his unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, A Com- arative Anal sis of the Decision makin PFocess in 50mmunIty Organization Toward Major Heaith Goals, EIERIgan State College, 1955; ona d . ouma, n his unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, An Analysis of then Social Power Position of the Rea state oar Grand RapidsI Michigan, MIEhigan StaEEICOIIege, 1952; and loyd Hunter, Community Power Structure, A Study of Decision Makers, Univers ty of Nort arolina PFess, Chapel Hill, 1953. The present use of materials represents a limited number of relevant materials from the literature which contributes to the orientation and the conceptual frame work of the problem. There should be emphasis upon the fact that no new approach can stand on its own merits. The use of influence and pressure are just as important in getting inventions and reforms accepted as in any- thing else.‘5 Although this seems somewhat pessimistic in tone, it is believed that Dexter's conception of the interrelation between leadership and influence also applies to the pro- cess of leadership in rural community organization. Such an assumption rests upon another, that of the universality of social power in human relations and in leadership activity. In explaining the nexus of social power, Merriam has said that ”Power is first of all a phenomena of group cohesion and aggregation, a child of group necessity or utility, a function of the social rela- tions of men."4 And about its universality MacIver adds, "Social power inheres in all social relations and in all social organizations."5 In addition to its general nature the trend toward more complicated systems of organizatiOn in rural society has not diminished the development of social power as an 3Lewis A. Dexter, "Some Strategic Considerations in Innovating Leadership,” Chapter in A. W. Gouldner, Ed.,y§tudies in Leadershi . Harper & Bros.,N;Y.,1950. 4Charles E. Merriam, Political Power, Mcgraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1934, p.IE. 5R. M. MacIver, The web of Government, The Macmillan 00., 1947, p.96} o O a c O o 2 l 1 , J l ' I I l . I a . o o 1 , l - v D g g - v u g c Q “ ‘ D 5 I I 9 I — b - 0 . r n a a u - , , aspect of leadership. As Lee6 says, Regardless of whether one may have wanted originally to becaome a power-seeker or not, the bigger the operations in which one becomes involved, the more important in one's perspectives become the quest for and.manipulation of power. Thus, it is assumed that social power is universally involved in the relations of men in groups, that it is inevitably present in the processes of leadership, that it is found in rural associations and leadership as well as any other, and that with the increasing tendencytoward group action it is more and more a part of the pattern of rural leadership. In determining the basis for social power, it is imperative to include two aspects. First, that of its derivation from the group, and the second, that of the individuals' own characteristics. Although.he did not see the second as clearly as the first, MacIver explained that social power includes both. It is dependent upon the group, and as he also recognized pertains to characteristics of the individual power center. MacIver states: 6A. M. Lee, "Power Seekers," Chapter in A. W. Gouldner, op.cit., p.669. - "At first sight it might appear that power is the ultimate policy-maker, that nothing but a greater power can limit it. What is more power- ful than power? But if we think in these terms. . . we shall misapprehend the nature of social power. Throughout we insist that social power is in the last resort derivative not inherent in the groups or individuals. The power a man has is the power he disposes; it is not intrinsically his own. He cannot command unless another obeys. He cannot control unless the social organization invests him with the apparatus to control. We are prone to confuse power with the means, agencies or instrup ments of power. But power resides in the social disposition of these means, depends on the rights and obligations develOped in a society. Use and wont, custom and law, tradition and indoctrination - in short, the Operative myth of authority - pre- side over the scheme of power; though ability and cunning, enterprize, aggressiveness, and other qualities enable individuals and groups to take advantage of and to seize opportunity within the established system.”7 a. For Naclver, social power or leadership is imputed to an individual by the society according to the requisites of a particular culture. The group legitimizes an individual's "right" to leadership or power to the extent that he fits their image of leadership.8 But the individual leader who 7R. M. Maclver, op.cit., pp.lO7-108. 8"Right" is used here in an informal sense as a recog- ”nized-prerogative allowed an individual by others, not necessarily formalized by statute or office. See the use of the term "rightfulness" in Paul A. Miller, "The Process of Decision-Making Within the Context of Community Organization", Rural Sociolo , Vol.17, No.2 (June, 1952), p.155 Also, pilC'oT EEIs work. is motivated to control social phenomena may use purely personal characteristics to obtain this legitimized status. MacIver, almost as an afterthought, mentions such qualities as ability, cunning, enterprise, and aggressiveness. This use of personal characteristics applies to both the attain- ment of formal power positions and to the building up of informal social power or influence. In this way the individual may use his skills to develop the role which fits the image of the leader held by his culture and society. The foregoing is not to imply a completely conscious, rational use of abilities to attain power, although that is possible, as may be seen in the following statement, "Power is both a means to the attainment of any end and an end in itself."9 When it is an end in itself it is con- sciously pursued. But in the real world social power develops among people with varying degrees of consciousness of the means used and the goals to be attained. The leader or power center, then, derives his position of preeminence in the society by either conscious or unconscious behavior which fulfills the imagery of leader- ship of other members of his society.10 From this behavior 9Frank D. Graham, Social Goals of Economic Institutions, Princeton Univ. Press, 1949, p:l2. 10For similar use of the term "imagery" see Paul A. Miller, op.cit., p.160. . develops sets of relationships or resources that exist in the dyadic patterns of human relations. It is assumed, therefore, that legitimation of informal or influential leadership behavior is based in large part on sufficient interpersonal resources in the dyad which are at the dis- posal of the leader and permit him to influence the behavior of others with whom these resources are related.11 In relating influence and resources Miller states, The capacity of influence is primarily that collection of relevant resources and proficiencies which the maker of decisions brings to the community action pro- ject. The degree of possession of resources and pro- ficiencies must be deemed essential to the task at hand, or such possession may not provide the capacity of influence. 2 The assumptions that have been developed to this point can now be briefly stated: 1. Influence as a process of leadership is applicable to rural organizations as well as others. 2. Social power is a universal social phenomenon. 3. Social power is derived from the group. 11The concept of interpersonal resources is discussed on page 13 of this work. 12Paul A. Miller, Communit Health Action, Michigan State College Press, I§%5, p.15. 8 4. Legitimation of informal or influential leadership is based on dyadic interpersonal resources of the leader with other individuals. CONCEPTS CENTRAL TO THE PROBLEM There are several key terms germane to this study which require definitions and clarification as to their use. These terms are described in the following paragraphs. Social power appears in dual form as seen in this study. These forms are authority and influence. Both of these terms denote ability to control or produce an effect upon the behavior of others in a direction chosen by or approved by an individual leader. As Lee has said, "The control of social power is the ability to supply or to deprive something to someone."15 Social power is the / authority and influence which is found among members of a social system by which decisions are made and through which behavior is controlled in that system. Authority is the vested right to act or make decisions which lies within the prerogative of an office in a formal social structure. It is therefore, formally legitimized in the sense that Max Weber described in relation to rational 13A. M. Lee, op.cit., p.671. authority.14 Weber said, 9 The fundamental source of authority in this type is the authority of the impersonal order itself. It extends to individuals only in so far as they occupy a specifically legitimized status under the rules, an 'office,'. . . . MacIver defines it in a similar but somewhat less restricted way. "By authority we mean the established right within any social order, to determine policies, to pronounce judg- ments on relevant issues, and to settle controversies. . ."15 But the authority of an office, although it has specific - rights, is also circumscribed by the limits of that office and the authority ends with the fulfillment of its purpose. This is not so with influence, the second.form of social power. Influence is defined here as the ability to act and affect the behavior of others through informal interpersonal * relations within the social system.16 The ability to influ. ence comes from having or develOping close interpersonal relations. 14Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organ- ization translation by Talcott Parsons, Oxford University Press, N. Y., 1947, p.58. 15R. M. MacIver, op.cit., p.83. 16R. K. Merton, "Patterns of Influence: A Study of Interpersona1-Influence and of Communications Be- havior in a Local Community", Chapter in Paul F. Lazerfeld and Frank Stanton-Communications Research, 1948-49, Harper and Brothers, p.215. 10 The influential, as with the formal leader, must also be accredited with the image of influence by the members of his social group. To the extent that such imagery exists it makes his decisions or actions acceptable. Influence is not confined to any Specific office or organization and.may be used whenever or wherever an individual has the inter- personal resources that legitimize his actions. Thus influence in this study is the result of direct dyadic relationships between individuals. As Merton has stated, "We are not here concerned with the indirect exer- cise of power through market, political, and other adminis- trative behavior, with its effects upon large numbers of people."17 Differential forms of power have been recognized by other writers also. Influential or informal social power as well as authority, the formal role of power, were recog- nized by MacIver's definition, "By social power, we mean capacity to control the behavior of others directly by fiat or indirectly by manipulation of available means."18 Bierstedt recognized power "in three areas: E1) in formal organization, (2) in informal organization, and (3) 17R. K. Merton, op.cit., p.184. 18R. M. MacIver, op.cit., p.87. 11 in the unorganized community." In explaining power in in- formal organization he said, In any association the members do become acquainted with each other and begin to interest not only "ex- trinsically" and ”categorically" in terms of the statuses (offices) they occupy,-but also "intrins sically" and "personally", in terms of the roles they play and the personalities they exhibit. Again he said, "Power is even more important where it is uninstitutionalized in the interstices between associations and.has its locus in the community itself.”19 In addition interpersonal relations have been shown to be of importance in several studies of power and leadership. Twila Neely has said of political power, "The essential factor in boss contrOl is the personal friendship and loyalty of individuals. . . ."20 Helen Jennings, in her study of a New'York State girls industrial school, showed that leadership could be identified with certain key persons. She explained that "tele" was "The movement of feeling be- tween individuals" and also said, ”The sociometric technique 19Robert Bierstedt, An Analysis of Social Power, American Sociological Review, Vol.15, No. 6, Dec.1950. p.731-736(parenthesis mineT. 20Twila E. Neely, "The Sources of Political Power: A Contribution to the Sociology of Leadership". American Journal of Sociology, Vol.33, (1927-28), p.739. _ «I 12 makes traceable the emergence, development, and decline of psychological structures,. . . it reaches below exterior relationships to the network of "tele" in which resides the vehicle for interpersonal influences.521 Rogers and Spence coined the term "psychological networks" to specify similar phenomena.22 R . Loomis,23 Jennings,24 Merton,25 Stewart,26 The Curtis Publishing Company,27 Miller,28 and others have shown furthermore that it is possible to identify the people who are centers of influence. This means that the leaders f 21Helen Jennings, "Structure and Leadership - Develop- ment and Spheres of Influence", Sociometry, Vol. 1, No. l (1937), p.99. - 22Maria Rogers and Ralph Spence, "Introduction to Volume IX, Sociometry", Sociometgg, May-August, 1946’ V01. 9, N0. 2-3, pp. - g 250. P. Loomis, Studies of Rural Social Organization in the United States Latin America andGermany, Michigan State CoIIege Book Store, 19 5. 24Helen Jennings, op.cit. 25R. K. MertOn, OEOC1tO, p.182. 26Frank A. Stewart, "A Sociometric Study of Influence in Southtown", Sociometry, Vol. 10, No. l.(Feb.1947) PP. 11-31. ~ 27The Curtis Publishing Company, Saturday Evening Post Research, A Stud of Kengustomers, June 1945. (No author gIven‘, PEiIadeIphia,Pa. 28Paul A. Miller, op.cit., pp.153-l6l. 15 who exert informal influence within the rural organizations can be studied to determine both their patterns of informal relations and their formal organizational activities, pro- viding a picture of the structure of social power in the rural intercommunity social system. Interpersonal resources are defined as those attitudes, sentiments or values held by one person which are useful and available to another person, and that are based upon interpersonal relations between individuals. They are limited in this study to specific factors studied as they appear later in this work. In a broader, more inclusive sense this concept has been known variously as social property,29 social capital,30 and relational possessions.51 Talcott Parsons described similar phenomena as rela- tional possessions and in a discussion of types of possessions 29$ocial prOperty is a term used by Paul A. Miller; see, Paul A. Miller 0 .cit., p.455. It has a some- what broader connota on an the present use. 30Social capital, also more general than the usage here, is a term used by Dr. John Useem in un ublished papers on social power read before American ocio- logical Society, September 1950 at Denver, Colorado and again at the Ohio Valley Sociological Society meetings, April, 1951, at Bloomington, Indiana. 31T. Parsons, The Social System, The Free Press, Glencoe, 111., 1951. p.79. 14 and rewards, he said, ". . . a special significance attaches to one class of rewards, namely, the possession of contingent relations to other actors. Above all, because of the significance of the mutuality of attitudes involved in attachments and of loyalty and solidarity, to be in a position to "count on" the favorable attitudes of alter - of the appr0priate type - may be regarded as the primary core of the reward system"32 a As previously noted this concept has also been developed by Useem in his theoretical concept of power and by Miller in his study of decision-making processes. Legitimation is the appearance of "rightfulness" which allows a leader to act either for the group or for another individual. Miller has also stated that the re- sources of an influential person must be deemed essential, that is, the members of the group must regard the resources as essential to the situation and the individual must be seen as having the power to act by those whose behavior is being influenced. It must seem.”right" or proper to them that the influential may affect their behavior. Again Miller states, "The appearance of 'rightfulness” renders thedecision legitimate.” Hence, legitimacy refers to the rights of some persons to make decisions, and draw on 32T. Parsons, op.cit., pp.78-79. 15 certain "capacities of rightfulness possessed by the decision-maker".33 and 54 This type of ”rightfulness" may be derived either from the formal right related to the authority of an office, or from a right through a set of informal interpersonal resources. When the relationships involved in legitimation are interpersonal in nature they would be described in terms of Parson's pattern variables as particularistic or related to specific actors rather than universalistic or generalized and impersonal.55 and 36 33Paul A. Miller, op.cit., p.14. 54Donald.A. Bouma, An Analysis of the Social Power Position of the ea s_a 9 car n an ap ds, Miéhigan. UnpublishedIPh.D:“Thesis, Michigan State 0 logo, 1952, has a comprehensive discussion of the genesis and use of the term legitimation. p.207. 35T. Parsons, op.cit., p.62. 56T. Parsons and E. Shils, Toward A General Theory of Action, Harvard University 938, 1951, p. 9. Parsons describes the pattern variables as categories for the description of value-orientations. A given value orientation or some particular aspect of it may be interpreted as imposing a preference or as giving a primacy to one alternative or the other in a particular type of situation. The pattern vari- ables therefore, delineate the alternative prefer- ences, predispositions, or expectations. In all these forms the common element is the direction of selection (by the actor) in defined situations. It is possible for the actor to consciously affect the situation within which he makes his selection since some interpersonal resources may be pre- structured on a rational basis for future reference. (continued on page 16.) 16 REASONS FOR THE STUDY Reasons for undertaking the study are made specific in the following: 1. The increasing recognition of the need for tested information on what causes community action. 2. The need to develop more data on the structural relationships in social organization. A large part of the data gathered from informants is social psychological in nature rather than social organizational. There has been a great deal of work done on attitudes and types of leader- ship behavior. There is a need for more balance by further study of social structure and relationships among leaders. 5. The requests of professional leaders in agricul- tural production programs and social movements for principles and practical information for getting more extensive co- Operation with rural peOple, 36 (continued)This would be a form of achieved status. The primacy of choice in setting up such resources would be affectively neutral or for disciplined use where importance is placed on their future usefulness. However, much of the developmental process may not be conscious cultivation but part of a long process of association where access to others occurs through participation in groups or through living in the same locality where relation- ships are diffuse and often ascribed to the actor. The structure of these resource relationships in a particular situational setting is of direct concern to this analysis. 17 4. The lack of scientific information and documenta- tion about two extremely important factors in democratic society; first the function of influential persons in rural social organization, and second, the fabric that influence is made of in social action. 5. The necessity of training leaders to understand the importance of social power and to make them aware of its usefulness in preparing programs. As was noted pre- viously, influence and pressure are equally important with other elements of leadership in the highly organized structures of present day society, and, as Dexter goes on to say, "This suggests that the apprentice innovator should learn not to come forth with proposals until he has under- taken an analysis of the situation and prepared a plan of campaign."37 § PURPOSES OF THE STUDY This study is concerned primarily with what constitutes influence in a Specific setting and.with its relationship to the authority patterns of office holders. Included is an analysis of the structure of the networks of relations be- tween leaders, or as Parsons phrases it ". . . the structure g 37Lewis A. Dexter, op.cit. 18 of an actor's relations to social objects in order to identify the points of reference. . .”§8 In addition, Parsons has said, A social system is a system of processes of interaction between actors, it is the structure of the relations between the actors as involved in the interactive pro- cess which is essentially the structure of the social system. The system is essentially a network of such interactive relationships.‘-"9 The relationships that exist in the special cases of persons holding intercommunity leadership positions and those named as important influentials at this level are considered in this work in order to show how they are fused together in the overall network of organizational offices and informal relations. These include some professional leaders in rural organizations as well as other rural people. The specific purposes of this study are as follows: 1. To analyze formal leadership patterns at the inter- community or county level including the interlocking patterns of formal leadership and participation. 2. To study the patterns of the informal networks of social relations in the inter-community social system. This will involve the analysis of selected informal inter-relations 38T. Parsons, op.cit., p.59. 59Ihid., p.25. 19 of the respondents in the sample and those named as the important influentials, as well as to determine the struc- ture of the interpersonal resources that exist for the important influentials. 5. To consider the inter-relations between formal leadership and influence by studying the structure of formal positions and interpersonal resources in order to understand how this configuration forms the power structure of rural organizations of the county or inter-community setting. HYPOTHESES The following hypotheses are presented as guides for the research and may be proved or disproved by the results. They pertain to the three areas indicated by the objectives of the study. Hypotheses: A. Formal Leadership_and Organizations 1. County rural leaders have a pattern of active participation in formal leader roles through which they legitimize their leadership rather than remaining out of organized activities. 2. Leadership positions in rural organizations will be found to have a high degree of overlapping of individual 20 leaders: a relatively small number of persons will hold a large number of positions. 5. The more important positions are held by those holding more than one position, which tends to cluster the 'authority roles. 4. In relation to formal positions of leadership, those leaders having the greatest number of local organiza- tional positions will have the least number of offices in groups which include people of an area larger than the county,-and the reverse will be true of those with outside positions. B. Influential Relations 1. Interpersonal resources of influentials will in- clude a variety of factors which form patterns and networks of intimate personal and informal relationships. 2. There will be a positive association between in- “up...” ‘5- '- ufi- " fluence level and number of interpersonal resources. ...—VF- ...... "U—v tonAa-n. I 5. The degree of acquaintance with Other leaders will be positively associated.with the degree to which the leaders are recognized as being influential. 4. The interaction rate of impogtantwinfluential§_ based upon those worked with, those they talk things over with, and the number they spend an hour or more a month with, will be greater than for other county leaders. ......u-vo‘v ”—aonwr 21 5. Leaders recognized as top influentials will also be those named as channels of influence and will be those whom it is important to have in agreement with a proposal before a decision is made on a course of action. 6. Obligation patterns in county leadership are positively associated with the degree of influence of the leaders. C. Formal Leadership Positions and Informal or Influential Relations 1. Leadership positions in rural organizations serve as a means to legitimize the power of the rural influentials as shown by the interlocking of the leadership positions and the degree to which influentials are also office holders. MacIver believes that power alone has no legit- imacy: "Even the. . . tyrant gets nowhere unless he can clothe himself with authority."40 2. Interlocking leadership patterns in rural social Vu'fi‘“ '- organizations show that groups choose leaders because of mos-fur!“ av- ,, ,‘hg their affiliation with certain other groups. 3. Important influentials will have well defined channels of influence into other key groups in the county, either through membership or through other individuals who 40R. M. MacIver, op.cit., p.83. 22 belong and with whom they have a high level of interpersonal resources. 4. Organizational affiliation and activity is an ‘ Ml -hlu.lo—‘I anm.,.,.,; accurate key to indicating_influence in the county as shown a""‘ yaw. — by the sociometric choices of county leaders. SCOPE This study develOped from a general interest in the process of action and decision making in the particular area of rural organizations with volunteer leadership. At the outset, it was intended to approach the general area of decision.mak1ng in volunteer associations. Because of the extent of this general approach, however, it became neces- sary to trim the study to a more limited and manageable part of this process which.cou1d be investigated with the available personnel, budget and time. It also became apparent at an early stage that little or no information was available on the elements that were basic to decision making. It was therefore finally deter- mined to concentrate on the limited area included in the objectives of the study; namely, some of the phenomena related to informal influence and how they relate to volun- tary leadership in inter-community rural organizations. This study has been designed as pilot work or as part of a 25 larger study of rural leadership phenomena and is exploratory and intensive rather than extensive in nature. In Ohio, the county is of major importance as a unit for social organization in a majority of the affairs of rural agencies. The Farm Bureau, the Grange, government agencies such as the Production and Marketing Administra- tion, Agricultural Extension, as well as cOOperatives, youth groups, women's groups, and production organizations all, at least to sOme extent, recognize the county as a func- tional territorial unit in their programs. For this reason attention was given to leaders of inter-community or county level interest and importance. The investigation pertained to all people in offices of county-wide organizations that dealt predominantly with the interests of farm people and were non-political as well as had voluntary unpaid leader- ship in important positions of policy making or direction. This did not preclude the professional leaders involved in these organizations nor did it eliminate federal and state government agencies serving farm people, agencies that are not involved in political functions in the county and that had.voluntary unpaid leadership.41 41Not included were three persons hired on or near July 1, 1952, in professional positions and not acquainted in the county. Also, city representatives on the Hospital and Rural Health Boards. 24 The organizations thus described included ninety-one individuals who were listed as holding official positions as of July 1, 1952. These were taken from the mailing list of rural organizations in the County Agricultural Extension Office. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. ll. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. The organizations are: The County Farm Bureau Federation Board The County Farm Bureau Cooperative Board The Lamb and Fleece Improvement Association Production and Marketing Association The Livestock League ' The Swine Improvement Committee The Producers' Livestock COOperative Association The Dairy Service Unit The Egg Marketing Association Farmers Home Administration Production Credit Association Soil Conservation District The Hospital Board (rural representatives) County Rural Health Council (rural members) The County 4-H Club Executive Committee Agricultural Extension Advisory Committee County Council of Home Demonstration Clubs County Rural Council _ The Pomona and County Grange ‘ 25 METHODOLOGY Certain choices were necessarily made by the investi- gator as to the scope, locale, and method to be used in the study. Choosing_the Coungz It was found that a number of criteria were character- istic of a large number of the important agricultural counties in Ohio. The criteria for the county decided upon was that it have a small city as its main center, a majority of rural population,from 25 to 55,000 pOpulation, and several active rural organizations of importance in county activities. Clinton County, Ohio, although not the only county so constituted, met these requirements and was also within a reasonable distance for travel. In addition, this county was promising for two other reasons. First, the people of the county had conducted a health survey with almost complete enumeration so that it was felt that this would help in the general attitude to- ward research for those to be interviewed. Second, there was an organized rural forum and fact finding organization, referred to here as ”the Rural Council," which held regular meetings dealing with rural community problems. 26 Phases of Field Work The research method.used for the overall project in- volved three general phases. The first phase included using a participant observer role in rural organization activities. This was accompanied by interviews directed toward a case study of the development of the county rural council. The observer role allowed the researcher to watch the rural community in action first hand and to better understand the organizational structure of the county, in preparation for the second phase.42 In addition, it served to legitimize the researcher's role in the community for the second phase of the field work and to establish through direct contact excellent rapport with almost all of the persons subsequently interviewed. With respect to the good rapport established, the co- operation of the agricultural extension personnel of the county made possible the researcher's acceptance into every rural agency and organization meeting that occurred during his stay in the county. Scrupulous observance of the role of listener was followed and no discussion of behavior or 42John B. Holland, The Utility of Social Anthropology As An Adjunct of a Social Survey, a paper read before the Michigan Academy of Sciences, 1951. Margaret Mead, "More Comprehensive Field Method", American Anthropolo ist, Vol. 55, P. lIJan.- Mar., 19557, and an unpublis ed paper by Nelson Foote, of University of Chicago. 27 activities in these meetings was done outside. This pattern of behavior raised no noticeable problems and discussion was not curtailed among those at the meetings even on highly confidential matters involving entry into new business ven- tures by a farmers' cooperative to delicate matters per- taining to removal of some persons from leadership positions. The second phase, which deals with the data included in this work, was carried out by means of interviews, with a sample of the leaders of the county using a schedule.43 This was one of the two central study phases directed at the investigation of leader relations. The schedule was made up of both "open-ended" and "choice" questions. These questions were aimed at fulfill- ing the requirements set forth by the guiding hypotheses. The schedule was comprehensive in nature and required tw0‘ and one half to four hours to administer. The length of time required for this type of interviewing necessitated a limitation on the number that could be interviewed in the available time. It was necessary to make appointments for interviews and these had to be fitted into the work schedules of the farm people during the busy summer months. Therefore, in 43See Appendix for schedule. 28 order to get a representative cross section of the leader- ship, a sample of names was drawn from the list of ninety- one leaders holding county-wide offices. This sample was drawn by use of a table of random numbers.44 Forty-one interviews from the sample were completed. In relation to the analysis based on the sample pOpup lation, it must be expressly noted that the number included was not large and therefore generalizations drawn from this procedure are only tentative. As previously stated, the problem attacked.was a pilot study designed to show the way for work of a wider scope and coverage. The sample, however, may be considered as representative of the group from which it was drawn and included 45 per cent of the total of ninety-one leaders. The final phase of the field.work included interviewing all those who were named six or more times as "important influentials" by the sample population. The regular schedule was completed for the remainder, In addition, a complete analysis of the interpersonal relationships be- tween all of the top twenty-one influentials was recorded. This data forms a second core of the study. 44G. W. Snedecor, Statistical Methods, The Iowa State College Press, Amos, Iowa, 1936, pp.9-15. 29 The cutting point at six or more votes for the import- ant influentials is an arbitrary one based on the judgment of the investigator as to a safe minimum. It allows for a range of six to thirty choices among the top influentials so that some examination may be made of this group. A problem of time in completing this phase must be noted. The completion of the last phase of the field work necessarily followed the sample interviews. The actual time between these phases was nearly two years. Although this is not desirable, it was not as serious as it at first appeared since the persons were already known, many had already been interviewed, and the patterns of relation- ships had proved to be very stable. The major affect of this time lag was in relation to two persons who would have been included in the group of important influentials. One of these died.and the other moved out of the county during the interim between interviews, which limited the number to twenty-one. This unfortunate time lag in the following work was unavoidable because of the need for comp plating part of the sample analysis before the final phase of the field work could be done and because of the require- ments of other duties upon the researcher. But because the work appeared crucial to the study, it was included re- gardless of the time problem. 50 In summary, data for two populations are dealt twith: first, data from a sample of forty-one peOple taken from the ninety-one officers in countywide rural voluntary organiza- tions; second, data from twenty-one persons named by the forty-one leaders as the most important influential rural persons. A detailed description of the method used in determining these top influentials will be presented in Chapter IV. Several of the respondents in the sample were also named among the top twenty-one. A third source of data was derived from extensive reconnaissance and observa- tion. Schedule Development The schedule used in interviewing the sample popula- tion and the twenty-one top influentials was developed through several means. Questions were evolved from the objectives and hypotheses. These were discussed with other staff members and then ordered into a tentative schedule. This was protested on several rural leaders in a different county than the one chosen for the research. Following this pretest, it was revised and tried out in a few interviews with leaders in the county to be studied. Following further revisions, the schedule was mimeographed and the interviews began. All phases of this work were carried out by the writer. 51 The schedule contained four major sections with sub sections as follows: Part I General Information: Personal and background data of respondents Part II Formal organizational affiliation, participation and leadership Part III Farm and Home Data Level of living scale and farm information Part IV Resource Relationships and Leadership Data A. Checklist of leaders - four factors B. Ten most important influentials C. Personal channels of influence in certain case groups D. Important groups B. Legitimizing individuals or key leaders F. Interpersonal resources items G. Reciprocal obligations The interviews were carried out at the homes of the respondents with the exception of those few persons employed by non-farm rural agencies. Interviews with these persons were taken at their offices; they required two and one-half to four hours. One of the problems related to this type of interviewing was the intimate nature of the questions. This required extreme care in legitimizing the interviewer with each respondent as well as a careful approach to almost every question. This was a factor of great importance in limiting the extensiveness of the study. 52 Statistical Analygig All people dealt with in this study were rural leaders. Those chosen by the sample the most times as the most imp portant influentials are considered as being a complete unit. Since they are considered as being the top group of leaders, findings of the sample will be validated by cross checking with.trends for the top twenty-one leaders. Where important differences exist between two groups statistical tests will be used to validate the differences to determine whether they could have occurred by chance. The level of probability will be indicated in connection with the tests. Correction for small sample errors will be used in all tests. However, the size of the sample must be considered as important in the conclusions. The Chi square test is used wherever it is applicable on the basis of its independence from the requirements of a normal distribution.44 However, some "t" tests are used on averages and per- centages although it must be recognized that there is higher risk due to the normative question in relation to 44Allen L. Edwards, Statistical Analysis, Rinehart and CO., IDCQ, N. Yo, 9 ’ pp. 3-2 . Discusses methods for use of chi square in testing a priori hypotheses and testing percentages on an assumed hypotheses. 55 the size of the sample. It is felt that these may be con- sidered as tentative but that they offer security sufficient for analysis.45 Linear correlation is also used on some problems.46 These correlations are considered useful if they meet probability standards at the five per cent level or less. (P less than .05) Where the term."significant" is used in relation to statistical analysis it means that the probability standards are met at the five per cent level or less. 45F. E. Croxton and D. J. Cowden, Apfilied General Statistics, Prentice-Hall, Inc., . ., . 22. Use of "t" test between two unequal and small sized N's. 45A. L. Edwards, op.cit., p.91. 54 Ftr/IMMan CHESTER LIBERTY ? WILSON UNION HIGHLAND ,4 0,4 M 5 2;. WAYNE § \ Wilmington GREEN VERNO L ‘—W Clark'sz/e WASH/N670” 51” ”K Mar Vienna MA RION 5 . é JEFFERSO 43/0 8’”:- D 8/0 - a , V ch95 Mid/m4 OHIO i, Figure I Clinton County, Ohio With Townshi City and Villages P59 CHAPTER II THE COUNTY RURAL SETTING-AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STUDY The Geographical and Physical Setting Clinton County is situated in the southwestern part of the state on the main traveled route between Cincinnati in the southwest corner of the state, and Columbus, which is near the center. It is separated by two counties on the west from the Ohio-Indiana border and by one county on the south from the Ohio River. It includes 417 square miles. A large part of the county is a relatively level and fertile plain. Areas along the several streams are hilly and broken. There are no large streams or waterways that run through the county, although one creek has been dammed to form a small lake and recreation area. Because the county is in the glacial limestone area of the state, the soils of the county are largely productive and good quality silt loams. When placed on a ten point scale of l to 10 for highest to lowest productivity rating, the majority of the soils in Clinton County are in the 5 to 5 ratings with some of the number 1 classification.1 1G. W. Conrey; A. H. Paschall, and E. M. Burrage, A Key to the Soils of Ohio, Ohio A ricultural Experiment Station, Special Circular No. 78, ooster, Ohio, 1948} 55 56 Historical Setting The county was organized in 1810. Wilmington, the county seat, was founded on donated land and is located near the center of the county. It has become the urban center for county activities and is the only city. Wil- mington had 7,587 people in 1950. There were two villages with over 1,000 pOpulation, Blanchester in the southwest corner with 2,100 and Sabina on the east with 1,696. Five other smaller villages of over 500 are dispersed over the county. The early settlers in Clinton County came largely from the eastern Atlantic and southern states of North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Mary- land, and Jew Jersey. Most of them, however, came either directly or indirectly from Virginia and the Carolinas.2 The area included in the county was a part of the Virginia Military Survey. Grants of land were made to Revolutionary War veterans from Virginia. These grants were then either taken up or sold by the veterans or their descendants. Traces of southern culture are still apparent in the region. Important northern migrations included a strong contin- gent of Quakers. The Friends Churches are numerous and strong in the county. Wilmington College, a Friends Church College, is located at Wilmington. It was established in 1870. 2A. J. Brown, History_of Clinton County, Indianapolis,l9l5. 57 The Population Setting Clinton County's pOpulation increased at a moderate rate, from 22,574 in 1940, to 25,572 in 1950, a 15.5 per cent increase for the decade.5 The excess of births over deaths for the decade was 1,812. The net increase through migration was 1,186, or 5.5% of the 1940 population. or these migrants the greater part were urban; they accounted for 1,056 of the total. This growth was largely in the county seat city. The net rural growth by migration on the other hand, amounted to only 150 persons for the decade. In addition to its stability of growth Clinton County ranked twenty-sixth in the 88 counties of the state in per cent of its population that was rural farm, thirty-second in per cent of rural non-farm, and sixty-third in per cent of the county population that was urban.4 In 1950 rural farm peeple numbered 8,105 for the county,5 which was 51.7 per cent of the total population. The prOportion of urban was 28.9 per cent and rural non-farm was 59.4 per cent. As might be expected the largest single occupational group 5W. H. Andrews, and Emily M. Westerkamm, Rural-Urban Population Change and Migration in Ohio, 1940-1950, Research Bulletin 757, Ohio Agricultural; Experiment Station. 4W. H. Andrews and L. H. Snow, Comparative Population, Agricultural and Industrial Data For Ohio Counties, 1940-50, Mimeo. Bul. A.D. 248, Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. 5U. S. Census of the POpulation, 1950, Bulletin P-B,55,"'. p.188. 58 was farmers and farm managers, who numbered 1,600 in 1950. The farm population is characterized by being almost all white; only 55 rural farm negro people were reported in 1950, whereas there were 641 negros reported in the county as a whole. As to the number of men per 100 women in the ages 20 to 24 inclusive, the sex ratio for the county was 102.5 in 1950, showing a slight surplus of males. This is 19th in rank for all counties. For the rural farm population the sex ratio for the age group was 151.7, which places Clinton County 9th in the state. For the county as a whole, in the older ages of 65 and over the sex ratio is 91.5, which is 59th in rank in the state. But for the farm population, the sex ratio at this age level is 125.2 and the county ranks in 50th place.6 Moving from the sex ratio to the distribution by age groups we find thirty per cent of the rural farm population was under 15 years of age at the last census, and whereas 27.2 per cent of the total county, 22.4 per cent of the urban, and 28.2 per cent of the rural non-farm pOpulation were in this age group. The most productive age group is 15 to 64 years of age: 64.2 per cent of the urban, 57.7 per cent of the rural non-farm, and 60 per cent of the rural 6W. H. Andrews and L. H. Snow, op.cit. 59 farm were in this group. For these 65 and over we find 15.4 per cent of the urban people, 14.1 per cent rural non-farm, and 9.9 per cent of the rural farm population were included. Thus the farm population of the county tends to have a larger proportion of children and smaller proportion of older people than the urban and rural non-farm. In regard to educational standing, in 1950 the rural farm people twenty-five years of age and over had a median of 9.0 years of school completed. The median for the state was 8.8 for rural farm people. Clinton County thus ranked 19th. For all people in the county, however, the median was 9.2 while for the total state population the median was 9.9%. This placed Clinton forty-eighth among the eighty-eight counties. The Agricultural Setting Clinton County farms are productive, and agriculture is the major enterprise in the county. In 1950 only about 20 per cent of the farm people in the county worked one hundred or more days off the farm, which is relatively low for the state (sixty-ninth). This illustrates that farming is con- sidered a full time job for most farmers. The average value of farm products sold per farm was $6,558.00, which made Clinton the fourth ranked county in 1950. Nearly eighty-two per cent of the farms in the county were classified as commercial farms by the census; that is, they had sales of products amounting to $1,200.00 or more. 40 The major enterprise in the county is the production of hogs. For the year 1950 this accounted for 57 per cent of the gross income from sales of farm products in the county. Dairying followed with 12 per cent, wheat 9 per cent, corn 6 per cent, cattle 6 per cent, poultry 5 per cent and all others 5 per cent. With minor variations this is a typical year. Since almost all of the feed for the livestock is pro- duced on the same farm, the largest grain crop is corn. Corn is fed to hogs, poultry and cattle. The extensive use of corn for feed, however, does not show it as a major cash crop. Clinton County has only 17.1 per cent of its employed people engaged in manufacturing ranking 7lst in the 88 coun- ties. As to income, 1.2 per cent of the families, both urban and rural, have an income of over $10,000.00 ranking fifty- third in the state and 48.8 per cent of the families, both urban and rural reported an income of less than $2,000.00 in 1950. On this the county ranked seventeenth.7 Farm people in Clinton County had a level of living in- dex score of 161 for 1950 and ranked 24th among the 88 coun- ties. The state average was 148 showing a relatively favor- able living standard for Clinton County.8 41 On an index of mechanization the county ranked sixty- eight with a score of 84.9 As to urbanization the index score was 78 for 1950 and 68 for 1940. This showed a relatively small change in this regard demonstrating the general stability of the county in p0pulation change. Clinton County ranked twelfth in the state on average value of farm land and buildings with an average of $21,702.00 per farm.10 The state average value was $14,575.00 Clinton County had a relatively high number of farmers that were classified by the U. S. Census as tenants. They were 52.5 per cent of the farm Operators so classified ranks ing this county in sixth place. The number of farm Operators classified as farm managers was very low, however, with only 5 being reported in the county at the 1950 census. Thus the family farm pattern was strongly characteristic of farm Oper- ations in the county. The Industrial Setting In 1950 71.7 per cent of the employed persons in the county worked in occupations other than agriculture. This 9The data on the mechanization and urbanization index is from unpublished state reports prepared by W. H. Andrews and L. H. Snow. 10W. H. Andrews and L. H. Snow, op.cit. 42 is lower than the state average, which was ninety-two per cent. Clinton County ranked sixty-second among the counties of the state in this respect. Seventeen per cent of the total employed in the county were engaged in manufacturing, placing it in the seventy- first rank position. But retail trade volume per capita was $1,018.11 with a rank of sixth in 1950. In sum we find that the county is strongly influenced by the agricultural industry which is the largest single occupation. A relatively large part of the population is rural farm. Agriculture is relatively prosperous and rela- tively specialized both being related to the physical land base and locale of the area. Farming is largely family oriented and farm incomes are neither very high nor very low for the majority Of the farm Operators. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RESPONDENTS Two types of people with some overlapping in their numbers are dealt with in this work. These include (1) the sample Of rural leaders, and (2) those named as important influentials most frequently by the sample. A description of the sample population will reveal the characteristics of a cross section of the leaders of rural organizations in Clinton County. 45 THE SAMPLE POPULATION Demographic Factors Forty-one persons were drawn in the sample. The large majority (85%) were men. These peOple, both men and women, represent the essential backbone of much of the area's rural society. They have generally had their roots down in the county for a long period. They were peOple that had been firmly attached to the county by birth or long residence. Fifty per cent were born there and the average length Of residence for all was 54.4 years. Only four persons in the sample had resided in the county less than ten years. Of these, two were women and two were professional leaders, hired by rural gencies. All of the women in the sample were born outside of the county and came to the county as young adults to make their homes. The men were predominantly native to the area, twenty born in and fourteen born outside of the COUIItye TABLE 1. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE: DEMOGRAPHIC Sex: Per cent males. 0 e e e e e e e e e e e 0 Age: mean age. 0 e e e e e e e e e e e e o e 0 Place of Birth: Per cent born within county . . . . . . . Length Of Residence: Mean years lived in county. . . . . . . . Primary Occupation of Family Head: Per cent farming. . . . . . . . . . . . . Secondary Occupation of Family Head: For CGDt farming. e e e e e e e e e e e 0 Residence: Per cent farm. . . . . . . t . . . . . . Marital Status: Married. 0 e o e o e e e o e e e e o 0 0 Family Size: Mean no. of children. . . . . . . . . . Mean no. of children at home. . . . Education: Mean no. years completed, total . . . . M31830 0 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 0 Females. e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e O Level of Living: Mean score 0 e e e e e e e e e e e e 0 o 44 FACTORS* NO. 54 82.9% 45.9 yrs. 21 48.8% 54.4 yrs. 52 78.0% 2 4.9% 55 80.5% 59 95.1% 2.41 Chldno 1.45 chldn. 12.7 yrSo 12.4 yrs. 13.9 yrS. 71.1 pts. “For a discussion Of the descriptive use of percentages of groups with fewer than 100 cases see Margaret J. Hagood and Daniel 0. Price, Statistics for Sociologists, Revised Edition, p.74, footnote. 45 The age distribution of the leaders shows the model group was forty to forty-nine years of age. Only two per- sons in the sample were under thirty and the average age Of the group was nearly forty-six years. The people in the sample were largely farmers and farm homemakers, as might be expected. Nearly four fifths (52) Of the family heads were primarily farmers. Two Of the non- farmers had some farming activities and four others were in farm related occupations. Fewer than might have been expected in the general pop- ulation had a second non-farm occupation.ll Only three farmers reported a secondary non-farm occupation. Eighty per cent (55) of the sample reported a farm residence, two more were classified as rural non-farm and the seven remaining lived in the city or one Of the villages. Only two respondents were unmarried. None had been divorced or separated. The average number Of children per family was not high among these families (2.41). The relatively high average age and the small number Of children at home tended to indicate 11H. R. Moore and W. A. Wayt, "Where Are We Going In Part Time Farming?" Ohio Farm and Home Research, September-October, 1954 Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster, Ohio. Upwards Of 45 per cent Of farmers in Ohio were engaged in non-farm work. 46 that the families were usually not in the early part of the family cycle. These people, as a group, with an average of 12.7 years of school completed, were better educated than are most rural people in the county and state. Rural farm peOple in the county had a median of 9.9 years completed and for the state, 8.8.12 The level of living scores of the sample averaged 71.1 with a range from a low of twenty to the highest possible score of seventy-nine. The level of living can be considered as generally high among this group: 28 had scores of seventy or above and only 5 were below fifty.13 Agricultural Factors The sample population were found to be well above aver- age in the size of the farm operations they had. Their aver- age was 249.6 acres while that for the county was 155.6 and 12W. H. Andrews and L. H. Snow, Op.cit., p.55. 1:5Howard R. Cottam, Methods of Measuring Level Of Liv- ing, Social Participation and Adjustment of Ohio Farm People; Dept. Of Rural Economics and Rural Socio- 1ogy, iimeographed Bulgetin NO. 159, Ohio State Univ- ersity, 1941, p.15. The scale developed by Mangus and Cottam, had a correlation of .95 with 'Sewell's scale." The Mangus and Cottam scale was used because it had been standardized in Ohio where this research was done. The quartile range of scores on this scale standardized on rural farm peOple was below - 41 for the lower quartile and above 45 was the highest quartile. A score Of "O" was considered the average including both mean and median. 47 the state 105. The range in size was from 66 to 780 acres. By no means all of the land was owned. There was an average of 145 acres owned and 106 rented, shared, or leased. One fourth rented in some form all or nearly all of the land they farmed. The majority, however, owned a large part or all of their land. One fourth of the respondents had some form Of partner- ship in their farming business. All of these were with close relatives except one. Main enterprises Of these farmers paralleled those of the county with hogs ranking far out in front (54%) and dairying second (17%). 48 TABLE 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE: AGRICULTURAL FACTORS Land Tenure: N0. Mean no. of acres per farmer”. , . . 249.6 acres Mean no. of acres owned. . . . . 145 acres Mean no. rented or shared, etc.**: . 106 acres Per cent who rent or share: all or nearly all land. . . . . . 10 25% part (2/5 or less). . . . . . . . 5 12:0 none...............19 46:0 Per cent not farming . . . . . . . . 7 17% Farm in Partnership: Per cent yes. 0 e e e e e e e e o e 10 25:?) Per cent no 0 e e e e e e e e e e e 24 58p Iain Farm Enterprise of those farming: Hogs. O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 22 54:; ‘Dairyeeeeeeeeeooeoeo 7 17% Poultry e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 2 W Corn. 0 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e l 2% Other 0 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 2 5% NOt farming e e e e e e e o e e e e 7 17” Tractors: Mean no. of tractors per farm . . . 54 2.25 ”For those whose primary occupation is farming. **Includes all arrangements for using land other than that owned either individually or in partnership. 49 The average number of tractors per farm was 2.25 giving a rough indication Of a high degree of mechanization. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOP LEADERS Of the twenty-three persons named as the most important influential rural people in the county by six or more people, twenty-one were still available for interviews at the time of the return to the county.14 These twenty-one tOp leaders were interviewed and are analyzed as a group. Demographic Factors Only one woman was named to this group. Her husband was also named. The average age of all of them was 50.4 years. Approximately half were born in the countyy but the average length of residence there was over thirty-nine years. Professional leaders showed a distinct difference in tenure from the other reSpondents. The group of tOp influ- entials contained only three persons that had resided in the county less than twenty years and all three were professional workers in farm agencies that had been there from one to seven years. Eighty-one per cent of this limited group of twenty-one were farmers. One who was not primarily a farmer reported a secondary occupation of farming. Three were non-farm. 14One of the top twenty-three had died while the other one had moved out of the county. TABLE 5, CHARACTERISTICS OF'THE TOP LEADERS: Sex: Per cent maleS. e e e e o e e e 0 Age: Mean age. 0 e e o e e e e o e e 0 Place of Birth: Per cent born within county . . . Length of Residence: Mean years lived in county. . . . Primary Occupation of Family Head: Per cent farming. . . . O O O O 0 Secondary Occupation of Family Head: Per cent farming. . . . . . . . . Residence: Per Cent farm. 0 e e e e e e e 0 Marital Status: Per cent married 0 o o o o o o 0 Family Size: Mean no. of children per family. . . Mean no. of children at home. . . Education: Mean years completed total. . . . Level of Living: Mean score. 0 e e e e e e e e e e 50 DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS NO. . .20 95% . . 50.4 yrs. . .11 52% . . 59.2 yrs. . .17 81.0% ..1 5% . 17 81.0% . 21 100.0% 2.5 child. . . 1.1 child. . . 15.5 yrs. . . 77.0 pts. 51 Place Of residence was divided up in a similar way with eighty40ne per cent living on farms. All were married and the average number of children was 2.5 per family with 1.1 at home. This group was well educated with 15.5 years as the mean number Of years completed. The level of living was very high with an average score Of 77 out of a posSible 79. Agricultural Factors The top leaders farmed an average of 507 acres. They owned an average of 202 and rented, shared or leased 101 acres. A few (14%) rented all or nearly all of their farm land. The largest part (45%) owned all their land with about a fourth owning a substantial part. One third farmed in some type of partnership. The main enterprise was hogs with corn, dairy, and wheat also included. - Tractors averaged 2.5 per farm among this group. The top twenty-one leaderswere largely land owners although they procured a substantial part of their acreage by renting in some form. Partnerships were common here also with a high degree of mechanization on the largely hog producing farms. 52 TABLE 4. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOP LEADERS: AGRICULTURAL FACTORS Land Tenure: NO. Mean number of acres per farmer* 305-8 acres Mean number of acres owned. . . 201.7 acres Mean number of acres rented or shared, etc. o e e e e e e e 0 101.5 acres Per cent who rent or share: all or nearly all . . . . . . 5 14.5% part (2/5 or less). . . . . . 5 25.8% none 0 e e e e e e e e e e 9 42.9% Per cent not farming. . . . . 4 19.0% Farming in Partnership: Per cent yes. 0 e e e e e e e e 7 55.5% Percentn0.o...o.oo.10 47.6% Main Farm Enterprise of Those Farming: H083. e e e e e e e e e e e e e 12‘ 57.1% Dairy 0 o O o o e o o e e o e e 1 4.8% Corn. 0 e o e e o e e e e o e e 3 14.5% Wheat 0 e e e e e e e e e e e e 1 408% Not farming . . . . e . . . . . 4 19.0% Tractors: Mean number of tractors per farm 2.5 # For those whose primary occupation was farming. an Includes all arrangements for using land other than that owned either individually or in partnership. 53 CHAPTER III FORMAL LEADERSHIP PATTERNS One Of the major purposes of this study, as stated in the introductory chapter, was to analyze the formal leader- ship patterns of county leaders as they functioned in the Offices of rural county organizations. Formal leadership roles are the offices or positions held by individual actors. As defined previously, the Office gives the actor authority to act within the limits of a particular role. The pattern of voluntary organizational relationships is one Of the chief characteristics Of American life. As Barber points out in concurring with de Tocqueville, "the voluntary association is peculiarly characteristic of” American Social Structure."1 This is true for rural as well as urban life. In modern American rural social organizations moreover, a combination of voluntary and professional leader- ship has grown up, a combination which is interwoven into one pattern. - The organizations to which the reSpondents belonged and in which they held offices covered a wideIPange of interests and activities including religious, fraternal and educational as well as commodity groups, occupational 1Bernard Barbera "Participation and Mass Apathy in Associations, in A. W. Gouldner (ed.) Studies in Leadership,Harper & Bros., New York, 1950 p.479-481. 54 interest groups and government sponsored associations. But before turning to the incidence of leadership, we need to have a picture of certain related elements in the situation. An analysis of positions (1.8. Offices) held by the sample leaders and the top influentials is an essential step in the direction Of understanding the pattern of organ- izational authority and influence. Of the most important influential rural people, only one did not hold any Office of any kind at the time Of the interview, but this person had held many offices in previous years. Thus, persons holding positions in rural organiza- tions seemed to be most likely to be named as important in- fluentials. With the exception of three professional leaders, the positions in the county were filled either by election or appointment and were voluntary: they were held by persons who could legally refuse to accept and were not required to serve by an employer as part of their regular job. Aside from the professionals, all leaders served without pay with the exception of three persons on the county Production and Marketing Committee. Although these committeemen were elected to their positions, they were paid for the time they worked. One of these, the chairman, was a farmer, but he put in almost full time at the P.M.A. Office. The three pro- fessional leaders who held full-time positions in agencies 55 serving farm people were not farmers. They included the Agricultural Extension agent, the manager of a large farmers cooperative, and the soil conservationist. DISTRIBJTION OF POSITIONS AMONG LEADERS The respondents were asked to indicate what positions they held in every conceivable organized association. The many types of organizations mentioned by the respondents included: Churches and church groups Cooperatives Service clubs Government agencies Fraternal organizations Breeder's associations Veterans and patriotic Agricultural extension organizations groups Youth groups Special commodity groups and committees Civic groups , Agricultural society Women's groups P.T.A. and teachers organizations' Literary and study groups Informal clique groups Farm organizations Businessmen's organizations Notably absent from the list were political groups. The sample population of rural leaders reported a total of the one hundred forty-seven Offices which they held or had held in past years in "county wide" organizations Of various kinds. This was an average of 3.5 Offices per person 56 (Table 5). There was an average of nearly two positions (1.9) per person at the time of the interview and a slightly smaller average number (1.7) for previous years.2 This evidence points to a tendency for more recent activity in county level leadership for the sample rather than to a sus- tained long term pattern of leadership. TABLE 5 AVERAGE NUMBER OF LEADERSHIP POSITIONS HELD BY THE SAMPLE POPULATION AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW AND FOR PREVIOUS YEARS BY COUNTY WIDE POSITIONS AND ALL POSITIONS HELD Average Number Of Positions Sample Present Past Total Population Average Average Averagg County level positions 1.9 1.7 5.6 All positions 4.2 5.1 9.5 A further survey Of the rate of activity in leader roles of the sample shows that 9.5 positions per person was the average for all positions reported at all locality levels, 2Any Office which was held at the time of the interview was recorded as being held at the "present" time. All Offices were counted only once even though they had been held over several years. This tended to accen- tuate the numbers reported at the time of the interview. 57 including the local community, the county and those in groups broader than the county. This divided into 4.2 per person at the time of the study and 5.1 for previous years. An examination of the sample group in relation to the top twenty-one most important influentials reveals certain differences between the two groups. The top influentials averaged 5.2 county level positions per person for both past years and for the present year (i.e., the year Of the interviews). At the time of the interviews they held about two positions each (1.9), and for previous years the average was 5.5 for each leader. This evidence indicates that these peOple had a long history of activity in county level positions. TABLE 6 AVERAGE NUMBER OF LEADERSHIP POSITIONS HELD BY THE TWENTY-ONE MOST INFLUENTIAL LEADERS AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW AND FOR PREVIOUS YEARS -: V_:—: L j 1 Average Number Of Positions Top Twenty-one Present Past Total Influentials Average Average Average County Level Positions 1.9 5.5 5.2 All Positions 4.7 7.5 12.2 The average was 12.2 Offices per person for all posi- tions held at all locality levels. There were 4.7 offices 58 reported at the time of the interview and 7.5 for previous years. This group again demonstrated a high rate of activi- ty in all phases of organization leadership over a long period. In examining the sample and the top twenty-one leaders some significant differences appear. In offices at the county level for both past and present the sample had an average of 5.6 positions per person whereas the tOp influ- ential leaders held 5.2. For all positions past and present the difference again was significant, 9.5 for the sample and 12.2 for the top influentials. TABLE 7 AVERAGE NUMBER OF POSITIONS FOR THE SAMPLE POPULATION AND THE TWENTY-ONE MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENTIALS INCLUETNG PRESENT AND PAST OFFICES l! Average Number of Offices Positions Sample TOp Population Influentials t* P df County Level 5.6 5.2 2.75 .02 60 All positions 9.5 12.2 2.12 .05 6O *F. E. Croxton and D. J. Cowdon, Op.cit. Use Of "t" between two unequal and small sized N's p.550. The extent to which these people, particularly those named as important influentials, were involved in leadership positions, supports the proposition (Hypothesis A-l) that 59 "county rural leaders have a pattern of active participation in formal leaders' roles through which they legitimize their leadership rather than remaining out of organized activities." Not only does the sample population give strong evidence of i this through the multiple number of positions reported, but the hypothesis is supported still further by the significant- ly higher number of positions held by the tOp influentials. Other persons in the social system under study apparently either require office-holding, or recognize and accept office holding asa.means of legitimation of influence. In addition to the fact that the degree of influence was related to the number of offices held two other dimensions were also impor- tant. First, the t0p influentials had held significantly more offices through time at all locality levels, and second, the top leaders had more past positions. Service in offices of the community over a period of years appeared to be a factor in the development of influence. Hunter's findings in an urban study contrast strongly with the results found here. In discussing the office-hold- ing patterns of top influentials in Regional City, he said, "Some of the tOp leaders may hold board positions within the associational groupings to lend prestige to the organi- zation, but such members are more noted.for their absence than for their attendance at meetings of the respective beards." And again he said, "Occasionally, a top leader will .\ a. 60 take the presidency of one of the associations, but such position is usually unsought and avoided if possible - par- ticularly by the older leaders."3 MULTIPLE OR OVERLAPPING LEADERSHIP PATTERNS The data already discussed also points to a pattern which shows a concentration of leadership poSitions among the county level leaders. At the time of the interview there was an average of nearly two positions per person for the inter-community level offices. In order to reveal more about this picture of overlapping leadership the data was analyzed by ranking the sample reSpondents from the highest to lowest according to the number of offices held by each one. This ranked distribution was divided into quartiles TABLE 8 h AEER OF OFFICES HELD BY SAMPLE LEADERS BY RANKED QUARTILE DIVISIONS AND ACCORDING TO LOCALITY. LEVEL AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW Number of Offices by Quartiles Locality lst 2nd 5rd 4th X2 P at Level No. Av. No. Av. No. Av. No. Av. County 56 3.6 21 2.1 12 1.2 9 .8 22.61 .01 5 Local 57 5.7 20 2.0 15 1.5 6 .5 26.11 .01 3 Su ra- 15 1.5 3 .5 0 .0 O .0 18.0% .01 1 County # Chi square for supra-county level offices was calculated by combining the quartiles into halves. For method and rationale see footnote 4, page 61. 3Floyd Humter, Op.cit., pp.84-85. 61 and the number of offices falling into each quartile at the three levels are shown in Table 8.4 As the table shows, offices are not distributed equally among the sample; rather, certain individuals have a significantly higher number of positions than others. For example, in examining the county level offices for the sample there was an average of 5.6 offices per person in the first quartile and only .8 per person in the fourth.5 However, three 4The method and rationale of the test of significance of Tables 8, 9, 10, and 11 are as follows. Purpose: to determine whether or not a relatively small pro- portion of the individuals hold a relatively large proportion of the offices. Method: This requires a statistical test in which the observed distribution is compared with a hypothetical distribution. Since the objective is to determine whether or not the ob-_ served distribution is compared with a hypothetical distribution. Since the objective is to determine whether or not the observed distribution is charac- terized by the phenomenon of differential multiple office holding, it is necessary to compare the ob- served distribution with a hypothetical expected distribution of positions. The observed distribu- tion was set up by ranking the individuals in terms of the number of offices per person and dividing this ranked distribution into quartiles. The ex- pected distribution divided the offices equally among the quartiles, thus, any difference large enough to be significant would show a pattern of differential office holding. The chi square technique was used to test whether or not the difference between the ex- pected and observed distribution was significant. Discussion of this method is found in A. L. Edwards, Statistical Analysis, N. Y., Rinehart & Co., 1946, p.241-244, testing a 50:50 hypothesis, and testing any a priori hypothesis. 5Two persons in the sample reported not holding any positions at the county level at the time of the interview. Since the sample was drawn from a list of officers in county level organizations it should be explained that most of these groups had annual elections and that these occurred at various times (continued on page 62) 62 of the quartiles averaged more than one office per person. A similar pattern of concentration of leadership positions is found for the t0p influentials (see Table 9). There was also a significant variation between leaders on the number of local and supra-county offices held. Local offices reported tended to be clustered around some leaders more than others in the same way as at the county lwel. TABLE 9 NUMBER OF OFFICES HELD BY THE TOP TWENTY-ONE INFLUENTIALS BY RANKED QUARTILE DIVISIONS AND ACCORDING TO LOCALITY GROUPS AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW Number of Offices by Quartiles Locality lst 2nd 5rd 4th x2 P df Level No, Av. No._Av. No. Av. No. Av. County 18 5.6 10 2.0 7 1.4 4 .66 11.16 .02 5 Local 17 5.4 10 2.0 8 1.6 5 .5 10.64 .02 5 Supra- 16 5.2 5 1.0 0 .0 0 .0 21.0% .01 1 county ”X2 for this category was calculated by combining the quar- tiles into halves. For method and rationale of the test used see footnote 4, page 60 of this chapter. 5 (continued)during the year according to the groups own pattern. Thus, it was possible for some names to have appeared on the list of officers at the time the list was made up for this study only to find by the time of the interview that they were not presently hold- ing an office at this level. That only two persons were found to be out of county level offices by this turnover gives some indication of the stability of this leader group. 65 Although supra-county offices were few in number and fol- lowed a generally similar pattern, they were all held by those in the two highest quartiles. In addition, it is noteworthy that the tOp influentials had a much higher average number of these offices. More will be said in the next section as to the holding of top leadership positions in county organization by important influentials. It is clear, therefore, that the large majority of offices in each level are held by those with a multiple number of offices, which substantiates hypothesis A-2: "leadership positions in rural organizations will be found to have a high degree of overlapping of individual leaders; a relatively small number of persons will hold a large num- ber of positions." Since organized groups are means for the legitimation of decisions, some individual leaders have access to and authority in several groups. This indicates a concentration of social power among a somewhat limited number of people. Multiple Leadership Patterns Through Time6 Although at the time of the interview there was an average of about two county level offices per person for 6The problem of memory recall undoubtedly affected these data even though the respondents were allowed considerable deliberation. Failure to recall would logically seem to affect those with a longer history of activity more than those that had been engaged in leadership behavior for a shorter period. The top (Continued on page 64) 64 both the sample and the twenty-one tOp leaders, (Tables 5 and 6), the histories of office holding have revealed important differences between the two groups as shown pre- viously in the data of Tables 5 and 6. That is to say that the significantly different averages between the sample pop- ulation and the top leaders for all offices reported is based on the difference between these groups in the number of offices held in years prior to the interview.(Table 7) The group of top leaders have not only had many offices, but records of some of the groups that were available showed them to have held.many of them over a long period of years. In some instances, where a specific office was not held over a period of years, there was some tendency to move from one office to another within one organization. Figure II also illustrates that most of the top leaders held offices in several groups. They moved from one organ- ization to another, although this movement was often some- what circular, i.e., some returned to a group in either a similar or different position after a period of inactivity.7 6(continued)twenty-one leaders were both older and had a longer history of activity than did the sample as a whole. However, the differences in activities re- ported were still significantly different between the two groups (Table 7). Therefore, any errors are actually on the conservative side. 7The length of time that a leader has held an office is not shown in Figure II. If he was holding it at the time of the interview, it was considered present. Also, not shown was the number of different offices or number of times the individual may have returned to office after periods of being out of office. 65 Figure II also illustrates for the tOp influentials the multiple and interlocking aSpects of leadership as well as the pattern of holding office in one organization and then another. Furthermore it shows a time dimension in the past and present offices held. For the groups in Figure II, 5 is the model number of the listed organiza- tions in which each leader held or had held an office at the time of, or prior to, the interview. The second highest model group was 4. These distributions illustrate the general pattern of multiple offices for both present and past for each individual. All but four persons are shown to have held at least two different offices. The starred "X" marks in the columns of the chart indicate those organiza- tions in which the individual held an office at the time of the interview. The unstarred marks indicate those organi- zations in which offices were not held at the time of the interview but had been held at some time previously. Be- cause this illustrates the pattern of office holding through time, it is possible to follow each one of the top influ— entials through the nineteen organizations shown and to see the organizations in which he is an officer and those in which he had been one previously. At the time of the inter- view the top influentials held eleven of the highest offices in the nineteen organizations. The fact that top leaders have shifted from position to position as well as having served for several years in an 66 organization has maintained a stable pattern of leaders in the rural organizations of the county. In a similar vein but in a different form Floyd Hunter found that at the policy-making level for different projects and activities in Regional City civic affairs, the personnel involved re- mained much the same on various project committees. He found that although there was a distinct difference between the policy level groups and the action committees for com- munity projects, the membership of each level was neverthe- less stable. Association of Top Influentials in Organizations It will be noted that office holding in some organiza- tions was of greater general importance than in others. Certain rural groups tended to be identified with broad issues and policies of a countywide nature. These groups were observed to be important in legitimizing decisions dealing with rural people. Figure II illustrates a cluster- ing pattern of the important offices in important rural organizations around established influential persons. In the same way, it illustrates the interlocking patterns of leadership, by showing the different organizations in which any one individual holds an important position. Also Figure II the top influentials were almost all identified officially at one time or another with one or more of three groups, the County Farm Bureau Federation, the County Rural Council, and the Farm Bureau Co-op Board. v. paemeam use pmwm Spom mom mnemaem no adducesamnH pampaomEH pmoz osonhpsesp on» hob msofigwaaswmao Heasm pepoeaem soopoeaz meosa meoasamom seas Apesoo .oeae hoaaom Haa mo eonpspaspmfia HH ampeHe .maepsea Hwooammewoam ** .30a>hop:a can mo eEHp can as ..e.H .paen mQOHpHmoa usemeam # m N n n m m o m m «H Hence N #N am N N N tN N N om #N *N N ma mH#* N N N *N 5H . *N mfi N *N #N um mH #N ma N N N N 0H N #N ma N $N N HH N N N N CH N #N m sN $N m *un barn. N #N o *N N N m ax .N vex .N e *N *N N n sN N *N *N m #N H## .nmm4 .Eoo .Eoo qmooo .smmd .Gmm4 .:500 .9000 Has .pem «peed .eseo oqasm m-e .spmpq commas .pss .pxm .wsm unsoo .ssm doe .eopm .oo .oo .eonm s pass .eosm .mm4 spam dense ease Hm 68 mm shoe: J. I m H .pzemeam pas pmwm Quom you mcomaem HmeGeSHMQH pcspaoQEH eaHz meg esothpnesa can 90% mzoupmsasmwao Hmasm pepoeHem Gee» pmsoad msoapfimom ova; hpqfioo .omhe hoaHom HH< no :oHpSQHApmHQ 5.9Qoov HH mmeHm .mAepsoH Hemoammewoam as .aoapsssea one go mass was es ..o.a .eHmn meoapamoe anemone * o n H H H H m N * >< asses Hm ON mH mHss pH pH mH wH mH $$ Hmbuwwawmem wanna E. #N #K #N :3 >4 *N NH HH OH mgdoko Mo .02 , Hence .600 0 E09 eSom onmaw .pam Hmm .pxz .amom mwm pHQD .bhom hthQ owndam .00 Non teem .am4 HHo .umHQ Iflfioo .mcoo .npam Haom .Uaoq 909 Hm 69 Only the professional leaders numbers 1,7, and 18 had not held voluntary offices in one or more of these three organizations. One of the professionals, no. 7, the co-op manager, was officially or semi-officially connected with two of these groups, while no. 1, the extension agent, made it a point to maintain fairly close informal relation- ships with all of them. No. 18, the soil conservationist, also kept some contact with individual leaders in these groups. Thus, through the time dimension there is evidence of a clustering and interlocking of the decision-making positions around limited number of persons. In addition, the decision makers are identified with certain major organ- izations. AUTHORITY'ROLES Types of Positions If the offices are not distributed equally and a con- centration of positions occurs among a limited number, it would be valuable in a study of the elements of decision- making to check further into the meaning of this overlapping to determine whether a pattern exists in the variation of types of positions that are held by those that hold more than one. All positions were accordingly classified into three general types and labeled "A", "B", and “C". Type A positions included such titles as president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer or equivalent positions, as well as the professional positions. These 70 positions were considered as having important leadership, policy, and decision-making functions for the particular organization involved. ' Type B positions were classified as board or executive committee members or equivalent offices. These positions were considered important to the organization at the policy and decision-making level. Type 0 positions were lesser ones that were usually appointive ones, such as temporary committee chairman or member, sunday school teacher, or equivalent positions. These positions lacked decision-making and policy-making power but performed services related to the objectives of the organization. The three types of positions were recorded according to the level to which they belonged, either local, county or supra-county. Determining the categories and assigning the leadership positions to them was done on an empirical basis from the researcher's experience as an observer in the county. Where the author was not familiar with organi- zations and offices reported, other persons were consulted. All judgments were discussed with co-workers or people in the county in order to eliminate all possible error. Clustering of Authority Roles It can be demonstrated that there is aizendency for a clustering of the more important county level positions around those that hold large numbers of positions. 71 In or- der to discover the patterns related to important offices, only types A and B offices were used in Tables 10 and 11; type C offices, as defined, were not of the important decision and policy-making type. NUMBER OF TYPE A AND B OFFICES HELD BY THE SAMPLE LEADERS RANKED TABLE 10 BY NUMBER OF OFFICES REPORTED AND DIVIDED INTO QUARTILES ACCORDING TO LOCALITY GROUPS Present** Number of Offices by Quartiles Locality lst 2nd 5rd 4th x2 P (if Level No. Av. No. Av. No. Av. No. Av. County 50 5.0 20 2.0 11 1.1 9 .82 15.85 .01 5 Local 26 2.6 14 1.4 6 .6 0 .0 52.95 .01 5 Supra- 10 1.0 O .0 O 00 O .0 1000* .01 1 county Past** County 28 2.8 20 2.0 7 .7 O .0 54.67 .01 5 Local 52 5.2 22 2.2 15 1.5 5 .27 59.60 .01 5 Supra- 5 .5 O .O O .0 0 .0 N too small to county test *X2 for this category was calculated by combining the quartiles into halves. footnote 4, page 60. For method and rationale see ** "Present" means—at the time of the interview, "past" means offices held in years proceeding but not con- tinuously up to the time of the interview. 72 Significant differences were found in Table 10 between the quartile groups of officers interviewed in the sample. For offices at the county level, both present and past, the differences in the number of positions held between quartile groups demonstrate conclusively that the important policy and decision-making offices are held in greater numbers by some leaders than by others. They thus tend to be clustered around some individuals more than around others. The averages shown in the table also show this. In the first quartile, there was an average of three offices per person for the present and 2.8 reported for previous years. This number diminished in the fourth quartile to .8 in the pres- ent and .0 for the past. The local level showed a similar pattern of clustering. At the supra-county level this clustering was also apparent, although there were only a relatively small number of persons holding positions at this legel. When attention is turned to Table 11 and the t0p influ- entials, the general trend of the previous table is repeated but with certain variations. Particularly in reporting present positions it was found that the number of offices reported was not significantly different at the five per cent level. This more even distribution of offices between the quartiles is indicative of the general overall activity of this top group. 75 TABLE 11 NUMBER OF A AND B TYPE OFFICES HELD BY THE TOP INFLUENTIALS R NKED BY NUHBER OF OFFICES REPORTED AND DIVIDED INTO QUARTILES ACCORDING TO LOCALITY GROUPS Present Number of Offices by Quartiles Locality lst 2nd 5rd 4th X2 P df Level No. Av. No. Av. No.Av. No. Av. County 12 2.4 10 2.0 5 1.0 4 .66 5.77 .14 5 Local 11 2.2 10 2.0 5 1.0 O .O 11.85 .01 5 Supra- 16 5.2 5 1.0 0 .0 0 .0 21.0% .01 1 county Past County 28 5.6 19 5.8 8 1.6 5 .5 26.0 .01 5 Local 24 4.8 16 5.2 10 2.0 5 .85 14.6 .01 5 Supra- 11 2.2 5 .6 O .0 O .0 1400* 001 1 county *X2 for this category was calculated by combining the quar- tiles into halves. For method and rationale see foot- note 4, page 61. However, at both the local and supra-county levels and for past years, there are significant differences between the upper quartile groups with a high average number of offices and lower quartile groups. These facts give evidence of the clustering of important offices even among top influentials, which supports hypothesis A-5: "the more 74 important positions are held by those holding more than one position, which tends to cluster the authority roles." INWARD AND OUTWARD ORIENTATION or LEADERSHIP Inward and outward orientation in formal leadership positions were considered in the pattern of organizational power relations because agencies outside of the social system focused on are nevertheless important elements within the system. Such supra-county agencies have an important bearing on the programs of county and local groups. This analysis was to discover whether participation in the supra-county leadership roles was related by a distinctive pattern of activity to the pattern of local and county leadership. It was assumed that outside affiliations were related to the introduction of outside policy and directives into the county social structure. Other writers have found a functional distinction be- tween inward and outward oriented leaders. For example, Merton in his study of Patterns of Influence discovered what he called "cosmopolitan" and "local" types of community leaders in a local community. The cosmopolitan leaders tended to hold positions and be interested in activities outside of the local community while the local type had relatively little interest in what occurred beyond the immediate locality area.8 Hunter, in his study of social 8R. K. Merton, op.cit., p.192. 75 power, found a similar pattern in a larger city.9 Although no direct comparison of inter-community leaders vs. local leaders is possible in this study, a less direct compari- son of orientation may be attempted to give some indication of the inward or local vs. outward or supra-county interest and orientation of the county level leaders. Opportunities for holding supra-county level offices are more limited than for either local or inter-community offices. The relevant hypothesis (A-4) is that those leaders hvaing the greatest number of local organizational positions will have the least number of offices in groups which include people of an area larger than the county. A comparison was accordingly made of those people in the sample with supra-county offices against those with none. Table 12 shows a significant difference between two groups in the average number of all offices held. Those office holders with one or more outside offices reported an over- all average of 12.5, while those with no outside offices reported an average of 7.5 offices. As to local offices, the same table shows that those with outside leadership roles did not hold fewer local offices (an average of 6.1 offices for those with outside offices to 4.5 for those with no outside office). 9Floyd Hunter, "Community Power Structure", University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, p.100. 76 TABLE 12 AVERAGE NUMBER OF LOCAL OFFICES AND OFFICES OF ALL LEVELS FOR THOSE IN THE SAMPLE POPULATION BY THOSE WITH AND THOSE WITHOUT SUPRA-COUNTY OFFICES Number of Supra-county Average No. Average No. Offices Local Offices All Offices One or more 6.1 12.5 None 4.5 7.5 Local offices t = 1.29, not sig., df=59, All offices t = 5.59, P less than .01, df = 59. For method see Croxton & Cowden, Op.cit., p.550. However, this difference was not great enough to be significant at the .05 level. It must be noted that the difference, although not significant, is in the reverse direction from that of the hypothesis. Hypothesis A-4 states: "in relation to formal positions of leadership, those leaders having the greatest number of local organiza- tional positions will have the least number of offices in groups which include people of an area larger than the county and the reverse will be true of those with outside positions." Since no significant differences in support of the hypothesis were found, it is considered as having been refuted. It was found, however, that there was sig- nificantly greater participation at all levels by those taking part in supra-county activities. Although the 77 leaders who have supra-county offices have a higher number of offices at all three levels of participation, which in- validates the hypothesis, a proportionate difference is worth noting. Table 15 shows the proportion of all offices held by those with and those without outside offices. Here it is seen that for leaders with outside positions, 48.4 per cent of all their offices were local. For those with- out supra-county offices the local offices make up 60.8 per cent of the total. TABLE 15 PER CENT OF ALL POSITIONS HELD THAT ARE LOCAL BY TIOSE WITH AND THOSE WITHOUT SUPRA-COUNTY POSITIONS FOR THE SAMPLE Number of Per cent t“ P df Supra- local county offices One or more 48.4 2.45 .05 582 None 60.8 *Quinn McNamar, Psychological Statistics, J. Wiley and Sons, N.'Y., 1949, Difference Between Independent Proportions,p.75. This finding tends to indicate that supra-county leaders give proportionately more attention to county level activities than to local ones. Similarly, there appeared to be some 78 tendency for greater emphasis on local activities by those without supra-county positions. These results appear to require further investigation in order to understand the importance of inward and outward orientation of activity in characterizing leaders. SUMMARY County rural leadership in general was legitimized by means of office-holding activity in the formal organizations. This was in strong contrast to the findings of Hunter's study in an urban setting. In addition, top influentials over time exhibited an even greater total number of formal organizational leader roles than the sample. Holding more than one office was characteristic of inter-community leaders, but the offices were not equally distributed among them. Some were far more active than others, which resulted in a considerable overlapping of offices on some individuals. Similar patterns of over- lapping for county, local, and supra-county level positions were shown to exist for both the sample and for the top influentials. Such overlapping of power roles among rela- tively few individuals in several organizations indicated an ~/ unequal distribution and interlocking of social power re- sources. The involvement of the same leaders in many offices and over a long period of time has tended to stabilize 79 leadership among the top influentials. In examining the important policy and decision-making offices that were reported by the sample and the tOp in- fluentials, an overlapping or clustering pattern of offices held by some individuals was again noted. In this way, the important offices were a part of an interlocking pattern between organizations. The important influentials had a more even distribution of county level offices among the group than did the sample leaders. No distinctive pattern of inward or outward orientation of leadership activity was found among the sample leaders. Those holding supra-county positions, however, showed greater participation in formal leader roles at each of the three levels, local, county wide, and supra-county than those who held no supra-county positions. In other words, leaders who held no supra-county positions did not hdfl more local offices than those with supra-county positions. This evidence was contrary to that postulated by the hypothesis. Supra-county offices holders, however, did have a higher proportion of all their offices at the county level than did those without supra-county positions. 80 CHAPTER IV PATTERNS OF INTERPERSONAL RESOURCES The introduction pointed out that the exploration of the patterns of personal dyadic relations between leaders at the intercommunity level was of primary interest to this work. It was noted that more specific data relating to the structure of relationships among rural leaders was felt necessary by those working in the field and that this area of personal interaction between the decision making leaders has not been adequately investigated. To help fill this gap, the present study includes an analysis of several elements contained in the networks that make up the structun of personal interaction of rural leaders in the intercommunity social system of a county. It is assumed that both the public and private informal relations of people affect their behavior. As Maria Rogers has said, "...there is infinitely more to social life than meets the eye and sociology will begin to make progress precisely to the degree that sociologists concern themselves with the internal structures of situations and project theories based on the results of such inquiries."1 Networks of interaction between leaders have already been shown 1Maria Rogers, ”The Human Group: A Critical Review with Suggestions For Some Alternate Hypotheses" , Sociometry Vol. XLV, 1951, p.25. 81 elsewhere to be important in affecting the behavior of those who control the organized means of initiating and legitimizing action in the community setting.2 Thus, if interpersonal relations exist between county level leaders, they will also be the means for influencing behavior. In this regard this study has documented the existing relation- ships and shows the patterns they form in the groups studied. The resources with which this study was concerned in- cluded a number of selected factors related to frequent and primary interaction. These factors are called "inter- personal resources" and are defined in chapter one." These resources are part of the social situation in which the leader finds himself at the point of making a decision. This is not, however, a discussion of the decisions made and the action taken, but one of what makes up the situa- tion in which decisions are made. For this reason, the analysis deals with the informal structure of interaction. Elements in the networks of informal relationships studied were specific and functional in the sense that they were real situations or events involving individuals as reported by the respondents and did not deal with such diffuse factors as prestige or respect. Resources Studied The interpersonal resources studied were a series of selected factors that were chosen in order to discover the 2See Chapter I, pp.7,11, 12for related references. 82 content of personal interaction between rural leaders. In some respects, this was putting the structure of leader relations under a microscope, and, like a microscope, the, field of vision was selective. Data on the resources was collected in two ways. First by asking each respondent to fill in a questionnaire per- taining to the ninety-one leaders listed as office holders in rural voluntary groups. This list was the same one from which the sample for this study was drawn. The question- naire asked the respondent for information on four factors. These were: (1) to indicate the degree of his acquaintance of the respondent with the ninety-one persons on a five- point acquaintance scale, (2) to check those persons he worked with in county activities, (5) to check those he talked things over with or got advice from on county activities, and (4) to check those he spent one or more hours per month with regularly in county activities. The last three items will be referred to in general as "access" factors.3 Second, each respondent was asked by the interviewer about the incidence of a series of specific relationships with those they named as important influentials, and included two general classifications of items as follows: 3cf., p95 of this chapter for an explanation of "access" as a concept. 85 (1) relations and activities connoting close ties and friendship, and (2) certain associational relations not necessarily connoting close ties or friendship. The specific items will be taken up when they are analyzed later in this chapter. The Important Influentials Before turning to the relationships themselves consider- ation should be given to how the key influentials were determined. For the purpose of discerning patterns of relationships among those considered important influentials, each person in the sample population was asked to indicate by name who he thought were the top ten most influential rural people of county-wide importance. This was done by asking the following question: "Overall in the county, who are the most important influential rural people: If you were to choose the top ten, who would you include? Rural people would include farm people and peOple in rural agencies or rural organizations whose work is with farm people in the county." The above question given to the forty-one persons in the sample, yielded a total of eighty names with a range of from one to thirty choices each. 40f the eighty names, forty-three received two or more choices, twenty-three received six or more. Those with six or more are considered here as the important or top influentials. The choices were largely men. Only one of the top twenty-eight was a woman, while eight of those with two or 84 more choices were women. Of the top twenty-three four were professional leaders in the sense that they were hired full time by various agencies or organizations for executive or technical positions. These included the county school superintendent, the agricultural extension agent, the dis- trict soil conservationist, and a county farm co-operative manager. In addition to these four, one person was in agricultural business but did only a small amount of farm- ing, and one more was a farmer working a large part of his time in a governmental agricultural agency. The rest of this group had no other occupation but farming. Both farm and non-farm people were also represented in the group having fewer than six choices, although those chosen were largely farm people. The few who were not were apparently perceived and identified as being rural people by the respondents. All were affiliated in some way with rural organizations, even though several of them were town or city residents. For purposes of validation, the top influentials chosen by the sample were checked against the choices made by the t0p influentials themselves. The choices of the sample agreed very closely with the list named by the top group itself. The group of top-rated influentials included only four people not named by the sample in the first twenty-one. However, the four left out were next in order of number of 85 choices by this group also. There was a high linear corre- lation (r = .85) between the lists of choices of the two groups. Three of the four names added to the top group by the important influentials themselves were women, and one of those not included by the top twenty-one was the soil conser- vationist who was in the professional category. These changes all occurred in the lowest part of the ranking. Minor shifts in order by number of choices occurred among the others. Levels of Influence The first consideration in analyzing patterns of re- sources was to discover the existance of a variety of inter - personal resources and the characteristic patterns they formed. Of particular interest was the way the resources related to interaction at different legels of influence. The different levels referred to are first, those named as important influentials, and second, the sample or other of- fice holders not listed among the t0p influentials. In addition it is imperative that the reader be alerted to the different populations discussed in this work. First, there are the ninety-one persons holding offices in the county's rural organizations. Second, a sample of forty-one was drawn from the larger group of ninety-one officers and the forty- one were interviewed. This group of forty-one is referred to as the sample population, the sample leaders, or simply 86 as the sample. Third, those persons named by the sample six or more times as most important influentials were interviewed and are referred to as the important influentials, top in- fluentials, or the twenty-one influentials. LEVEL OF ACQUAINTANCE As a means of gauging the extent of interaction among county leaders, a questionnaire was used which included four specific elements. The first and most general of these was a five-point scale for measuring the level of acquaintance. All persons interviewed were asked to place one of five letters, A through E, by each of the ninety-one names that appeared on the list of leaders. These were coded as follows: A - means you know him or her very intimately as you would know a member of your family. B - means you know him very well, you are good or close friends or you work with him a great deal in organizations and are friendly and well acquainted. C - means you know him to talk to him when you meet or see each other, but not on a visiting or personal basis. D - means you have met him but have no more than a speaking acquaintance. E - means he is unknown to you or a stranger. For the sample population, there was a total of 5,688 responses out of a possible 5,751. Forty-three were not marked. This small number of errors were randomly distributed 87 and were not considered as having affected the results. For the top twenty-one influentials there was a total of 1910 responses out of a possible 1911. Only one was not marked by the respondents. As shown in Table 14, the persons interviewed, although covering an entire county, were remarkably well acquainted. The sample leaders reported only twenty-eight per cent of the total number of responses in the E, or unacquainted, category. Seventy-one per cent were reported as having at least some degree of acquaintance. Fifty-one per cent of the total fell in the important B and C categories which are the main functional categories for interaction. In addition, five per cent were reported in the A category of very close acquaintance. TABLE 14 DEGREE OF ACQUAINTANCE OF THE RESPONDENTS WITH THE NINETY-ONE LEADERS 0F NINETEEN RURAL ORGANIZATIONS . Level of Acquaintance RespondentsA B C D E Hgsponse Total No._% No. % No. ~_% No.,% No.__% No.% No. % Sample Pop- ulation 205 5 780 21 1,122 50 54515 1056 28 45 1 5,751 100 Top Influ- entials 89 5 599 51 708 57 28915 226 12 1 0 1,911 100 x2 .5.- 218.28,P less than .Ol,df .= 4, x2 test based on marg- inal totals, A. L. Edwards, op.cit., p.246, X2 applied to two samples. 88 The top twenty-one influentials reported acquaintance with an even greater proportion of the office holders than did the sample population. The influentials reported only twelve per cent in the unacquainted category. Along with the reduction in the unacquainted category, there was a correspondingly large increase in the important B and C divisions. No change, however, occurred in A and D. The fact that the proportions in the category of closest acquaintance, were stable between the two groups tends to indicate that it is more important for influential rural leaders to have a large number of middle range acquaintances than for them to have an increasing number of very close relationships. Overall, the important influentials had.more extensive acquaintance patterns than did the sample of office-holding leaders. This result tended to substantiate hypothesis B-5, which states that "the degree of acquaintance with other leaders will be positively associated with the degree to which the leaders are recognized as being influential." In order to determine somewhat more precisely the rela- tive intensiveness of acquaintance, an "acquaintance scale" was developed by giving each category of acquaintance a numerical value. These values ranged from category A, which was given five points, to E, which received a score of one 89 point.4 A total cumulative acquaintance score for each respon- dent was derived by adding the total number of scale points the individual reported with each of the ninety-one leaders. For the sample leaders, the total acquaintance scores ranged from 144 to 544. The mean score was 258.7. The top influentials ranged from 217 to 343 with a mean score of 279.2. The difference of 40.5 points was significantly higher for the top influentials (t =.3,72, P less than .01, df = 60). These differences show that the top influentials generally reported being better acquainted with all of the leaders than did the sample group, again lending support to hypothesis B-5. Another approach for validating the above findings was made by dividing all those interviewed into two groups with no overlapping of persons between them. Of the forty-one persons drawn in the sample, twelve were named by the sample six or more times as most important influentials. Therefore, twelve individuals were in both the group of t0p influentials as well as the sample. In order to determine the way this overlapping effected the previous results and to show more 4This is a rough scale with limitations in its preci- sion. However, this study was not primarily aimed at developing extensive scaling instruments, and the technique used was found to meet the basic needs of this investigation. 90 clearly that differences might exist between top influentials and other leaders, some comparisons were made by separating out of the top influentials from the sample, leaving twenty- nine officer leaders to compare with the top twenty-one influentials. It was found that the mean total acquaintance score for the remaining twenty-nine officer leaders was 228.1 as compared to the t0p influentials' 279.2.5 A further check of functional acquaintance was made between the top influentials and the twenty-nine secondary leaders of the sample. This was done by computing an aver- age of the individual acquaintance scores between the indi- vidual respondents and.the other members of their own group. The secondary leaders reported an average individual g2: qgaintance £2232 with each other of 2.25. The top influen- tials reported a score of 5.80 with each other (t-l2.0, P less than .01, df = 46). In comparing the top influentials with the secondary leaders, the trends of higher acquain- tance scores continued to be positively associated with those named as important influentials. This pattern of ex- tensive acquaintance among influential leaders is partial evidence in support of the propoSition that interpersonal 5For purposes of clarity this group of twenty-nine officers that are a part of the original sample will be referred to as the "twenty-nine secondary leaders" or simply "secondary leaders." 91 resources of influentials will include a variety of factors which form patterns and networks of intimate personal and informal relationships. (Hyp. B-l.) Reciprocity of Acquaintance Resources Since the data on the degree of acquaintance was made on a five-point scale, it was possible to see to what ex- tent the respondents agreed about their level of acquaintance with each other and to compare the two groups, the top in- fluentials and the twenty-nine secondary leaders, on this basis.6 An examination of the patterns of reciprocal designations of degree of acquaintance was made in Tables 15 and 16. It should be made clear that the data in these tables are limited to the designations made between indi- viduals in and between two groups of respondents. By this means the variations in the degree of acquaintance can be shown. The proportionate differences that occur between respondents establish a means for verifying the differential reliability of their knowledge of degree of acquaintance by different influence groups. 6The data on relations between the respondents and the ninety-one leaders on the questionnaire does not in- clude two of the group of t0p influentials because these two were not named at the time of the study as office holders. Therefore, analysis of the recipro- cal relations on the four items in the questionnaire can deal with only nineteen top influentials. 92: As may be seen in Table 15, there was generally close agreement between the top influentials in rating each other on acquaintance. Only 2.4 per cent were two or more scale points apart on the acquaintance scale. But when the ratings of the top influentials were compared with those of the secondary leaders a substantially higher proportion of dis- agreement on the degree of acquaintance was revealed; 14.5 per cent were two or more scale points apart. When the secondary leaders were rated with each other, a relatively high proportion (15.7%) were also two or more scale points apart on the level of acquaintance. Thus, if it is assumed that two or more scale points is an indication of low reliability, it can be concluded that the larger majority of the designations were reliable, but that the evidence shows that the tOp influentials were considerably more accurate between themselves than were the secondary leaders. This finding is peripheral to hypothesis B-5, which relates degree of acquaintance to level of influence, but it indi- cates the greater accuracy and knowledge by the top influ- entials. The specific variations in the degrees of acquaintance by scale points for the data in Table 15 is shown in the more complete breakdown in Table 16. Whereas in Table 15 only the agreement or variation in agreement was shown, Table 16 shows where on the scale the agreement or disagreement 95 TABLE 15 DEGREES OF VARIATION IN DESIGNATING ACQUAINTANCE ON THE FIVE-POINT SCALE BETWEEN THE TOP INFLUENTIALS WITH EACH OTHER, BETWEEN TOP INFLUENTIALS AND SECONDARY LEADERS.AND THE SECONDARY LEADERS WITH EACH OTHER Degree of Difference Two or Respondents Mutual One More Total No. ,fi’ No. % No. %L No. ,% Top influentials .with each other 91 55.2 76 44.4 4 2.4 171 100 Between Top In- fluentials and secondary leaders 215 58.7 258 46.8 80 14.5 551 100 Secondary leaders ‘ with each other 229 56.5 122 50.0 56 15.7 407 100 x2 = 50.88, P. less than .01, df = 6, x2 was determined from marginal totals, A. L. Edwards, op.cit., p.245. occurs for each group. By this means one can see the dif- ference between groups on levels of acquaintance. The top influentials, first of all, definitely show high levels of acquaintance within their own group. In the mutual rating category none are reported as unacquainted and only one was given as acquainted at the D or "speaking only" level. Similarly high figures also appeared in the upper levels for one degree of variation category. Next, in the acquaintance pattern between top influen- tials and secondary leaders, the largest number were also found to be in the higher levels of acquaintance, but 94 substantial numbers are in the lower levels as well, which contrasts sharply with the pattern for top influentials. This contrast is even more marked between the secondary leaders themselves, where over half (157) of the mutual ratings were in the unacquainted category. Such evidence supports that previously shown in the results of the overall discussion of acquaintance scores; namely, that "the degree of acquaintance with other leaders will be positively associated with the degree to which the leaders are recog- nized as being influential" (Hyp. B-5). Although not directly relevant to the hypothesis dealt with here, it is of interest to note a consistent seren- dipital element that appeared in the non-mutual rating of acquaintance between the top influentials and the secondary leaders of the sample. There seemed to be a consistent tendency for secondary leaders to rate their level of ac- quaintance with top influentials higher than were the recip- rocal ratings by the top influentials themselves. The secon- dary leaders in the sample made 255 ratings that were higher than the reciprocal ratings which they received from the top influentials. On the other hand, the top influentials made only 85 ratings of secondary leaders that were higher than those they received from the secondary leaders. Only 25 per cent of the total of the high ratings were made by the top influentials, whereas 75 per cent were made by the 95 secondary leaders. Putting it in another way, there was an' average of 8.7 higher ratings made by each of the twenty-nine secondary leaders and only 4.5 for each top influential:7 This difference attests to a tendency on the part of the secondary leaders to identify upward; in other words, to overrate their acquaintance, with the t0p influentials. Access Factors In Interaction In order for one person to be able to influence the be- havior of another, there must be some means of contact be- tween the two. Participation in activities affords a direct means for primary contacts. Miller describes such Oppor- tunities for contact as "access" and defines the term as meaning that "the participant has opportunities to be a part of, or be able to contact, important individuals and groups... ."8 Although leaders have contacts of this type at all levels, this study is focused upon three access elements that the respondents reported between themselves and the list of ninety-one officers of organizations in only county wide organizations. After each name on the list the respondents were asked to check each of three items that applied to them. 1. Those that they worked with in county activities. 7For the significance of difference between these aver- ages t = 5.54, P less than .01, df = 46. 8P. A. tiller, Op.cit., p.16. 96 how mm an r m ma mmd bv NN on 5H mmw boa ma aw mm m whopmod hhdpsooom noospom Hmm ow mm ma mm Hm mom ow mm and mm mam on ma mm #5 m myopwoa hampnooom paw mamapamSHmnH no» nomapom HbH w o o H n or o n ow wm am 0 H mm mm m mawapaosamaa mop Gmospom Hep m- on Hap Hap now muo m-< m-< Qua toe mum ouo cum m-< .09 m o o m « proa coflpwwpw> mocmwoa soapwamm> mpsopnogmom pawnw oaoz 90 039 ooAMcQ one mmnapwm HwSpsE no moghe mchom onom hp monopommam ho moonmom mmmeo modm mBHB mmmmmq @O mflfiom 92Homlm>Hh 4 20 mBzmQZOmmmm zmngmm ZOHBde¢> mo mmmmwma 02¢ mwzHE and efficiently. 220 In the patterns of choices for channels of influence, the Extension Agent was chosen for the extension service by almost all of the respondents, even by some that could not recall his name. He is associated.with that office and there seemed to be a general feeling of freedom to approach him directly. He received very few choices, however, for the Rural Council. As for the Farm Bureau Federation, the Co-op Manager received a substantial number but not a majority. In the identification of key leaders, the Co-Op Manager was the only professional that was chosen frequently and then more in relation to the Farm Bureau Federation than to the Co-Op Board. However, he was seen as being more im- portant in these groups by the top influentials than by the sample. PARTICIPAWT.H OBSjRVATION From the position of a participant observer some addi- tional light may be thrown on the statistical results. The professional leaders appeared to be generally aware of the importance of involving key peOple in decisions that were made in the county. As professionals they often made use of influentials in legitimizing their programs and in fact based their programs 0n involving important leaders. Likewise some of the leaders recognized the importance of the pro- fessionals, however, the author observed that the reapondents 221 tended to underestimate the importance of the professional leader's role in the community action context. Much of the initiation or stimulation of ideas and opinions was in- stigated in one way or another by the professional in his key roles as consultant and ex-officio officer in the various rural groups. These roles gave the professional the widest possible access Opportunities. The case studies I, II and III in Appendix A, for example, bring out the ex- tent and the depth of the county agents relations with the Rural Council group. Strong leaders, such as no. 4 in the group of tOp influentials who was president of the Rural Council, may be independent from the professional, as shown in case study III. The agent is none the less about equally as influential in initiating action in that group as no. 4. The case studies also show the strength Of the manager in both the Farm Bureau and the Co-op Board. I A further observation may be made in relation to differ- ing tendencies between professional and lay leaders in their method of Operation. Lay leaders tended to use meetings to arrive at decisions while professional leaders Operated much more informally and tended to use the formal meeting as a place to legitimize decisions, rather than as a forum. An illustration of this type of behavior occurs in case study IV in relation to a joint meeting of the Co-op Board and the FARM Bureau Federation. 222 It was the Opinion of the author that the respondents did not rank the Co-op Board as highly as might have been done among the important action groups. Case study number IV is a good illustration of the impact of that group on another organization. Because of the large number of in- fluentials among its members, its status as a financial in- stitution and its Official relationships to the Farm Bureau Federation Board it was a group Of great importance in the power process. The lack Of recognition of the professionals and the place of the Co-Op Board may be because of a tendency for (,ww_"' people to recognize front line social power but not that of V/flr,~,- the somewhat less Obvious functions of those not in the fore- front. This is illustrated in casesatudy II in particular where the county agent set the stage beforehand.with the president of the Rural Council to accomplish certain ob- jectives. The number of inefficient choices of top iifluen- tials, channels of influence-and key legitimizers gives some indication of the lack of consciousness of rural people toward social power in human behaviour. Some persons rejected influence on moral grounds, but did not deny its efficacy as a force inphuman relations. One further Observation should be made about the decision making power structure dealt with in the county. 223 The people interviewed were involved in the voluntary leader- ship type of organizations. These activities appeared to be motivated largely by moral values of service and some sense of informal obligation to others. In addition these values were expressed over and over by the respondents. ...... .. afl-‘rn-A-u They were the "organized" people, that is, people belonging to farm organizations. This also had a general meaning of "Farm Bureau" identification in this county even Lthough the groups were largely not Farm Bureau sponsored. In re- Sponse to questions about influential power the respondents identified farmers in farm organizations. The Differentiation of Rural and Political Power In naming important rural influentials it was found that a general differentiation existed between political and rural leadership. Almost none of the farm leaders interviewed reported activity in the political field. Farmers that were politicians either as office holders or party workers, were not active participators in any of the rural organizations. In addition political leaders were not named as important influentials. It became apparent to the observer that the one political organization of any consequence was the Republican party and its leadership con- sisted almost entirely Of a small group of non farm people. Two of the top twenty-one influentials had at one time been candidates for the office of county commissioner. One 224 of these (no. 4) ran as a Republican and the other (no. 11) as a Democrat. The first was not approved by the party central committee and was defeated in the primary even though he was a very well known and influential rural leader. The second allowed his name to be used on the Democratic ticket but did no campaigning. He said in most cases he had voted as a Republican, but felt there ought to be Opposition on the ballot. Number 10, of the top in- fluentials, an Older man, had formerly been a Democratic county commissioner during the depression period. Also a few of the respondents held elective positions on local school boards but were not active in partisan politics. Two had represented their townships on the county Republican committee, but again were not among the central decision making committee. Without exception politics was declared as distasteful and bad by the reapondents and they wanted to stay away from it. With this attitude it appeared to the observer that there was little chance for the farm people to become a part of the very important decision making apparatus which the political arena affords. Two instances show the importance of political decisions to the rural people. In getting a hospital no help could be obtained from the political officers of the county, they even predicted defeat of the 225 hospital bond issue that passed with an 86 per cent majority. The problem of overcoming the apathy and tacit Opposition of the political leaders required hurculean efforts on the part of the Rural Council which was the group that carried the brunt of the educational load on this project. A further indication of the separation was seen when the county hospital board was named, no one from the Rural Council was appointed to it. Hospital boards are named by the governor of the state on the recommendation of local political leaders. The only farmer named was not a member of the rural organized groups. A second instance was in the defeat of a proposal for a rural youth center on the county fair grounds. - is measure received about 40 per cent of the votes and was defeated largely because the political machinery simply re- fused to endorse it. They announced no party position either for or against it. Without political ties there was a wide gap in the effectiveness of the decision making power of rural people in the county. With the exception of the lack of emphasis on the role of the professional the observer role lead to impressions that coincided with those of the respondents and corroborate the findings of the interviews. The participant Observer role was a very useful tool in the investigation because it gave the researcher important insight into the patterns of 226 behavior in the rural community that were necessary to guide later research as well as legitimized his position in relation to the respondents who were then willing to dis- cuss intimate details with him. SOME HETHODOLOGICAL IKPLICATIOHS As a method for practical leaders the one used in this study is far too detailed and complicated. However, some aspects of it could be adopted and taught to those persons making professional leadership their career. In particular this would include the skills related to observing social phenomena and analyzing it in a non-statistical way. A "short cut" technique for quick analysis would have to rest on a base of sufficient training or insight to know what elements to look for. For use in technical research the methods used have been proven to be useful so long as respondents are OOOpera- tive. It requires good rapport, for long probing interviews to be successful. In addition the time required cuts down on the extensiveness of the research. moreover, personal interviews are likely the only successful way to Obtain data of this nature. SUGGESTICR FOR FURTHER STUDY A more intensive investigation of the meaning of inter- action is suggested by the partial rejection of the hypo- thesis that the interaction rate of important influentials 227 is greater than that of other leaders. A further probe of access factors and their function is also suggested by this result. An intensive study of the meaning of interpersonal re- sources in the action context would be useful future investi- gation. This would be applicable as a methodological and theoretical approach to investigate the socialogical aspects of decision making not only at the community level but in other situations such as decisions in the farm enterprise, in the family and the h me. A related problem might include the study of the legitimizing process as it is related to cultural change such as in getting acceptance for the spread of farm practices. Again, a study of what might occur in the pattern of decision making and interpersonal resources if anemic conditions become prevelant such as in the case of rapid urbanization or rapid social upheaval. Additional work should be done in delineating other elements of informal influence that are related to the per- sonal needs and gratifications of leaders which may be noti- vating factors in leadership behavior. In the charts of this work the non-mutual nominations represented by broken lines indicated that many people were nominated but did not reciprocate. The non-reciprocated nominations may be unknown resources or resources which the 228 influential does not know exist. The implications of unknown resources raises some questions of interest to the investigation of influence such as are there characteristic patterns related to unknown resources. Still another suggestion raised by the study is related to the imagery of influence held by the respondents. What does it consist of and why does such imagery legitimize the influential with the "right" to act. A useful tool might be developed for scaling inter- personal resources which could be used in future work of this nature. A study of broad significance in the investigation of leadership is suggested by the question of why volunteer -Ieaders participate in the myriad of activities that keep this society functioning? This question is being asked not only by those interested in leadership training in this society, but also by persons from other cultures who are trying to bring about basic social and technological change and need the assistance of local people to assume responsible roles. Another significant study suggested by this work is the inverse of the study of top influentials and includes an investigation of the process of how lower echelons of the power structure bring about change in the status-quo and policy made by the top. This is not necessarily the "grass 229 roots" approach but is in an area cf study involving an intermediate level or those that are in between the top levels of the authority heirachy and the bottom. Such people are close to the situational needs and yet find themselves unable to instigate action. Still another field of investigation involves the structure and process of the "pOpular movement" type of action that begins (and may even remain) outside of the ordinary decision making power structure and, in a sense, overwhelms those that control the power forcing revision or adeption of policy and action. Such change may occur more economically and with less disruptive conflict if more were known about its principles. Investigation into the problem of how decisions of different_kinds are implemented in a real situation is V. needed. This may involve patterns of influence that may differ between decision making and decision execution within a social system. Some limitations must be mentioned in regard to the study. First its exploratory nature and confinement to one county made it impossible to make extensive inferences to rural social systems in general. Second was the fact men- tioned above that the scepe of the study limited it to be- havior related to county level organizations and to the kind of people that participate in them. A word of caution might 230 be added here, however, that naming of the top influentials was not restricted in this way. The influentials were only limited to rural people. Finally, work beyond this should include a broader sampling method to include other areas of the population and the structures related to them. These might include the political system, educational system, unorganized farm people and related urban components. A The methodology of statistical tests were greatly hampered by the size of the sample when itvvas desirable to explore further breakdowns, as for example in the study of the resource and access items. However, the total structure of these items cannot be determined without a complete enumeration of a specified group. This would re- quire many interviews of an intensive nature. A PPEI‘IDI CES 252 APPEI‘EDIX A CASE STUDIES or SOCIAL P0WER* In order to understand the way in which the influen- tials can affect the decisions of organizations and indi- viduals some case studies are included. These studies are shown in the form of field notes taken on the spot or immediately after the interviews and include the main parts of the discussion or conversation. They are both narrative accounts of incidents and direct statements. Wherever possible quotations or near quotations are used. Included also are short notes or observations relating to the situa- tion.‘ These cases reveal the impact of the influential upon an action situation. They were not taken as evidence for a specific question but as a record of the power pro- cess in relation to rural groups in the county. CASE I A CASE STUDY OF THE FUECTION OF IUDIRPCT INFLUENCE BY A PROFESSIORAL LEADER‘WITH A RURAL ORG HIZATION The first case study is one showing the direct influen- tial role of a professional leader, the county agent, in relation to an organization, the Rural Council. It explains his function in relation to the executive committee which *All names used are fictitious, all other aspects are authentic. 253 although direct is also indirect in that he does not take a leading part in the organization as a whole. He works with its affairs in helping them with the preparation of the organization program. I, the interviewer, asked Mr. Porter, the county agent, the following question: "Where do you fit in the official organization of the Rural Council?" I He did not answer directly, eXplaining his idea was that part of his job was training leaders and he believed this was the way to do it. He felt the best way to train leaders was in the actual Operation of a problem. Porter added that these kinds of groups will not go just by them- selves, so he feels it is his place to help steer them along. He says he presents ideas and lets them choose what they want to do. Then he "sort of is there all the time to help keep things rolling".- He has no official job because he feels that other agricultural agencies might feel extension was running the Show, so he keeps off all those things. The agricultural agencies get along well and cooperate, so he wants to be sure that this continues to be so. Mr. Porter's extension office handles all of the de- tails of notifying people about meetings, keeping records, etc., for the Rural Council. Mr. Porter attends all of the meetings of the execu- tive board even though not an officer, and takes an active 234 part in assisting the president and advising as is shown by the fact that for the first meeting of the newly elected officers, Hr. Porter was there and presented to the group a mimeographed sheet with several items which made up the guide for discussion. This sheet had several questions, for ex- ample, the first listed several factors and then asked,"Which long-time trend means most to us?” Then those present were asked to rate the trends by numbers as to which was first, second, etc., through to seven. Mr. Porter said he made up this device to assist those present to think through for themselves what the problems are and Which were most important. He said he merely chose the problems from any he thought of. This first meeting was only for the officers and exec- utive board.of the Rural Council. At that meeting they decided what problems were important for the Rural Council committees to work on for the year and whom they would ask to be chairmen of these tOpic committees. Note: The role of the county agent as described here by the agent is like that of a paid executive secretary. The agent feels this is a justifiable use of his time because it also is accomplishing other things that are part of his job, namely adult education and leadership training for improved agriculture and rural living. CASE II A CASE STUDY OF THE INDIRECT ROLE OF A PROFESSIONAL LEADER IN RELATION TO PREPARING FOR A GROUP KEETIN Case II deals with the role of the county agent in working indirectly with an organization in two ways. First, he was checking to see if the new president had an under- standing of the purposes and function as well as the prob- lems of the organization. Second, the agent explained his role in relation to the choice of the new officers. In both instances the impact of the county agent in the infor- mal influential role are important. He maintains good inter- personal resources with these leaders and therefore has the freedom of initiating through them or receiving from them. He was well acquainted with the new chairman, Mr. Nelson, and worked with him on many things. Question: {ow do you Operate with Mr. Nelson (the new president of the Rural Council) before Rural Council (3.0.) meetings? Answer: {e is new and I talked with him and gave him a copy of the programs for the meetings of the previous two years to be sure if there was any carry over of meetings for this year. I raised the question to him as to what the themes should be this year. I didn't sug- gest any topics. The suggestions I made my- self were made at the officers meeting. We Question: Answer: Question: Answer: 256 did talk in general terms of county prob- lems; some that should not be included and we pinned a few things down. Also, I visited with him a little to see if he really understood the objectives of the R. C. 'Did you brief him on those objectives? Yes, in general. ' How are you working with him now about get- ting programs started? Mr. Nelson was in this morning. He asked if we should read the minutes of last years' meeting or a summary of all meetings last year. He asked how he should handle the business meeting, also, how many committees have met so far and are the programs getting started. Mr. Nelson came out with two things that I had hoped he would and have been work- ing around indirectly to get him to do. That is, he recommended.we have the leaders of these committees in to some leader training meetings, this would be under extension, not Rural Council, and invite others in also. Second, was to indoctrinate the group as to what the objectives are at these meetings. Another point he discussed was how to get the organizations in the county to get Question: Answer: Question: Answer: 257 representatives named as well as checking on how these groups are coming through with con- tributions for the expenses of Rural Council. How were the candidates for president chosen in the last election and how did you work in that phase? Mr. Ackerman (the past president) came to me and asked about naming the nominating com- mittee to get a committee to name the right kind of men. We decided on the names for the committee. Isaac Ackerman called the committee together and then asked me to help him explain the purpose of the committee and then the committee called a meeting of their own. I had a conflicting appointment but they went ahead and made the nominations of Lloyd “elson and Tyler Thompson. The committee was instructed very carefully I thought, about the kind of men wanted. This is usually done a couple of months ahead of the election. How were the candidates brought into the picture? They were nominated, then each one was con- tacted by the committee to see if they would let their names be used. Lloyd Nelson did not give permission until about a week before 258 the election. There was some concern. Tyler Thompson is pretty capable but lacks some initiative, however, both are strong men. The choice was between two strong men. The nominating committee had some re- fusals for other places on the executive committee. After deciding not to use Isaac Ackerman (who had served three years) again, they considered Roger Clark. He said he didn't want to be considered at the present time, however. CASE III A CASE STUDY OF THE DIRECT ROLE OF A PROFESSIONAL LEADER AND A LAY LEADER IN THE ACTION CONTEXT OF.A MEETIN The third case is that of a meeting of the executive board of the Rural Council where several of the tOp influen- tials were present. The purposes of the meeting were both announced and unannounced; on the one hand it was intended by the chairman to organize the working committees for the monthly programs of the year of the County Rural Council. On the other hand it was intended by the county agent to carry out some training of the officers in the purposes of the organization and attempt to get this group to consider some of the ways it might be more affective in stimulating a carry over from the fact finding role to getting action. 239 The impact of the roles of two influential persons, the county agent and the chairman of the Rural Council are illustrated. Other influentials are also involved, and are identified by their numbers among the twenty-one top influen- tials. This was a summer meeting of the executive board of the Rural Council and the tOpic committee chairmen of the coming year. It was the second meeting of the new officers and board, the purpose being to organize the working com- mittees for each monthly meeting of the coming year. Lloyd Nelson, a very competent, well educated farmer was president and in charge. 1 Before the meeting the agricultural agent, Mr. Porter, passed out agenda sheets to the first two comers and started a discussion from the beginning by raising a question about the second point saying he thought they would have to face it tonight. The point being -- is Rural Council depending too much on organizations such as local Granges and Farm Bureau Councils to secure community planning? The meeting started very informally with no call to order by the chairman, but just a continuation of the dis- cussion started as they arrived by the county agent. The county agent brought up question two on the sheet he had passed around. He was concerned that the Rural Council be more effective in getting groups in the county to take action on the cussed. Chairman, Mr. 4* :11" . A . - Chairman - County Agent - Chairman - County Agent - 240 problems the project committee dis- What do you folks think? There is not a good understanding of the Rural Council in our group (Grange). Put a question to Harold Porter, the county agent, about the objectives of the Rural Council. answered saying membership in the Rural Council was made up mostly of officers of the rural organizations in the county. Isn't that the way it should be? Not entirely. The idea has slightly changed. The thinking originally was that there should also be people elected or named representing each organization, then it got to be just the officers from these local groups that were on the mailing list because they failed to name representatives. This makes the leadership very narrow ”Numbers represent the individuals number as a top in- fluential. Letters represent other leaders not in the top twenty-one. These notes were made during the par- ticipant observer and exploratory stage of the study which preceded the interviews. The county agent con- cerned here had been in the county for four years. Mr. 2 (past president) Chairman - MI“ 0 2 Chairman - County Agent - MP . 5 Mr. 2 Mr. A 241 and we are not getting new blood in. We used to put different people on the monthly topic committees; over the years this has scattered the leadership pretty good. In the past there was no limit to who could come to meetings even if they were not on the mailing list. If you have definite people to mail to who are named by their groups you get different peOple and not the same crowd that would come out to everything. By naming many on committees we can get a cross section. If the local groups we have aren't doing the job of getting action on these prob- lems we must face it and get those that will. If we are not careful and get local people to take part it will be like the word being made in washington, centralized. The job of the R. C. is to get the facts and then get local groups, Grange, Farm Bureau, etc., to work. Too many who come to R. C. meetings don't take the message back. People back there 242 aren't interested in asking them about it. Mrs. B - Our local Farm Bureau Advisory Council is active. Someone needs to take the information back to them. Mr. 5 The R. C.'s purpose is to set policy, not action. It is supposed to study a problem and get the facts. Chairman - Let's get on with the program for this year. Note: At this point Mr. Nelson actually assumed the role of chairman. Discussion note This part of the meeting had been an effort by the county agent to get the new officers of the organization to examine itself and the effectiveness of its program. He had started it by handing out mimeographed copies of some points to be considered as the peOple arrived. The agents concern was with the fact that little action had taken place on community problems that the Rural Council had been dis- cussing and the reason seemed to lie in the fact that the- county representatives were not taking the information back to the local people in their local organizations anddevelop- ing understanding and interest in the problems. In his attempt to interest the executive committee to act, however, the agent failed. Those present fell back upon 243 the past methods and principles of the organization which included fact finding, policy making (or in reality policy suggesting), through involving representatives of local and county groups. Direct action had been taken in the past by the expedient of naming a committee to follow up and on its own become an action group outside of the Rural Council. This was not brought in here however, and no other sugges- tions for stimulating action were made. County_Agent says - In November the main part of the program is on international programs, F.A.O., point four and exchange students. Chairman went on through the program naming subjects Mr. I Chairman - chosen for discussion and did not enlarge on the November topic. C chairman of the school committee, said he wanted the Executive Board to name his com- mittee, he didn't know the names of peeple in other parts of the county. The subject should center around consol- idation of schools, that's the important point. Mr. 2 - suggested Mrs. T. I. for the committee. She Chairman - is a sister-in-law of the school super- intendent. She lived on Greene Road. We will have to include the superin- tendent. Sabina and Blanchester could be Mrs. B - Chairman - County Agent - 244 gnored. When you mentioned school consolidation you hit a bomb. Ulysses Evans would make a good one. Now, who from Midland? suggested Mrs. Bob Hansey. Chairman - said the thinking of the committee should County Agent - Kr. C. Mr. 2 County Agent - Mr. C Chairman - County Agent - be diversified. (to all chairmen) - We are trying to present both sides of the picture. We don't have to defend everything. It should be fact finding. People should open up, not jump on everyone and defend their own position. I don't think the superintendent should be on the committee. Agreed. Suggested using him for a re- source person. Thought he would work all right on the committee. Thought he would also. Thought strongly he shouldn't be on the committee, but should be used as a re- source person on the program. With the school problem a hot issue he felt it might be better to leave the program 245 arrangements to the people and not the officials. Mr. 2 - Agreed. Mr. C(topic chairman) agreed, then the idea carried. Rural Church Topic Chairman - Did R. C. do a survey on the Rural Church? REP. 2 - Yes 0 Mrs. D said - Yes, the R. C. did. Mr. 2 said - They made the survey by judges, not by asking personally about attendance and activity. They went down the roadd past each house and asked what the judge thought of the occupant as church people. County Agent suggested J. C. for the committee. Eg;_§ suggested N. W. and S. D. Several active churches were named. §£;_§ suggested someone of the Catholics should be on the committee. County Agent suggested someone from the Friends Church because they were carrying on a good program for the people. Mrs. D - The Catholics didn't help on the survey. Note: A group was decided upon from the names listed with little disagreement except for the mention of the activity of the Catholic Group. 246 qunty'Agent said for December program, the F.H.A. wanted to furnish a program. What did the group think? (The county agent had been asked to make the suggestion and had to bring it up although he apparently had no strong feelings for it. Yet it seemed to be an Opportunity for a little known agency to put its case before the group. Chairman said Let the topic chairman decide. She is not here so now move on to the January meeting. In January it is Rural-Urban relations. We will invite our city friends to that night.. To my mind this should be a discussion of how is indus- trial expansion going to effect the kind of farming due to labor change, method,etc. County Agent suggested several businessmen for the committee. Chairman said -We don't want too many of them. County Agent said -‘We need them to get the businessmen out. Someone named C.H. - He is doing a bang up job on those farmerd down around him. Mr. 5 - The two K boys, Dave and Jim would be good. fir. 2 - Dave is very busy and Jim is not well. 247 r? . 5 - The boys were born in one of those >74 5" shanties down there. Chairman - Who in the county knows trends in farm- ing; knows about new things? P. W. would be good. I Note: City fellows with farms were mentioned but not accepted. The committee was named with all of them being farmers but one, who had both a business and a farm. Chairman - The February topic is the Family Farm Policy. Mr. 5 - I'm not soure what the job is. County Agent said - There have been some changes on the topic idea since the last meeting. County Agent - The third point on the agenda here is the 64 dollar question; that is that members ofthe group should do this. The Chairman didn't think so - It's who gets the facts and presents them that is the 64 dollar question. Note: Disagreement on this point indicated that the agenda sheet was not the work of the chairman. Also this topic was one involving farm organization policy versus anti organiza- tion policy. Mr. 5 - It's good to have someone who is not a member of anything on this committee also. HP 0 2 County Agent Chairman said Ml“ . 5 County Agent Someone - 248 suggested N. B. agreed with No. 5's idea that those not in farm organizations should be in on it. About one-half the farmers are in agricultural organizations and one-half not. Only about one-third in his township were in agricultural organizations. A lot give their business to the Co-Op, but do not belong. suggested P. L. F.A. is independent or non-organizational. (comments - good guy, poor manager, speaks out) Note: i'lr . 5 - Chairman - Someone - CountygAgent Mr. 5 - We need someone red hot on organizations. P. L. will fit there. P. L. is not high in the Farm Bureau. suggested N. F. or A. N. for the P.M.A. suggested G. V. for the Co-Op. This committee is solid Farm Bureau. County Agent — You need a P.H.A. man on it also. Names were chosen from those mentioned with two "non organizational" peOple on it. There were cleavages shown in the discussion including pro Farm Bureau or farm organiza- tions versus anti farm organization, and pro government, i.e. P.M.A., versus anti government sentiment. This group is 249 strongly pro farm organization, but sought to have the "other side" represented. March - Helping Children Chairman said to County Agent - This is your program. Earl Newton, (Extension Council Chairman who was named chairman of this program) isn't here. County Agent said he wanted two young people on it and suggested Mrs. w. D. and Rev. H.E. (This committee was left for final decision to the chairman who was not present). gpril - Community_Planning Mrs. D. tOpic chairman, wanted Mrs. R. J. and D. Y., wife of Rev. R. Y. County Agent suggested also Rev. H. E. who was on the White House Conference committee for children and youth. Chairman said Put H. E. on one and not the other. County Agent said - What do you think, Isaac? Where would Rev. 5.13. be best? ‘ §§;_g - He hasn't too much experience in either; he's got some ideas but not tried. H. E. is a city man and not transplanted. County Agent - Chairman - MI“ 8 5 '- Chairman - County Agent - Mr. 2 - Chairman 17:1“. 5 " Chairman 250 This committee should cover several several fields. Harold (county agent) I don't think this should go too wide. Keep it on the church and school. Let this be the windup of the biggest problems of the year which for this year will be church and school. Some of the problems here are, what is the community going to be like with better transportation. Is the local community just going to disintegrate. I think people that are friends want to worship together. (he was arguing for keeping the local rural churches.) Would the college help? No, but P.K., one of the top church people in the county doesn't work on any committee. What these communities need worst of all is leadership. suggested A. I. and Mrs. M. T. Challenged the idea that community plan- ning should just be school and church. argued that he thought the firsttwo 251 programs would be so important that this last group would want to "rehash" it. He carried his point with the group. County_Agegt - Perhaps the biggest problem is how do you do community planning. Here the County Agent in effect took over the preroga- tive of the chair and moved back to the November meeting. The chairman of the November meeting was not present so the county agent began pushing it and chairing the discussion. Chairman came back into the discussion and sug- gested S. M. for the committee; others named were Ho. 6, Hrs. N. U. and Mrs. 2. Mrs. B suggested for the Christmas meeting an all womens program put on by a womens committee. The group agreed. County Agent commented that the F.H.A. manager didn't have the Special speaker he suggested in mind until after the county agent had told him that the R. C. didn't have any special group to give the program. Note: The county agent again presented the three ideas on the agenda sheet he had distributed before the meeting. To him this was a phase of leader training. He used these points to clarify what the group should think, he kept re- turning and clarifying these points throughout the meeting 252 when the group agreed on something that he did not feel fitted the purpose of the organization. He especially emphasized number 3 on securing and use of a guest speaker. Those present sometimes said yes and sometimes no to this idea for the different committees. The county agent kept pushing the point until all agreed on pg, because he felt the committee would rely on the Speaker and not really dig into the facts of the problems in the county. Discussion Note When someone didn't want a person that had been sug- V‘r" gested on a committee, they evaded him by commenting about him and then adding "but" someone else would probably do as good or better, etc. This was particularly true of numbers 2, 4, 5, and the county agent. Women's names came up several times during the evening but usually not alone. They would usually come up in connec- tion with the husband, either because they wanted him on a committee but felt he was too busy or because they wanted someone near to him. In one case a sister of the school superintendent was brought up and named to a committee. One or two women seemed to rank as choices for committee membership but this was only by the women chairmen. The direct impact of important influentials can be seen in this running account of a meeting of the Rural 255 Council, one of the important organizations in the county. In particular, the county agent, a professional leader, is shown with another important influential lay leader (no. 4) who is the chairman of the organization. In some cases the suggestions and aims of both are accepted in others they are not. The county agent with his perception of the group as a media for adult education very often behaves as though he were a teacher and the others pupils. rI‘hey accept this at times but do not at others. However, he persists without any violent rejection of his role. CASE IV 1 A CASE STUDY OF AUTHORITY AH‘ THE USE OF DIRECT AS WELL AS INDIRECT I}? LUEIICE BY AN, INDIVILUAL AND ROUP bwat The fourth case shows the function of the role of a professional leader, and an organization in the power pro- cess. This includes the CO-Op manager, who is secretary of the Co-op Board, and who therefore at that time had a quasi official relationship to the Farm Bureau Federation Board, as well as the Co-op Board. The manager has the authority of an employer as well as being an employee of the Board. Included in this case is the action of the manager and the board in relation to two meetings of the Co-op Board. Contingent data to the action of these meetings is also 254 given including both before and after. The case shows action on three major items, first, the use of authority to obtain the resignation of the Farm Bureau Executive Secretary. The second is the use of influence and authority to obtain greater separation of powers for the co-operative from the Farm Bureau. This latter action was being done on the basis of a resolution passed at the previous meeting of the Co-Op Board, and which had been presented to the Farm Bureau Board for their consideration. The key role of the manager is shown in the action taken. A third very pointed example of influence is shown in this case study, it includes the influence of the profes- sional leader and then the Co-op Board, in turn, on the Farm Bureau Board. It appeared in relation to the strategy used for counteracting the effect of the Mobilization Committee report on the Family Farm Policy Review. This also illus- trates vividly the behavior and rationale of the organized groups involved. Action of the Co-op Board The vice-chairman was in charge of the meeting in the absence of the chairman of the board; however, the manager led the discussion. The minutes were read by the manager who acted as secretary. The chairman asked if there were any questions about the minutes. There was no response so he said then they would go on to other business. But the 255 manager said he wanted to discuss the resolution that had been read which had been made during the last meeting. The resolution was about the functional separation of the Co-op from the Farm Bureau Board of the county. Note: Under the present arrangement, instituted recently, the CO-Op manager was put in charge of the promotion work for the Farm Bureau Federation of the county and the Co-op payed the expenses and costs of personnel, offices, etc. of the F.B. Also in this change Kr. Roberts the former executive secretary of the Farm Bureau was made an employee under the direction of Kr. Ogden, the Co-op manager. He was to continue working for the Farm Bureau and the Co-op and to be paid by the Co-op/ The manager, Mr. Ogden, reported that the resolution of the Co-op Board made at the previous monthly meeting in July was read in the last Farm Bureau Board meeting and discussed. Kr. Ogden was present and the discussion got "plenty rough" for a while he said, but after much explana- tion they seemed to see the point. Especially the younger members; older members were those who did not desire a change. The resolution included relieving the Co-op manager of any responsibility for promotional work or responsibility in the Farm Bureau Federation and the paying of two dollars per member by the Co-op to the Farm Bureau for expenses of the Farm Bureau (this would virtually isolate the two organizations.) The manager eXplained that Mr. Roberts told 256 the Farm Bureau Board that the Co-Op had been contributing about 6,500 dollars to the Farm Bureau and this would go down below 4,000 dollars with the new proposition. The manager said that this was not quite so because Mr. Roberts whose salary came out of that amount was being paid to do the publicity for the Co-Op as well as to promote the Farm Bureau membership and that Mr. Roberts' secretary also was doing work for the Co-Op. (This arrangement, however, had only been in Operation for a few months) The manager brought out that he didn't think the CO-Op was getting value received for the cost of this set up. (This obviously meant the work of Mr. Roberts.) Since the meeting with the Farm Bureau Board the manager explained that Mr. Roberts had quit and taken another job. The manager continued saying that Mr. Roberts had come to see him one night after that meeting and told him that he had another offer and asked what he thought he should do about it. Mr. Ogden, the manager, said he told him he thought he ought to take the job because he thought the Farm Bureau would be out of funds before the end of the year anyway; Mr. Roberts took the job. The Co-op Board then discussed the resolution and finally left it with the idea that more would develop from it. But much depended on what happened to the proposed in- crease in Farm Bureau membership dues Which would be voted 257 on at the state convention. The vote of the state convention was to be on an increase of state dues per member from $2.50 to $4.00. This would almost automatically require an in- crease of county dues from the present $5.00 to $10.00. The sentiment was that this should be passed and if it was passed that the Farm Bureau could carry on its own program without so much help from the Co-Op. It was also suggested that there would be a cut in the membership of the Farm Bureau but that they perhaps would be stronger members. InfluencingiPublic Policy The third factor discussed at this meeting concerned action about how to affect a change in the farm policy re- port which was to be turned in to the U. S. Department of Agriculture by the County Mobilization Committee. As background for this part of the case study an explanation must be made concerning the function of the Mobilization Committee prior to this time. The Mobilization Committee was a committee made up of all federal farm agencies in the county and included the paid personnel as well as their advisory groups. This was an official group set up to act in case of war mobilization after the beginning of the Korean hostilities. The Mobili- zation Committees in all counties had been directed by the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States to meet with the farm people and discuss each of these ggencies and get 258 the farmers reaction to the present policy of the federal administration. The procedure used in this county to carry out the directive was as follows: The hired personnel of the agencies under the chairmanship of the P.B.A. chairman decided to call a meeting of themselves and members of their advisory councils or committees and representatives of the farm organizations. This included someone from the Farm Bureau, the Co-op Board and the Grange. Actually al- most all those present were Farm Bureau members. The mat rial prepared by the U.S.B.A. explaining the function of each agency was presented to this selected group and discussed. Strong sentiments were expressed about the government programs, particularly the P.M.A. The P.M.A. chairman countered by saying that the Farm Bureau national leadership did not represent the farmers. The Co-op manager stated that he did not believe the Farm Bureau leadership could remain in office if it were not representative. There was some strong assent by the others. The county agent asked if farmers were not acting in two ways at once, first, talking against the program and second, actually participating in them anyway. The question was finally raised as to how this should be presented to the people of the county. Should a series of local meetings be held or should there be a county-wide 259 meeting. It was expressed by the Co-Op manager, that local meetings would run them to death. No final action was taken at this meeting on the method of action but later it was decided by the professionals in the agencies to hold one public meeting at the county court house, and have each agency explain his own program. The peOple present were to fill out a short questionnaire for each agency after each presentation. This was done, but with only a very small group of about 80 people of the county present. The Opinion toward each agency when tabulated was overwhelmingly in favor of the government programs and there was almost no general discussion from the floor. Organizational Response From this setting then, a description is made of the way the Co-Op Board reaponded and the way in which they planned to counter the affect of the public meeting which most the organizational leaders did not attend. The Co-op Board Meeting Continued The manager then brought up the program of the Mobfliza- tion Committee for discussion. Only one other person on the board besides himself had attended either meeting held by the Mobilization Committee. Mr. Ogden had attended both and Mr. Evans, the public meeting at the court house. (Mr. Evans had made a statement at the public meeting against 260 government programs, almost the only voluntary response made.) The manager explained that the U.S.D.A. wanted to know what the farmer thought about the U.S.D.A. programs. He said that two meetings had been held in the county in which the agencies had presented their programs to get the reaction of the peOple. But he felt that the reactions there would be what these agencies wanted rather than that of all groups. The kind of people he said that were at the court house meeting were not representative of the thinking of the county. He said he thought that the farm organizations must get their ideas into the report that goes in or it would be just the ideas of the government agencies. He referred to a letter he had received from Mr. F. of the State Farm Bureau to the effect that the county Farm Bureau Boards and the county Farm Bureau Co-op Boards should hold a joint meeting and discuss this. This had been brought up in the Farm Bureau meeting but they had not done anything about it. Mr. Essex, vice-chairman, thought the Co-Op Board should call the meeting. There was the chance to do some- thing, it should not be passed up. Others agreed. This pro- gram was discussed at some length. The manager had c0pies of a short summary of the programs of each agency which had been made up by the state Farm Bureau office from the large mimeographed publications put out by the U.S.D.A. These summaries were not the same as were made up by the agencies 261 themselves that were used in the meeting called by the Mobilization Board. Mr. Ogden asked who they thought should present re- ports on the agencies, and if they should invite any others in. The group wanted Kr. Ogden to present the material and did not want the agency peOple in. Mr. Sornson felt that "peOple don't say what they want when personalities are there." Mr. Essex and the others affirmed these ideas. Mr. Evans wanted to be sure that the information pre- sented was from the Farm Bureau and Mr. Ogden reaffirmed this. Kr. Evans started to say something about government agencies and then stopped and said, "Well, I won't get into an argument now." A discussion ensued which was brought up by the manager. He indicated that the idea of the U.S.D.A. was that they were getting conflicting stories about what the farmers wanted from the farm organizations and the agencies. The manager then said, "the question is now if we let the agencies make the report then the government agencies will be speaking for the farmer instead of the farm organi- zations. This is dangerous. The farm organizations must speak up for the farmers." The manager said that some claim that L. E. (national president) does not speak for the Farm Bureau and he said 262 he told them in the first meeting of the Mobilization Com- mittee that if L. E. didn't he wouldn't be president of the Farm Bureau long. The group agreed and some stated that L. E. was repre- senting the farmers and Mr. Evans said you couldn't repre- sent everybody's ideas. One person speaking about the government agencies said that the Farm Bureau Board is another county voted to throw out all the government agencies and start over. This state- ment was added to or assented to by several. It was given illustratively but raised no negative comments toward it. Joint Meeting_of Farm Bureau Federation Board and the Co-op Board The following is an excerpt from the recorded notes of a joint meeting early in September between the Farm Bureau Federation and the CO-Op Board and shows how the ideas dis- cussed in the previous meeting of the Co-op Board were carried out in the joint meeting. After the Co-op Board meeting in August the manager prepared a series of resolu- tions which were to be the response of the Farm Bureau to the Mobilization Board and to be included in their report. The notes of the meeting show how the manager got them accepted on the record without change. There was a joint meeting of the Farm Bureau Federation Board and Farm Bureau Co-op Board to discuss the Family Farm Policy Review and several recommendations made by the 263 Co-op manager ostensibly from the previous months' Co-op Board meeting but which had not been an actual part of that meeting. These were on a mimeographed sheet dated for the joint meeting. These recommendations were read and pre- sented for discussion by the manager. Stephen Burt John Hopewell MI‘. ogden questioned item no. 2. "Isn't it taking in too much territory to try to let local groups make all the decisions?" Answers to this were made by Ogden,- Co-op manager, and Horwood, Farm Bureau President. Someone questioned item no. 5 on crop insurance. "How are you going to pick those areas? (high risk areas for crop insurance.i said, "I never heard of an insurance company that picked out just the high risk areas." eXplained that this program seemed to be made for those big farms out west and not for this area. Someone else said, "The people of Clinton County don't have anything to gain to take out crop insurance." Another man said, that some peOple thought there had been some high pressure salesmanship and 264 the farmer bought to get rid of them (the statement was carefully phrased but was intended to mean specific persons.) Kr. Ogden said he.thought the group was thinking about the cost of administrating it in the county. Someone pointed out that it is still in the county any- way. Another man pointed out that the bankers said the farmers' credit is bet er if they have insurance. This is the bankers' idea. Someone else said you feel better when you know it is insured. Er. Ogden said, "Well, this doesn't say that it shouldn't be availahle. It‘s just that there should not be so much emphasis on it." Someone said, "If there is no less over seven years the premium is cut in half." Mr. Norwood - "What are the wishes of the group? Do you want to leave it in or not?" ' One man said that the emphasis should be on less emphasis; if it's on that then it's worded all right. Mr. Norwood said, "If it's worded all right someone should make a motion to accept or change it." 265 Mr. Ogden said, "The joint meeting was a meeting of the boards so actually we should be voting on this only as accepting them as minutes. If the secretary has stated them right then there should be no changes." Note: This strategy was completely new and occurred to forestall any change in the resolutions. No one even ques- tioned the strategy even those on the Farm Bureau Board. No one seemed to know what it meant. Another man at this point began discussing the P.C.A. Stephen Burt - "The question is, is it good to get free of the government?" John Hopewell made a motion to accept them as read and it passed with no further protest. E332: It was apparent that the recommendations were not receiving complete agreement and that many question were being raised. It was also apparent that the group were expecting to pass on, reject or modify the items being recom- mended. This was forestalled by the Co-op manager by his stating that they were minutes and therefore simply to be read and if these were with no mistakes they should be accepted as read. In effect this was asking the Farm Bureau Federation Board to approve the minutes of the CO-Op Board, after which they would be presented to the mobilization Committee as the approved policy of both graoups. This is exactly what 266 happened. CASE V A CASE STUDY OF THE OPERATION OF INDIRECT INFLUENCE Case V does not involve affecting the action of an organized group, but illustrates how an important organized group can affect other affairs in the county. This is an instance illustrating a combination of motivating elements including indirect influence combined with a direct threat of coersion. The sanctions are only implied but were strong enough to warrant immediate action. Mr. Ogden, the Co-op manager, and a top influential, reported friendly interaction with the news paper editor. Mr. Ogden explained that the editor of the Center City Press understood the "cooperative position" and what the C0-0ps were doing and he had agreed to keep the propaganda of the Tax Equality League out of the paper. However, he said if someone wanted to pay for the ad and attach their name to it he would print it. The paper hadnot printed any of the stuff put out by the Tax Equality League. However, one day a large advertisement from that organization came out in the paper under the name of a local feed mill. When it was called to his attention, Mr. Ogden called the editor of the paper on the phone. It was recognized that there was no violation of their agreement but the Co-Op Manager said, 267 "Unless you want this spread all over the front page I want you to get that man in here to my office." It was the desire of the editor not to have it develop into a wide open flare-up. It was only a few minutes after this conversation that the feed mill man called Hr. Ogden. Kr. Ogden told him he wanted to see him in his office. The man tried to get Ogden to meet him and have lunch with him. Mr. Ogden refused an d said he wanted to see him there in his own office where he had the facts handy. The man then agreed to come but said he would bring another business man. Mr. Ogden then in- vited another man in from the Co-Op board. Mr. Orden said that they came in and they calmly talked over the aims , objectives and methods of the Co-op with these men and when they left they expressed surprise to learn the facts and there have not been anymore such incidents. Kr. Ogden said it is just because people don't understand what the Co-ops are doing that such things occur. Somebody, he said, had sold the feed mill man a bill of goods to back the ad. A CASE OF ITDIRECT IKFLUEHCE OF LAYHEN AFFECTING CHANGE AKONG PROTESSIOHALS The public health program in the county was completely unsatisfactory to many people in the county and after the 268 Rural Council had held several discussions of the health problems it was suggested that the fact finding committee constitute itself into a county health council to begin work on the problem. The first thing that required action was a change of health commissioners. The incumbant was inactive and elderly and did not see the needs as others saw them. This kind of action meant attacking an established power system. This system was made up of the Board of Health and its members. By law the county Board of Health appointed the commissioner. This board was made up of the chairman of each of the town- ship boards of trustees, the mayor of each village and several members appointed at large, at least one of which must be a medical doctor. The chairmanship of the board of trustees of the townships rotated each year which made it confusing for them when it came to know what their duties were with regard to such things as health. The medical member of the board was an older medical doctor who was away to Florida or Canada much of the time and was out of touch with the situation. He was a close friend of the health commissioner and was perpetuated in office by a board that knew very little about the program and even less about their duties on the boa d. As one re- spondent said, "Dr. J., who was a fine man personally, was a member of the board and he had influence with the board but he was a 'yes' man to the commissioner." The commissioner 269 was secretary for the board and although he had no legal power to act beyond that, did so frequently. No one seemed to know even who was vice-chairman of the board or if there was one. It was evident to the county peOple that in order to affect a change in this situation the chairman had to be unseated and a new doctor nominated and elected to the board that would make new recommendations. The County Health Council determined to take this action. Edgar Rock- ford, no. 6 of the influentials, was a member of the Health Council. He and others talked with township trustees and village mayors to convince them of the need to take action but the rotating chairmanship mentioned before complicated this procedure. Meetings of the County Health Board were very infrequent and action had to be taken at a specific time or the old doctor would be elected to a new term of office. Action occurred as follows: Mr. Rockford reported that he and others talked to "several people they knew they could talk to" and got agreement that they would nominate another doctor as member of the council. The strategy was to have some of the township trustees nominate two new doc- tors and then to close monimations before the old doctor could be nominated. At the meeting the chairman was absent and the health commissioner took over the chair even though this was not 270 his duty. Members of the County Health Council were present including Mr. Rockford. When the old doctor called for nominations two new doctors were quickly nominated. Mr. Rockford reported that even then he had to urge the trustee he accompanied to the meeting to close nominations. By this action the old board member was closed out from being nominated which insured a change in program for the County Health Department. CASE VII A CASE STUDY OF THE DEVELOPIEHT OF DISCORDAHT PERSONAL FEE IHG AMONG IMPORTANT INRLUENTIALS Although friendly attitudes of leaders in voluntary organizations are basic factors in maintaining c00perative behavior certain extraneous incidents occasionally occur to develop cleavages among the participants which reflect on COOperative activity. One such incident occurred near the end of the field work period of the study. There had been a prolonged period without rainfall and the effect of the drought on the coming wheat crop was of much concern among the farm peOple. At this time four of the top influentials in the county were traveling to a state meeting of farm peOple in a distant city. Two of the men (numbers 5 and 8 of the top twenty-one) felt very pessimistic about the wheat crop and 271 said it would not make twenty bushels to the acre. A third (no. 16) was more optimistic and took the opposite View. He felt that the wheat crop would not be so badly affected. Considerable joshing and discussion ensued and finally the optimistic person made a wager that he would pay the other two market value for every bushel of wheat that their crop went under 20 bushels if they would pay him for every bushel it went over that amount. the others agreed. How seriously the bet was taken seemed to differ between the wagerers. Later, word of the bet became public knowledge and was even noted in the neWSpaper. It was discussed at meetings and became a subject of interest and some joking. At the wheat harvest it became apparent that the crop was not hurt as badly as was expected by the pessimistic wagerers. The winner requested payment, but one of the losers apparently did not eXpect it to be taken that seriously and did not pay. Some felt that payment may not have been required, but that since the wager had become public there was constant jocular inquiries to all parties about payment. Finally at a public gathering the winner exhibited a check made out to him for several hundred dollars as payment from one of the losers (no. 8). This display brought the lack of payment of the other loser (no. 5) to the forefront and also brought strong pressure to bear on the winner to try to collect. The public had to know the 272 outcome and there was a great deal of gossip and discussion. No. 16, the winner now pressed for settlement and no. 5 refused to pay in cash, but indicated if the winner wanted the wheat he would have to come and get it. Not to be out done the winner took a truck, drove to the farm of no. 5 and loaded it with wheat. There was more discussion about the measurement of the wheat, the lack of willingness to pay and the strained feelings between the individuals con- cerned by people in the county. Numbers 8 and 16 were long-time friends and chairman and vice-chairman respectively of the Farm Bureau Co-op Board. This relationship apparently survived the incident, indeed it is not clear whether the check paid by no. 8 and displayed by the winner was intended to be cashed, but may have been accepted only to satisfy public attention and perhaps provide a means for needling the other loser. In- formants felt that without the public attention the incident received it would all have been treated more lightly and perhaps without payment. The result was severely strained relations between two of the important influentials. The permanence of this feeling is not known. In justification of his collection of the wager no. 16 said he had taken the risk of insuring the wheat crOp of the other two. 275 APPENDIX B THE SCHEDULE WADE H. ANDREWS Ohio Agricultural Schedule No. Experiment Station Date A Study of Rural Leadership and Community Organization Introduction: I am from the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station and I would like to have some time to talk to you about your n community. We are making a study of rural leadership and organizations in Clinton County to learn how rural people get things done. This work is important to other rural people in the state because it is aimed at learning some things that may help them to solve their community problems. Part I. 1. Name of person interviewed 2. Male Female 3. Year of Birth 4. Place of birth, county and town or township 5. How long have you lived in Clinton County? 6. How long have you lived in this township? 7. Occupation lst 2nd 8. Where living, farm town township town road or street and number 9. Marital status, married single widowed divorced separated 274 10. How many children do you have? How many are at home? 11. Highest grade completed Other training Part II. Now I'd like to ask you about different groups you belong to. 120 DO you belong to: Check Leadership Positions if Yes A Church (SPECIFY Present Past DENOMINATION) ( ) Sunday SChOOl. o o o o o o o ( ) Other Religious Organiza- t10n3000000000000() Service Clubs, such as Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary. . . . . . . ( ) Labor Union. . . . . . . . . ( ) Fraternal lodge, such as Masons, Odd Fellows. . . . . ( ) Veterans Organization. . . . ( ) Businessmens Association . . ( C.R.O.P., Red Cross or other foundation worker. . . . . . Other Civic (SPECIFY) County Farm Bureau. . . . . . Farmers' COOperative . . . . . Other Coop. (SPECIFY) ( ) ( ) ( ) Local Farm Bureau Council . . ( ) C ) ( ) ( ) The Grange (County). . . . . . O C C 9 o a I n o g g. I u r O O I. I I O C C o _ a C . O O... . '. II. U .0. U 0 . o a o to ' no I I Ir I n u. . . . I ‘ O O c. O. t 00‘ v n 9 I ‘ o. O. D 275 Check Leadership Positions Present Past Local Grange. o o o o o o o o Swine Association. . . . . . . ( ) Dairy Association. . . . . . .( ) ( ) ( ) Sheep Association. . . . . . . Artificial Breeders ASSOCiationo o o o o I o o o o( Beef ASSOCiation o o o o o o o( County Home Extension Council.( Local Home Extension Club. . .( ) ) County Extension Council . . .( ) ) ) ) County 4-H ClUb work. 0 o o o ( Women's Clubs or Organizations (w.e.T.U., B.P.w., Etc.). . . ( ) Parent-Teachers Group. . . . .( ) COOperator in P.M.A. . . . . .( ) Cooperator with the Soil Conservation Dist. . . . . . (t ) Production Credit Administra- tion. 0 o o o o o o o o o o o ( ) F.Hvo Cooperator o o o o o o ( ) Political offices (township board, school board, etc.). . ( ) Friendship group or card playing ClUbo o o o o o o o o ( ) Study clubs or ladies' social ClUbSo o o o o o o o o o o o o( ) Rural Policy Group. . . .‘.-. ( ) 276 Check Leadership Patterns if Yes Present Past Other (SPEC FY) ( ) Part III 0 Now would you mind telling me something about your place here? IF FARMER: 15. How many acres do you farm? 14. How many acres do you own? 15. How many acres do you rent, share or lease? 16. Are you in partnership with anyone? Yes No If yes, who? 17. What are main farm enterprises? 18. Number of tractors you have? 19. ALL HESPONDENTS Item and Scale Value Telephone: yes (+5); 110 (-6). Q o Q Q o o 0 Lights: electric (+4); gas, acetylene, _ carbide (~3); other (~8). . . . . Refrigeration: mechanical (+7); ice (+1): other or none (-5). . . . . . . Washing machine: power ’ (+2); hand (-5): none (‘8). o o o o o o o o 0 Iron: electric (+5); fuel (~2); other or none “8.000000000000000 m 277 Item and Scale Value (continued) Sweeper: electrical (+11); mechanica1.. (+5); handfi/ (+15; none (‘9). o o o o 0 Water: piped (+6)° pumped (0); other source (~55. Kitchen sink: yes (+3); no (-6). . . . . . Toilet: indoor (+9); outdoor (~2); none ('16). o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 Heating: furnace (+4); heaterE/ or gas fire- place (-2)3 range (~7)3 other ('8). o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 Floors: painted or varnished (+5); unfinishedi/ (-7). o o o o o o o o 0 Magazine subscriptionsE/: 7 or more (+8); 4-6 (+2); 2-3 (~2); 0-1 (-8). . . Books: 100 or more (+8); 50-99 (+2) 10- 49 (~2); fewer than 10 (~8). . . . Bookcase: yes (+4); no (-5). . . . . . . Total Family Score g/ Small box-sweeper. E/ Include coal or wood.heaters or circulators. g/ Consider badly checked or scarred paint or varnish as unfinished. g/ Include those regularly purchased at news stand. Part IV. In the study of leadership it is very important to know something about the very informal relations of people. So we are interested in finding out something about who people work with and do things with in the county. 278 All that we say is, of course, confidential and no names will be repeated. 20. Now I have a list of peeple in the county that are active in different groups. Would you go over the instructions on the list with me please. (HAN THE S EPARA TE CHEE CK LIST OF RURAL OFFICERS AND A PENCIL TO THE IIESP ' "D DLJT) A. As you look down the list would you check off in the first column those that you work with in the different organizations. Those that you are an . officer with or on a board or committee within the organizations in the county, in at least one activity within the last 12 months. B. In the second column put a check by those people that you talk over problems or ideas with and get advice from on county activities. This is in addition to activities in meetings or organized activities. C. In the third column check those you spend the most actual time with in county activities. That is, those that you spend one or more hours a month with in county activities. These would be the ones you work regularly with. D. Put the appropriate letter by the name to show degree 6f acquaintance. (Categories are on the respondents check list.) 21. Over-all in the county, who are the most important in- fluential rural people? fyou were to choose the top ten who would you include? 'Rural People" would include farm people and people in rural agencies or rural organ- izations whose work was with farm people in the county. (LET THE RESPONDETIT MALL A FREE CHOICE u. CLARIEY WHEN NECESSARY BY REPEATIHG TH. TTESTION. ALLOW THEM TO USE MEMORY OR EXAMIHE THE LIST FROM QUESTION NO. 20 IF THEY WISH. EMPHASIZE THESE ARE OF COUNTY-WIDE IMPORTAHCE.) l. 6. 2. 7. 5. 8. 4. 9. 5. IO. 22. 25. 24. 279 Now I would like to know about peOple that are important to you. To give an example of what I mean let's take an organization in the county. Let's say there is a problem that's important to you and you want to put across to the: (USE CHE GROUP AT A TIME A. Rural Policy Group B. Farm Bureau Board C. Agricultural Extension Service the idea that they should work on it. You think it's a job that this group would be the best one to have interested in it. How would you go about getting the (name ofgrogp) interested in doing some- thing? What person would you go to first that you know could help you get the (name of group) to do something about the probIem? (INTERVIEWER: EE SURE THE RESPOFDER UKDERSTANDS THE PROBLEM AND THAT IT IS STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL). Group A. Name Group B. Name Group C. Name Every county has many organizations and social groups. Now considering Clinton County, what would you say are the most important rural groups that get things started when something needs to be done of a community nature? Which is most important, second, third, etc. Rank order: 1. 5. 2. 4. If the (ask for each organization listed below) were going to decide on somethIng who would be the people that would be most important to have endorse it or be behind it, that is, which ones could likely block it if they went against it? Name the one you would place first. (snow THE LIST OF OFFICERS OF EACH ORGANIZATION IF THE RESPONDENT DESIHES, ALSO ADD ANY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS LIS“ED IN ANSWER TO QUESTION IO. 25). 25. 280 Who in the: (a) Farm Bureau Board (b) Farm Bureau Co-Op Board (0) Rural Policy Group (d) Other Interpersonal relations. Check those that apply be- tween the reSpondent and those listed in No. 21. (READ OFF ITEMS FOR EACH PERSON LISTED) Names of Influential EersonswListed in #21 Experiences 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Family Relationship1 Know Him (her) well or close friend Casual Acquaintance Wives are friends Became acquainted through rural organizations Dogzou visit in his home? Active in same church groups Neighbor Have Had Business Dealings Wives Participate in same STOEPS 1Refers to only acknowledged relationships considered to be a factor in close ties and friendship. 281 ' Names of Influential Persons Listed in #21 Experiences 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Belong to same friendship or social group? Attend same house parties5 Do you ever talk over per- sonal problems together? Have you done a good turn for him in any way? 26. 27. 2Small friendship group that do things together or get together informally for recreation or visiting. 58ame house parties or home socials other than family gatherings. 4These should be things the other party knew about. In talking with some people in the county, itvvas said that one thing that got them to accept community jobs was the person that asked them. This was because when they were asked to do something by a person that had previously said yes to them, they felt they had to say yes also. How important to you think this is in getting people to accept responsibility for activities in the county? Some people say that one main reason they accept posi- tions in the community is because they feel obliged to do it when certain people ask them. (CHECK BELOW FOR EACH OF THE TEN NAMES LISTED IN ITEM 21). If (each name listed) asked you to work on a committee that involved a lot of work would it be difficult to say no to him, that is, would you feel obliged to say yes? fl L4 ‘5 II Ev atiil' I 3 r t‘ I>< S i F t‘ ‘ h ll ...I‘ 28. If you needed someone to do a job that had a good deal of work to it in a community organization which of these peOple do you think you would be able to ask and feel they should respond if you asked them? (ASK ABOUT EACH NAKE) (I? "No" leave blank) LIST I-IALIES GIVEN IN #21 #27 #28 Yes Should I. ( ) ( ) 2. ( ) ( ) 5. ( ) ( ) 4. ( ) ( ) 5. ( ) ( ) 6. ( ) ( ) 7. ( ) ( ) s. ( ) ( ) 9. ( ) ( ) 10. ( ) ( ) 285 QUESTIONNAI RE Item 20 Check List g2 Rural Leaders Schedule No. Name Introduction: The following is a list of some of the people that we have noted are active as leaders in Clinton County. Limit your response to current or on going county activities that meet annually or oftener. 1. 4. After each name check those that you work with in county activities. (Note that this does not mean just attending the same general activity, but it means being on committees with or an officer with them). Check those that you talk things over with or get advice from on county activities in addition to activities in meetings or organized activities. Check those that you spend one or more hours per month with in county activities. This means people that you work with regularly. Put down by each name one of the following letters; A, B, C, D, E to indicate how well you know each person. Classify each name according to where it fits best in the following types. A - means you know him or her very intimately as you would know a member of your family. B - means you know him very well, you are good or close friends or you work with him a great deal in organizations and are friendly and well acquainted. C - means you know him to talk to him when you meet or see each other, but not on a visiting or personal basis. D - means you have met but have no more than a speaking acquaintance. E - means he is unknown to you or a stranger. 284 Work Talk One Work Talk One with Over Hour With Over Hour Advice Per Advice Per Month Month 1 2 5 l 2 3 1* l6. 2. l7. 3. 18. 4. 19. 5. 20. 6. 21. 7. 22. 8. 25. 9. 24. 10. 25. 11. 26. 12. 27. 15. 28. 14. 15. 91. * Names of the ninety-one individual officers were listed in the actual mimeographed questionnaire used. l. 3. 8. 10. 11. 285 BIBLIOGRAPHY Andrews, W. H., and Westerkamm, Emily M. Rural-Urban Population Change in OhipJ 1940-50. Research Bulletin No. 757, Ohio Angcultural Experiment Station, Wooster, Ohio. Andrews, W. H., and Snow, L. H. Comparative Population, Agricultural and Industrial Data for Ohio Counties, 1940-50. Mimeograph‘BuIIetinIA.D. 248, Ohio Agricul- tural mxperiment Station, Wooster, Ohio. Barber, Bernard. "Participation and Mass Apathy in Associations," in A. W. Gouldner (ed.) Studies in Leadership; Harper and BrOthers, N. Y., 1950. Bauma, Donald A. An Analysis of the Social Power Position of the ReaIIEstate Board’In Grand RapIds, Michigan. Unpublished Ph.D. ThesIs, Kichigan State College, 1952. Bierstedt, Robert. "An Analysis of Social Power." American Sociological Review, Vol. 15, No. 6, EC. , 19500 Brown, A. J. History of Clinton County. Indianapolis, 1915. Conrey, G. W., Paschall, A. H., and Burrage, E. M. ‘A Key to The Soils of Ohio. Agricultural Experiment Station Special Circular No. 78, Wooster, Ohio, 1948. Cottom, Howard R. "Methods of Measuring Level of Living, Special Participation and Adjustment of Ohio Farm Peo 1e.“"Ihpartment ofIRuraIIECOnomics and RuraI Sociology, Mimeograph Bulletin No. 159, The Ohio State University, 1941. Croxton, F. E., and Cowden, D. J. Applied General Statistics. Prentice-Hall, Inc., N.PY. Curtis Publishing Company, Saturday Evening Post Re- search, A Study of Key Customers, June, 1945. (no author given), PhiIadelphia, Pa. Dexter, Lewis A. "Some Strategic Considerations in Innovating Leadership," in A. W. Gouldner (ed.), Studies in LeadershipL 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 25. 24. 286 Edwards, Allen L. Statistical Analysis. Rinehart and Company, Inc., N. Y., 1946. Foote, Nelson. Participant Experimentation, mimeo- graphed paper, University of Chicago. Vranz, J. G. "Survey of Sociometric Techniques, With An Annotated Bibliography," Sociometry, Vol. 2, N01 4 1959. , Graham, Frank D. Social Goals of Economic Institu- tions, Princeton UniversIty Press, 1949. Holland, John B. The Utility of Social Anthropology as an Ajunct of a Social Survey, A paper read Before the Michigan Academy of Science, 1951. Homans, George C. The Human Group, Harcourt Brace and Company, N. Y., 1950. Hunter, Floyd, Community Power Structure, University of North Carolina Press, ChapeI—HIII, 1955. Jennings, Helen, "Structure and Leadership - Develop- ment and Spheres of Influence," Sociometry, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1937. Kaufman, Harold F., Sutton, W. A., Jr., Alexander, F. D., and Edwards, A. D., Toward a Delineation of Community Research, Special Science Studies, Community Series No. 4, Mississippi State College. Lasswell, Harold D., and Kaplan, Abraham. Power and Society, Yale University Press, 1950. Lee, A. M. "Power Seekers." in A. W. Gouldner (ed.)- Studies in Leadership. Loomis, Charles P., and Beegle, J. Allen. Rural Social Systems, Prentice Hall, 1950. Loomis, C. P. Studies of Rural Social Organization in the United States, Latin America, and Germany, Michigan State College Book Store, 1945. Loomis, c. P. Studies in Applied and Theoretical Social Science, Hichigan State College Press,fiEast Lansing, Mich., 1950. ~26. 27. 50. 51. C13 (‘0 55. 56. 87. 58. 287 MacIver, R. m. The Web of Government, The Macmillan Company, 1947. McNemar, Quinn, Psychological Statistics, J. Wiley and Sons 00., N. Y.,LI949. Merriam, Charles E. Political Power. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Incl, 1954. Merton, R. i. "Patterns of Influence: A Study of Interpersonal Influence and of Communications Be- havior in a Local Community." in Lazenfeld, Paul P., and Stanton, Frank, Communication Research. 1948-49, Harper and Brothers. Miller, Paul A. "A Comparative Analysis of the Decision Making Process In Community Organization ‘TOward'major Health Goals”, Unpufilished Ph.D.Thesis, Nfibhigan State College, 1955. Killer, Paul A. "The Process of Decision-Making Within the Content of Community Organization." Rural Socio- logy, Vol. 17, No. 2, June, 1952. Miller, Paul A. Community Health Action. Michigan State College Press, 1955. Moore, H. R., and Wayt, W. A. "Where Are We Going in Part-Time Farming?" Ohio Farmfafid Heme Research, _— Sept. - Oct.;V1954. Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster, Ohio. Moreno, J. L. "Who Shall Survive?" Beacon House, N. Y. , 1954. -* Neely, Twila E. "The Sources of Political Power: A Contribution to the Sociology of Leadership." American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 55, 1927-28. Parsons, T., and Shils, E.- Toward a General Theory of Action. Harvard Universitngress,‘I951. Proctor, C. H., and Loomis, C. P. "Analysis of Socio- metric Data." in M. Jahoda, H. Deutsch, and S. W. Cook, Research Methods in Social Relations, Part II. Dryden Press, N. Y., 1951. - Rogers, iaria, and Spence, Robert. "Introduction to Volume IX, Sociometry." Sociometry, Hay-Aug. 1946, V01. 9, N0. 2-5. 288 59. Rogers, Maria. "The Human Group: A Critical Review with Suggestions for Some Alternate Hypothesis." Sociometry, Vol. X.V, 1951. 40. Snedecar, G. W. Statistical Methods, The Iowa State College Press, Ames, Iowa, 1946. 41. Stewart, Frank A. "A Sociometric tudy of Influence in Southtown." Sociometry, Vol. 10, No. 1, Feb.,l947. 42. U. 8. Census of Population, 1950. Bulletin P-B 55, Characteristics of the Population of Ohio. 45. Useem, John. Unpublished paper on social power read before American Sociological Society, September 1950 at Denver, Colorado and again at the Ohio Valley Sociological Society meetings, April 1951 at Booming- ton, Indiana. 44. Weber, Max. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Translation by Talcott'Parsons, Oxford University Press, N. Y., 1947. HICHIan STATE UNIV. LIBRARIES bl\Illlmllll\ll?”IHWIWIIIIIIIIIHIIWWIIIHIIIIHHI 31293103814095