DYNAMIC S O F LEADERS’ AND SUBO RDINATES’ PERFO RMANC E-RELATED DISC USSIO NS FO LLO WING MO NITO RING BY LEADERS IN G RO UP MEETING S So nia M. G o b * University of Notre Dame The present study examined interactions following performance monitoring by leaders in group meetings. Discussions between leaders and subordinates during 28 Reserve Officers’ Training Corps meetings at a private Midwestern university were videotaped and transcribed. Lag-sequential analyses of these interactions indicated that leaders’ monitoring of performance during group meetings stimulated subordinates to make positive, negative, and neutral reports of their own performances, but primarily negative reports of others’ performances. Leaders were likely to follow subordinates’ negative reports of their own performances with negative consequences and subordinates’ positive reports of others’ performances with positive consequences. The present study suggests that interactions following performance monitoring by leaders in group settings are affected both by actual and perceived self-presentation biases. When the interactions of individuals involved in group discussions have been examined, actual group dynamics have been found to be very different from managers’perceptions of them. In a study by Bertsch and Obradovic (1979), for example, managers believed subordinates participated in and influenced the direction of group discussions much more than they actually did. As these findings illustrate, it is important to observe the interactions of leaders and subordinates. This method offers a number of advantages. First, it allows precise tracking of actual behavior (Courtright, Fairhurst, & Rogers, 1989). In addition, it avoids relying solely on perceptions affected by selective memory, social desirability, and implicit theories (e.g., Eden & Leviaton, 1975; Ericsson *Direct all correspondence to: Sonia M. Goltz, Department of Management, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. Leadership Quarterly, 4(2), 173-187. Copyright Q 1993 by JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 1048-9843