A study of coordination modes in work group communication was conducted to evaluate and expand leadership contingency models. A total of 106 people in classes and workshops on organizational communication completed seven questionnaires resulting in nine measures of six independent variables representing the following contingency factors from previous studies: leader position power, task structure, group atmosphere, work flow interdependence, group size, and group membership maturity. Since initial analyses of the data tended to replicate previous research, there was reason to believe that the measurement methods were reasonably valid and reliable. Further analyses correlated the data to previous research studies that proposed contingency and situational models of leadership communication. In general, the findings suggested the utility of perceiving formal and informal communication as relatively independent rather than as polar opposites arranged on a continuum. (RL)