A role-making model of the leadership process is tested and refined within a major university setting. The model assumes that administrative leaders attempt to reduce their costs and increase their benefits by differentiating among unit members in the accomplishments of unit tasks. As a consequence of this differentiation throughout departments, the organization as a whole is transfused with new sets of overlapping, dyadic interdependencies. Over a 10-month period, the vertical exchanges between managers and their leaders and between leaders and their administrative superordinates were monitored employing an "open-systems" research strategy. The units of analysis being leader-member dyads, information was collected from both parties to each dyad employing intensive and extensive patterned interview procedures. Results suggest that exchange dependencies routinely develop within managerial units and that these dependencies influence the behavior, attitudes, and perceptions of both parties to dyads as specified by the role-making model. (Author/LBH)