Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

First Advisor

Donald Morgenson

Advisor Role

Thesis Supervisor

Abstract

The present study examined, for a range of industrial management positions, the relationship of supervisory style patterns at adjacent managerial levels to supervisory performance and job satisfaction. It also investigated the utility of Fiedler’s Contingency Model for determining the supervisory style associated with optimal work group performance at the middle levels of industrial management. Supervisory style was viewed as the extent to which a supervisor’s job related behaviour was basically task-oriented or human relations-oriented. One hundred and twenty-four production supervisory staff representing six manufacturing companies and six organizational levels completed a multi-faceted questionnaire. Measurement devices included: three indices of supervisory style, measures of satisfaction with four separate aspects of the job, two higher management ratings of job performance and independent ratings of position power and job task structure.

The results suggested that, for most levels of industrial management, a subordinate manager’s similarity to his immediate supervisor was unrelated to the subordinate’s job satisfaction. At the third level of management similarity of supervisory style was positively related to this manager’s satisfaction with his work and his coworkers. The results provided considerable support for earlier findings which showed that subordinate job satisfaction was positively related to the supervisor’s “consideration” behaviour as perceived by the subordinate manager. Analysis of data related to the Contingency Model provided little support for the model’s validity in terms of the present sample.

Convocation Year

1975

Convocation Season

Spring

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