Article on "Improving Communications Between Supervisors and Employees"

Article 10 pages (2771 words) Sources: 20

[EXCERPT] . . . .

improving communications between supervisors and employees at Kongsberg Automotive.

Improving Communication Between Supervisors and Employees at Kongsberg Automotive

Bono, Foldes, Vinson and Muros (2007) performed an experience sampling study, examining how organizational leaders affect the emotional experiences of their employees. Health care workers were surveyed four time per day, for two weeks, in this study. It was found that the health care workers' supervisors affected their employees' emotions three ways. First, "employees experience less optimism, happiness, and enthusiasm when they interact with supervisors than when they interact with customers, clients, and coworkers" (p. 1363). Transformational leadership supervisors had employees that experienced more positive emotions, throughout the workday. Lastly, employees that held back their emotions experienced increased stress and decreased job satisfaction, except for those with supervisors that utilized transformational leadership. Ensuring supervisors at Kongsberg utilize a transformational leadership style could improve employees' emotional experiences and job satisfaction.

References

Bono, J., Foldes, H., Vinson, G., and Muros, J. (2007). Workplace emotions: The role of supervision and leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1357-1367.

Landry and Vandenberghe (2008) utilized survey data from 240 employees, for a variety of organizations, to examine the "relations among commitment to the supervisor, leader-member exchange, supervisor-based self-esteem (SBSE), and relationship and substantive supervisor-subordinate conflicts" (p. 5). SBSE was found to be negatively associated with both relationship and supervisor-subordinate conflict. It was further found that when SBSE was low, normative commitment was more strongly related to supervisor-subordinate conflict, while affective commitment was related to both types of conflict. Understanding these relationships can help Kongsberg supervisors better minimize with the effects of supervisor-subordinate conflict.

References

Landry, G. & Vandenberghe, C. (2008) Role of commitment to the supervisor, leader-member exchange, and supervisor-based self-esteem in employee-supervisor conflicts. Journal of Social Psychology, 148(1), 5-27.

Hsiung and Tsai's (2009) study surmised that the leader-member exchange (LMX) encourages employees to define the breadth of their job similarly or beyond the level of the supervisor's expectation. This enlargement effect also has a congruence effect where there is a "reduction in supervisor-subordinate definition discrepancy on job content" (p. 89). The researchers used data from 184 subordinate-supervisor dyads and examined how the relationship between LMX and in-role/extra-role behavior, job definition discrepancy and the employee's performance rating. Hsiung and Tsai found there was a positive correlation between relative employee job breadth and supervisor-subordinate job content congruence. This was further positively related to extra-role behavior and the congruence effect was positively related to in-role behavior. Kongsberg supervisors can use this information to improve their communications regarding job breadth with their employees.

References

Hsiung, H. & Tsai, W. (2009). Job definition discrepancy between supervisors and subordinates: the antecedent role of LMX and outcomes. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 82, 89-112.

Madjar and Ortiz-Walters (2009) studied the relationship between hairstylists' trust and routine and their creative performance and the extent hairstylists trust both their supervisors and their customers. The researchers also studied how psychological safety mediated these relationships. It was found that the "trust in supervisors increased the perception of psychological safety and, in turn, psychological safety enhanced creativity as well as routine performance" (p. 139). Kongsberg can apply these results by having managers create an atmosphere that provides employees with a sense of belong as well as encourages risk taking, which should than result in an increase in the employee's performance as well as their creativity.

References

Madjar, N. & Ortiz-Walters, R. (2009). Trust in supervisors and trust in customers: Their independent, relative, and joint effects on employee performance and creativity. Human Performance, 22, 128-142.

Akerlog and Kranton's (2008) article discusses the balance supervisors must find when supervising their employees. They surmise that "closely supervised workers can become resentful and self-identify as being in opposition to the firm" (p. 212). In contrast, the authors note that absent supervision can result in groups of workers forming that reduce the output expectations. Using case studies from both a wallboard manufacturing plant in the Great Lakes area as well as an experiment performed, in 1931, at Western Electric Company, Akerlog and Kranton find that a middle ground of what they deem 'lax supervision' may be the best choice. The knowledge that social distance between employees and supervisors can lead to resentment, can help Kongsberg foster more productive communications between these two groups.

References

Akerlog, G. & Kranton, R. (2008). Identity, supervision, and work groups. American Economic Review, 98(2), 212-217.

Shanock and Eisenberger (2006) performed a survey of retail employees and supervisors to study supervisors' perceived organizational support and the relationship with their subordinates' perceived support from the supervisors. In addition, the relationship with in-role and extra-role performance was also investigated. A positive correlation was found between the supervisors' perceived organizational support and the perceived supervisor support by their subordinates. In addition, the subordinates' perceived supervisor support was also positively correlated to their perceived organizational support, as well as their in-role and extra-role performance. This relationship can be applied to Kongsberg as they "suggest that supervisors who feel supported by the organization reciprocate with more supportive treatment for subordinates" (p. 689).

References

Shanock, L. & Eisenberger, R. (2006). When supervisors feel supported: Relationships with subordinates' perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(3), 689-695.

Feinberg, Ostroff and Burke (2005) utilized a mult-source data set to investigate the effects of a supervisor's behaviors and how they lead to creating a consensus that this supervisor's mode of leading is transformational and how these subordinates then perceive the leader. A variety of sources were used for this study, including focal managers, subordinates, peers, and supervisors. The authors found "that leaders who engage in higher levels of appropriate leader behaviors are more likely to have followers who agree in their perceptions of the leader" (p. 471). It was also found that leaders who undertook behaviors that were transformational in nature were more likely to have subordinates who were in agreement with their leadership style. As such, Kongsberg supervisors can implement transformational leadership style behaviors for maximum effect on their relationship with their subordinates.

References

Feinberg, B., Ostroff, C. & Burke, B. (2005). The role of within-group agreement in understanding transformational leadership. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 471-488.

Janssen (2005) reviewed a survey of 170 employees from a Dutch company. After this review, Janssen concluded "that supervisor supportiveness moderated the relationship between employees' perceived influence in the workplace and their levels of innovative behavior" (p. 573). The results of the survey suggest that supervisors who are perceived as being supportive of this innovation results in their employees feeling encouraged to conduct innovative behaviors at work. Those supervisors who were perceived as not being supportive to their employees resulted in employees feeling that they were inhibited in being innovative. For this reason, Kongsberg supervisors should work to create a supportive environment, to encourage innovation in their subordinates.

References

Janssen, O. (2005). The joint impact of perceived influence and supervisor supportiveness on employee innovative behaviour. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78, 573-579.

Hui et al. (2007) surmise that it is not only a supervisor's behavior that affects the performance of their team members. From this, they formulate a model that describes the relationship between service climate and supervisor behavior. Their examination of 511 front-line service providers found that "when the organization and working environment are not conducive to providing a good service to colleagues and customers, the supervisor's leadership behavior makes an important difference. However, when the service climate is good, a supervisor's leadership behavior makes no substantial difference" (p. 151). For Kongsberg, this means that a supervisor's leadership behavior is imperative to nullify any negative effect when the service climate in the organization is lacking.

References

Hui, H., Chiu, W., Yu, P., Cheng, K., and Tse, H. (2007). The effects of service climate and the effective leadership behaviour of supervisors on frontline employee service quality: A multi-level analysis. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 151-172.

Vandenberghe and Bentein (2009) investigated how "affective organizational commitment and affective commitment to supervisors with turnover intentions and actual turnovers (relate) using three independent samples of employees" (p. 331). The researchers found that there were negative forces on turnover intentions, when affective organizational commitment and affective commitment were present, in the first two samples. These two samples also showed a strong relationship between affective commitment and turnover intentions, when the affective organizational commitment was low. The third sample showed that affective commitment to supervisors was the most significant predictor of actual turnover. This effect was stronger when affective organizational commitment was low. Understanding this phenomenon better can help Konsberg minimize turnover.

References

Vandenberghe, C. & Bentein, K. (2009). A closer look at the relationship between affective commitment to supervisors and organizations and turnover. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 82, 331-348.

Diefendorff and Croyle (2006) explored whether or not rules regarding emotional display were perceived as formal job requirements, by part-time employees as well as their supervisors. The sample showed that the majority of the sample, including both employees and supervisors, thought that… READ MORE

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