Determinants of Supervisory Behavior: A Role Set Analysis

Abstract

While most studies have examined the consequences of different supervisory behaviors, the present study examines some determinants of supervisory actions. It is argued that the behavior of the supervisor is constrained by the demands of others in his role set. It was found that the expectations of a supervisor's boss and those of his subordinates and peers accounted for a significant portion of the observed variation in behaviors across 53 supervisors in the housing division of a large state university. Further, the extent to which supervisors conformed to their bosses' expectations was related to the number of persons and the proportion of the time spent supervising, the demands to produce, the supervisor's sex, and the proportion of the decisions made by superiors. Multivariate analysis indicated that the expectations of subordinates were more important in influencing social behaviors, while the expectations of the bosses were more important in determining work-related behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of Weick's (1969) concept that individuals in an organization will interlock behaviors to obtain a stable mutually satisfying interaction.