Professional Documents
Culture Documents
RELATIONAL CHALLENGES
Superior - Subordinate
Communication
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
• What are the primary differences inherent in
the superior-subordinate relationship?
• What are the two types of information
communicated between supervisors and
subordinates?
• What are the distinctions between semantic-
information distance and perceptual
incongruence?
• Distinguish between upward distortion and
strategic ambiguity?
• Why would researchers want to study
leadership as a dyadic construct as opposed to
traits or behaviors?
• Vertical Dyadic Linkage Theory (VDL) is also
known by what name? Why?
Overview
• Nature and Importance of Supervisor-Subordinate
Relationship
• Prevalence of Misunderstandings in the Supervisor-
Subordinate Relationship
• Dyadic View of the Supervisor-Subordinate
Relationship
• Trait vs Behavior
• Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX)
• Communication Activities: Supervisor-Subordinate
• Trust, Immediacy, and Feedback
• Compliance-Gaining
• Communication Activities: Subordinate to
Supervisor
• Upward Influence
• Women and the Supervisor-Subordinate Relationship
Superior-Subordinate Communication
Which of the
communications
strategies (upward
distortion or strategic
ambiguity) is most
ethically suspect? Why?
Leadership and the Study of
Superior-Subordinate Relations
• Trait Research
• Intelligence, dominance, self-confidence, energy,
activity, and task-related knowledge
• Behavior Research
• Initiating Structure (goals, expectations, jobs)
• Consideration (personal interest in subordinate)
• Leader-Member Exchange Theory
• Vertical Dyadic Linkage Theory (VDL)
• LMX - Leader-Member Exchange (in-group
relationships)
• Mutual trust, reciprocal support, liking, greater
levels of interaction
• Middle group relationships
• SX - Supervisory Exchange (out group relationships)
• Role-defined and contractually-based
• Determined by liking and perceived ability of
subordinate
Maintenance Communication
• “Messages and behaviors used to preserve an
acceptable and lasting relational state” (Waldron, 1991)
• Subordinate Tactics
• Personal - informal interaction used to build and
maintain a friendship
• Contractual - conformity to formal role requirements,
expectations, and contracts with the supervisor
• Regulative - strategic regulation--of messages,
impressions, emotions, and contacts with the supervisor
• Direct - direct negotiation of the terms of the
relationship and explicit discussion of perceived
relational injustices
Communication of Women Leaders
• Minimizing POWER Differences
• Value Congruence (similarity in values)
• Nonroutine Problem-Solving (creativity)
• Insider Makers (group membership and jokes)
• Support (social and professional)
• Coaching (help in mastering skills and concepts)
• Maximizing POWER Differences
• Performance Monitoring (check work and progress)
• Face-threatening Acts (criticism and rebuke)
• Competitive Conflict (interruptions and nonsupport)
• Power Games (arguing for sake of arguing)
Communication Activities:
Superior to Subordinate
• “Supervisor as Teacher and Coach”
• Trust
• Expectations that the other will act benevolently
• Willingness to be vulnerable and risk that the
other will not act accordingly
• Some level of dependency
• Immediacy
• Any communication that indicates interpersonal
warmth and closeness
• Feedback
• Any communication between organizational
members that implicitly or explicitly provides task
guidance, personal evaluation, or other guidance
• PROVIDING and SEEKING feedback
• Compliance Gaining
• Attractive style (attentive, friendly, and relaxed)
• Unattractive style (inattentive, unfriendly, and unrelaxed)
Communication Activities:
Subordinate to Superior
• Dependent on FREQUENCY, TYPE, and
PERSONAL NATURE of Communication
• Upward Influence
• Goes beyond subordinate’s comfort and skill
level
• Three Potential Strategies
• Open persuasion (overt)
• Strategic persuasion (partial disclosure)
• Manipulation (disguised influence attempt)
• “Pelz Effect”
• Subordinates would initiate more upward
messages if they believed their superiors had
upward influence (Pelz, 1952)
Women and the
Superior-Subordinate Relationship
• Plight of Women in Organizations
• 10% of Fortune 500 companies’ senior managers
are women
• Less than 4% of the top-ranked individuals (e.g.,
CEO, COO, president) are women
• Women make up less than 3 percent of the top
corporate earners
• Gender Inequity is rooted in our culture patterns
and therefore in our organizational systems
• Research indicates that sex does not appear to be
relevant to the outcomes
• Women are rated higher as managers on the skill of
“putting people at ease.”
• What is most predictive of differences in evaluation
of leadership skills (one’s position in the hierarchy or
sex)?
Women and the
Superior-Subordinate Relationship
• Men and women do not differ in the types of
persuasive strategies (compliance-gaining)
• How does level of power effect the types of
persuasive strategies employed?
• BOTTOM LINE: Legitimate authority, level
of power, and one’s position in the hierarchy
are the best predictors of communication
differences in the workplace
• SEX DIFFERENCES
• Communication Competence
• Women supervisors are rated lower than men
supervisors
• Women subordinates rated women supervisors
less favorably than they rated men supervisors
• Supervisors rated women subordinates lower in
communication competence than they rated men
Summary
• Dyadic View of the Supervisor-Subordinate
Relationship that is best characterized by . . .
• Varying levels of TRUST
• SUPPORT
• FREQUENCY of INTERACTION
• Discussion Questions (p. 192)
• Modern Workplace is Undergoing Changes
• Decentralized Structures
• Participative Decision Making
• Project Teams (SDWTs)
• Changes include . . .
• Blurred lines of authority
• Increased communication
• More equal distribution of power
• Moving from . . . authority and control to . . .
conditions where managers must be accomplished
communicators