The Psychological Typologies and Leadership Behaviors of First-Line Supervisors in a Large Automotive Company" (1992)
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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 4-1992 The Psychological Typologies and Leadership Behaviors of First- Line Supervisors in a Large Automotive Company James Joseph Conlen Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Educational Leadership Commons Recommended Citation Conlen, James Joseph, "The Psychological Typologies and Leadership Behaviors of First-Line Supervisors in a Large Automotive Company" (1992). Dissertations. 1939. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1939 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGIES AND LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS OF FIRST-LINE SUPERVISORS IN A LARGE AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY by James Joseph Conlen A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillm ent of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Department of Educational Leadership Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan April 1992 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGIES AND LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS OF FIRST-LINE SUPERVISORS IN A LARGE AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY James Joseph Conlen, Ed.D. Western Michigan University, 1992 The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological typologies and leadership behaviors related to participative manage ment of firs t-lin e supervisors in a plant of a large automotive com pany. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI, Myers & McCaulley, 1985) was used as a measure of psychological typologies. The Group Environment Scale (GES, Moos, 1974) was used as a measure of leader ship behaviors. The population was 113 firs t-lin e supervisors; complete data were obtained for 76 supervisors (67%). Hypotheses were formulated upon the expectation that GES mean scores would d iffer depending upon MBTI personality type. Twelve directional hypotheses were investigated using four MBTI functions-- sensing with thinking (ST), sensing with feeling (SF), intuition with feeling (NF), and intuition with thinking (NT)—as the inde pendent variable; mean GES scores on the relationship dimension, personal growth dimension, and system maintenance and system change dimension were dependent variables. The functions of the MBTI from this group of supervisors were compared to the GES dimensions using chi square and a one-way analy sis of variance (ANOVA). Demographic data were also compared to the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. MBTI and GES using a two-way analysis of variance, and no findings were significant (£ = .01). The firs t-lin e supervisors in this study were similar to other comparable populations for which normative data on the MBTI are available. The only major exception was the low number of NFs, which represented 2.5% of the population rather than the expected range of from 8% to 18%. The mean scores for supervisors on the GES were comparable to the normative data available on this instrument. Supervisors in this population, based upon their perception of their leadership behav iors, were very similar to other leaders of groups. The findings of this study do not support the existence of a meaningful relationship between personality type and participative leader behaviors. Despite these findings this relationship may merit further investigation. A flaw in this study was the lack of an adequate number of NFs to permit statistical analysis. Future studies should control for this omission. 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Order Number 9224028 The psychological typologies and leadership behaviors of first-line supervisors in a large automotive company Conlen, James Joseph, Ed.D. Western Michigan University, 1992 UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION To my children: Michael, Kathryn, John, and Matthew. James Joseph Conlen Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM ............................................................................................ 1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 1 Need for the Study ....................................................................... 2 Purpose of the Study .................................................................. 4 Delimitations ................................................................................ 5 Theoretical Framework ................................................................ 6 Basic Assumptions .................................................................. 6 Definitions .............................................................................. 7 Specific Hypotheses ............................................................. 9 Statement of Procedures ..................................................... 11 I I . REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................... 13 Organizational Leadership Theory ........................................ 13 Classical Organization Theory ........................................ 13 The Human Relations Movement, 1935-1950 ................... 14 The Organizational Behavior Movement, 1950-1975 .. 16 Human Resources Management, 1975-Present ................. 17 Participative Decision Making ............................................... 18 Concerns Regarding Participative Decision Making ......................................................................................... 20 Participative Decision Making Within the Company ....................................................................................... 20 ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents--Continued CHAPTER First-Line Supervisory Position .......................................... 23 Jungian Typology .......................................................................... 26 Attitudes: Extraversion and Introversion .................. 27 Perceptive Functions: Sensing (S) and Intuition (N) ............................................................................................... 27 Judging Functions: Thinking (T) and Feeling (F) ............................................................................................... 28 Dominant and Auxiliary Functions .................................. 29 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator .......................................... 29 History of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ............. 30 The Combination of Perception and Judgment ............. 33 Extraversion and Introversion (El) .............................. 36 Validity of the MBTI ........................................................... 37 R eliability of the MBTI ..................................................... 38 Concerns for the MBTI ......................................................... 40 Group Environment Scale ..........................................................