Differentiation matching

Correlates of Leadership Style: Field-Dependence and Social Intelligence versus Social Orientation

The present study supports the notion that employee-centered leaders differentiate between task and interpersonal characteristics of their employees and hence are field-independent. Field-independent persons are known to have a non-social orientation. Yet, the sensitivity of the field-independent managers to social stimuli is attributable to the cognitive factor of social intelligence rather than to motivational factors such as social orientation. Data from 45 managers with engineering backgrounds indicate that employee-centered leadership style is positively related to field-independence and probably to social intelligence but not to the social orientation, whereas the job-centered style is negatively related to field-independence and to social intelligence.

Least Preferred Co-Worker Score as a Measure of Cognitive Complexity

To test the assertion by Foa, Mitchell, and Fiedler (1971) and by Mitchell (1970) that Fiedler's Least Preferred Co-worker scale measures cognitive complexity, questionnaires from 357 subjects were subjected to the complexity analysis of Foa, et al. (1971). The perceptions of high scorers were not more complex than those of low scorers. Self-ratings of effectiveness of performance of 88 leaders of small groups were correlated with the ratings of their 269 subordinates. Self-assessments of high scoring leaders were not more accurate than those of low scoring leaders. Results seem to question cognitive complexity as an interpretation of scores on the Least Preferred Co-worker scale. In a second analysis, the variance score of the questionnaire, another measure of cognitive complexity (Evans & Dermer, 1974), showed subjects with high variance held more complex perceptions of their least preferred co-workers and made more accurate assessments of their own performance than did subjects with low variance.

One More Time—What Does LPC Measure? A Test of the Cognitive Complexity Interpretation

152 part-time graduate students enrolled in an evening Master of Business Administration program in a major Midwestern university participated in an experimental study testing cognitive complexity as an interpretation of Fiedler's Esteem for Least Preferred Co-worker measure. The results contradict that interpretation: low scorers, but not high scorers, cognitively differentiated between the manipulated conditions of task stress, suggesting that cognitive complexity is related to the domain (e.g., task vs relationship) of value. The findings are consistent with the value-attitude interpretation of the least preferred co-worker.

Decision Style, Incongruity Preference and Leadership Style

Comparisons of scores for 215 management students on the Least Preferred Co-worker Scale, the Driver Decision Style Exercise, and the General Incongruity Adaptation Level Self-description Test showed that decision style was positively related to incongruity preference, but neither of these measures was related to leadership style.

The Shaky Foundations of Some Management Training Models

A number of management training models use as their foundation some variables which are controversial. Perhaps the most commonly found basis, is the Initiating Structure and Consideration theory. (Fleishman et al., 1955). It forms the central support of such popular management models as the Managerial Grid (Blake and Mouton, 1964); the 3‐D Theory (Reddin, 1970); Contingency Theory (Fiedler, 1967); Life Cycle Model (Hersey and Blanchard, 1969); Path‐Goal Theory (House, 1971) and others.

CONCEPTUAL RELATEDNESS AND THE COMPREHENSION OF SOCIAL SITUATIONS

The effect of set (to integrate or differentiate), characterization (evaluatively distinct or indistinct groups), and conceptual structure (strong or weak relations among concepts) on comprehension of a social situation was studied. Eighty-three students judged groups similar to those in the story on 12 dimensions, read set instructions, read story, judged actual groups in the story, and completed a comprehension test of the story. When characters were evaluatively indistinct, judges with strong conceptual relations comprehended more when set to differentiate than integrate while judges with weak relations comprehended more when set to integrate rather than differentiate. When characters were evaluatively distinct, there were no significant effects. Also, judges with strong relations comprehended more when relatedness was maintained in their impressions of groups in the story. Judges with weak relations tended to comprehend more when conceptual differentiation was maintained, but the effect did not reach significance.