Applied Research Project 3
Power is defined as the ability of one party to change or control the behavior, attitudes, opinions, objectives, needs, and values of another party.Several classifications of leader or supervisory power have been suggested, but the classic taxonomy of the bases or sources of power suggested by French and Raven (1959) still appears to be fairly representative and popular in application.
Perception plays a central role in the way French and Raven (1959) define power and this makes the concept of power intriguing. That is, the leader or the supervisor may possess little or lot more power than the subordinates perceive.Therefore, it is not how much power the supervisor actually has that will ultimately change or control the attitudes or behaviors of subordinates but the perception the subordinates have about the power that the supervisor possesses.
The five power bases French and Raven (1959) identified are: (1) Coercive, (2) Reward, (3) Legitimate, (4) Expert, & (5) Referent. Research seems to suggest that subordinates who perceive their supervisor to use referent and expert power more often is a better leader than subordinates who perceive their supervisor to use less referent and expert power.
In addition, research has also found subordinates who perceive their supervisor using referent and expert power more often than the other remaining power bases coercive, reward, and legitimate to be a better leader.A brief definition for the two power bases expert & referent are as follows:
Expert power is based on the subordinate’s belief that the supervisor has job experience and special knowledge or expertise in a given area.
Referent power is based on a subordinate’s desire to identify with a superior because of admiration or personal liking of the supervisor.
You believe that you can introduce a framework that contain three leadership styles based on simply using subordinates perception of supervisor’s referent and expert power.
That is: Leadership Style 1 where subordinates perceive supervisors to possess & use expert power often but not referent power (Knowledge Management Style), Leadership Style 2 where subordinates perceive supervisors possess & use referent power often but not expert power (People Management Style), and Leadership Style 3 where subordinates perceive supervisors to possess & use both referent and expert power frequently (Dynamic Management Style). This framework is provided in the following illustration:
Figure – Framework of Three Different Leadership Styles
The framework you are proposing will obviously have practical value if different leadership styles influence important job variables of employees or subordinates such as their job satisfaction, stress, performance, and propensity to leave differently.For example, you would expect job satisfaction for subordinates who perceive their supervisor to have a Dynamic Management style to be higher than for subordinates who perceive their superior to have a just Knowledge Management style.
You are excited and decide to test your leadership framework using empirical evidence.For this purpose, the following variables were used:
X1 Perceived Leadership style (based on subordinate’s perception of supervisor power bases):
1. People Management Style 2. Knowledge Management Style 3. Dynamic Management Style
X2 Level of job stress: 0=low 1=high
X3 Job satisfaction (based on a composite or index of 18 items): a low number indicates low levels of job satisfaction and a high number indicate high levels of job satisfaction
X4 Job Performance: An index that vary between 1 “very low” to 10 “very high”
X5 Propensity to leave (quit) your job: 1=very low, 2=low, 3=average, 4=high, 5=very high
X6 Respondents motivation or drive: 1=very low, 2=low, 3=average, 4=high, 5=very high
Data was collect from employees (subordinates) from several medium sized companies.Employees responded to questions such as perception of supervisor power but also their level of job satisfaction, stress, motivation etc. You have the data from one company at the moment and want to investigate the following research objectives:
How representative is the sample of a typical medium size company?
Prior research has found the following: (a) the average level of job performance for a typical medium sized company is 7.25, & (b) 40 percent of all employees in a typical medium sized company have low stress.
Does the perceived leadership style influence job outcomes of subordinates?
Determine if the perceived leadership style of supervisors by the subordinates has any impact on key job outcome of subordinates such as their level of job satisfaction, job performance, & propensity to leave.
What influence does job stress have on key job outcomes?
Determine the impact job stress have on job performance, job satisfaction, and propensity to leave?
The impact motivation has on employee job outcomes?
What is the relationship employee motivation have on job outcomes such as job performance, job satisfaction, and propensity to leave
Does perceived leadership style have any influence on employee motivation and job stress?
Determine if the perception of the supervisors leadership style by the subordinate influence his or her level motivation & job stress.
Develop a model that predict employee propensity to leave (quit) based on the available variables in the dataset that you believe will be relevant predictors.
State the best model and justify why this is the best model.Using this model, predict the likelihood of an employee leaving if he perceives his manager to knowledge manager, experience high stress, have a job satisfaction level of 3, performance level of 6, & motivation level of 2.
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As in other projects, I need discussion and recommendations.Your discussion and recommendations should not be limited to but focused on the following: (1) applicability of the leadership framework to other medium sized companies, (2) leadership style that is most effective and least effective, (3) things that a supervisor or manager can do to (can come from outside readings but tied to findings) develop an effective leadership style.
Test all hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance.If any hypothesis is rejected, it is mandatory to interpret the relevant descriptive statistics and make your findings relevant (ability to apply to the decision at hand) and conclusions precise.Detail findings should be similar to what you were required to do for Project 2.
Format and what you should include in your research report
Your report should contain the following:
- Executive summary
This should briefly state what you did, what you found (key findings only), and what you recommend.This is short and usually not more than 1 page.
- Detail Findings
For each research objective, you should restate your research objective, analysis (or analyses) you performed, results and findings from your analysis, and conclusion(s) based on your results and findings. (makes sure t-statistic, p-value, statistical & administrative decision is provided for each analysis. If the null is rejected it is mandatory to interpret key descriptive statistics also.
- Discussion and recommendations.
- Appendix A
Contain all your illustrations. These should be referred to and briefly discussed in the body of the paper. Emphasize what information the illustrations are communicating.
Appendix B
All SPSS outputs pertaining to the research questions.Please label which output relates to which research objective.This can be written by pen if necessary.
Order of the Report.
All reports require a Cover Page, Table of Content with page numbers, Executive Summary, Detail Findings, Discussion, and Recommendations followed by Appendix A and B (In the same order). Cover page and Table of Content need not be numbered.However, all pages in the Executive Summary, Detail Findings, Discussion, and Recommendation sections should be numbered consecutively. Illustrations in Appendix A should be numbered consecutively too.Appendix B need not be numbered.Don’t forget the signed and dated honesty statement.
TABLES AND GRAPHICS
You are required to make up several charts for visual impact of your findings.I will expect at least 4 to 5 meaningful charts (inclusive of tables that you may have created on your own) in your report.
Report
Your report should not suffer from number-clutter.Do not state every conceivable number/percentage in the report.In the report, state the key findings based on the analysis that was conducted and draw conclusions.Refer the reader to the appropriate table or graph (as seen from Table 1, Graph 2 etc.).
Blueprint: Part 1 of the project requires you to provide the following: (1) the level of measurements for each of the 6 variables, (2) for research questions 1 through 5, for each analysis the variable or variables under investigation, hypotheses to be tested, and the analyses to be run. Each question is likely to require multiple analyses.
For example, question 1 will involve you to test more than one hypothesis and therefore, I need to see each hypothesis and each analysis you recommend by using the flow charts correctly. Define µ’s if used.
Leadership Style 3
Referent Power – High
Expert Power – High
DYNAMIC MANAGEMENT STYLE
Leadership Style 2
Referent Power – High
Expert Power – Low
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT STYLE
Leadership Style 1
Expert Power – High
Referent power – Low
KNOWLEDEG MANAGEMENT STYLE