Chester Schriesheim

Toward a contingency theory of leadership based upon the consideration and initiating structure literature

Abstract The Ohio State Leadership Studies have been criticized on grounds that they lack a conceptual base, and fail to take situational variables into account. This article reviews the published literature involving the leader behavior dimensions “Consideration” and “Initiating Structure,” for the purpose of developing some situational propositions of leader effectiveness. Among the variables found by researchers to significantly moderate relationships between leader behavior predictors, and satisfaction and performance criteria are the following: subordinate need for information, job level, subordinate expectations of leader behavior, perceived organizational independence, leaders similarity of attitudes and behavior to managerial style of higher management, leader upward influence; and characteristics of the task, including pressure and provision of intrinsic satisfaction. The article concludes by presenting ten situational propositions, and linking them to form two general postulates of leadership effectiveness.

Development and Empirical Verification of New Response Categories to Increase the Validity of Multiple Response Alternative Questionnaires

A number of scales, including the Ohio State leadership scales, use the response categories Always, Often, Occasionally, Seldom, and Never, and researchers administering these scales usually assume that the resultant data are interval in nature. Recently, however, the interval properties of such data have been questioned. This paper presents an attempt at clarifying the level of measurement provided by this particular set of response categories. Drawing on previous research concerning the frequency meanings of these adverbs, a study using two samples of 200 students was performed to determine whether the distances between the adverbs become reasonably equal when they are presented as a group ordered according to median frequency values. The results indicate that equal intervals between the adverbs are approached, but not achieved when they are ordered in this manner. A second study, designed to corroborate the first, employed Thurstone Case III pair-comparison of complete ranks. The results, which parallel those obtained from the earlier study, also indicate that the response category set of Always, Very often, About as often as not, Seldom, and Never provides reasonably interval measurement. Data obtained from a third study (using again the frequency estimation procedure of the first study) generally supported the results of the Thurstone Case III method for the new category set.

Interval Scaling Using Pair Comparisons or Pair Comparison Treatment of Complete Ranks under Case III Assumptions.

Two of the better approaches to the scaling of stimuli are the methods of pair comparison and pair comparison treatment of complete ranks under the assumptions of Thurstones Case III. This paper outlines a computer program with four data input options which scales up to 40 stimuli using these methods. The program will also compute an absolute scale zero point if the user employs the Horst method of balanced values (acceptance or rejection of pairs) in addition to the pair comparison procedure. Output of the program is detailed and includes, in addition to scale values and standard deviations, several matrices which allow Case IV or V scaling by hand with minimal effort.

HAY AND GRAY'S PHASES OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT.

This paper (1) summarizes an article by Hay and Gray, (2) reports on the development of a scale to measure their conceptualization of six value areas of managerial social responsibility, and (3) describes a test of the hypothesis that the value areas are part of an overall concept of social responsibility. The results show that these value areas, when operationalized as specified by Hay and Gray, are independent and do not form an overall concept of social responsibility. Implications for further research are discussed.