Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-2000

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Major Professor

Michael C. Rush

Committee Members

Tom Ladd, Eric Sundstrom, Dudley Dewhirst

Abstract

In the recent past, the study of transformational leaders has been the most predominant leadership research conducted. There have been strong linkages found between these behaviors and subordinate outcomes such as motivation and performance. For this reason, it was used as a base comparison for the addition of manager decision making quality. It was hypothesized that managers who make higher quality decisions will be able to guide subordinates in a more strategic fashion, ultimately increasing their motivation and performance. In addition, it was hypothesized that this effect of better decisions would be over and above that associated with transformational leader behavior.

One hundred and nine managers and two of their subordinates were surveyed to assess the managers' behaviors and one of the subordinates' motivation and performance. Results indicated that decision making quality did not have a direct relationship with subordinate outcomes while in line with other studies, a significant relationship was found for transformational leadership with subordinate outcomes.

The pattern of correlations suggest that decision making quality may still be an important factor, most probably as a predictor of transformational leadership. Other possibilities are proposed as well as limitations, implications and suggestions for future research.

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