Examination of supervisory satisfaction in traditional and nontraditional gender-based reporting relationships

Supervisory Satisfaction relates to satisfaction with supervision rather than other conditions or agents in the work place. The supervisor-subordinate relationship is becoming increasingly important given the shift from managing work to managing people. Six variables were theorized as influencing satisfaction. Developing a parsimonious model to predict the variance in supervisor satisfaction, this empirical study examined 202 traditional supervisory relationships (subordinate reporting to a male supervisor) and 48 nontraditional supervisory relationships (subordinates reporting to a female supervisor). The sample was predominantly whites. Four of the five variables theorized, predicted a high level of variance in supervisory satisfaction in both traditional and nontraditional relationships. However the predictors were not different for the two groups.