Cooperative and Competitive Relationships Between Leaders and Subordinates

Abstract

It has been argued that leadership research questionnaires should be based upon a theoretical position that has considerable experimental support for its causal relationships. This study drew upon the experimentally supported theory of cooperation and competition to develop measures of three different kinds of leader orientation: cooperative, competitive, and individualistic. These measures were used by 310 medical laboratory technicians from 10 different hospitals to describe the specific job behaviors of their immediate supervisor. The leaders' orientation scores derived from these behavior descriptions were then correlated with measures of overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with supervision, the desire to perform well, and the desire to stay on the job. As predicted by theory, the correlations with dependent measures were strongly positive for a cooperative orientation and strongly negative for a competitive orientation. The correlations for an individualistic orientation were negative and larger than expected. These results, and previous experimental research, suggest that leaders can improve subordinate reactions to their leadership by emphasizing areas of overlap between their goals and subordinate goals, by helping subordinates work toward their goals, and by sharing the rewards of mutual effort.

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