Abstract
A regression analysis of the cross-sectional 1989 Merit Principles Survey (MPS) of Federal employees (U.S. MSPB 1990) examines employee assessment of their supervisor. Job and work characteristic attitudes (along with demographic controls) are analyzed. Analysis eliminated were extraneous control factors related to age, years of service, education, paygrade, supervisory status and gender. Among the job-specific and organizational work characteristics, employees clearly distinguished those items over which supervisors exercised some degree of control from those that were deemed beyond their grasp. The performance appraisal process and the duties of protecting the merit system from prohibited practices are crucial. More general notions of job satisfaction and, especially, intrinsic motivation are also seen as related to supervisory responsibilities.
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