Female Supervisors Research Articles

A comparison of female supervisors in business and government organizations

This exploratory study compared the life style and interpersonal need orientation, leadership style, and perception of the organization structure of female supervisors in business and government organizations. The government group had a significantly higher formalistic and lower sociocentric and personalistic life style orientation; lower needs for expressed control, expressed affection, wanted inclusion, wanted affection, and a higher need for wanted control; were lower on consideration and higher on structure leadership dimensions; and perceived their organization as being more bureaucratic and less collaborative and coordinative than the business group. The findings were discussed in terms of the processes of individual-organization congruity and organizational socialization.

Women on Strike at Head Ski

The Head Ski Division of the multi-national AMF conglomerate is located just a few miles northeast of Boulder. AMF-Head Ski manufactures all its famous skis and tennis racquets at the Boulder plant, products which have garnered endorsements from such sports luminaries as Jean-Claude Killy and Arthur Ashe. Like many of Colorado's small industrial concerns, AMF-Head is relatively new to the area and employs mostly unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Though the unemployment rate in Colorado is not so high as in other areas, Walter Lawrence of the Center for Labor Education and Research in Boulder said that much new industry has been drawn by the area's almost endless supply of unskilled, and perhaps more important, unorganized labor. Lawrence estimates there are three people available for every job vacancy, and with no real union tradition from which to draw, they are extremely hard to organize. Employers know this and take advantage of it, he said. Workers at AMF-Head Ski went on strike in early May, 1975; strikebreakers brought production levels back to normal by August. Nonetheless, the workers, under the auspices of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA), remain on strike, and a national boycott of AMF-Head Ski products continues. Although the AMF-Head Ski strike and boycott have not had the racial minority issue with which to gain support as did the successful Farah pants boycott and the ongoing United Farmworkers of America boycotts, several women's organizations have taken an interest in the ACWA's efforts because women's issues have played a large role in this labor dispute. Women are about fifty percent of AMF-Head Ski's workforce; however, the company employs no female supervisors and women are usually placed in the lowest-paying positions on the production line, regardless of seniority, while men dominate the higher-paying jobs.

Sensitivity Training for Staff in an Institution for Adolescent Offenders

In a controlled study of T-Group effectiveness in a correctional institution,' it appears that such a group benefited the members. Seveen female supervisors participated in a sensitivity group twice a week for three months. These women showed an increment in self-reported positive adjectives from preto posttest. Of greater importance was the fact that there was a concomitant increase in positive adjectives used in descriptions of the supervisors by the residents of the institution. During the same time, a matched group of control Ss showed a significant decrease in the number of positive adjectives ascribed to them. These results were maintained after a one-year period. The data suggest that T Groups may be valuable as a staff training method in correctional institutions-where the aim increasingly is positive rehabilitation.

Ideal Teacher Concepts: Attitude Shift after Practice Teaching

Gough, Durflinger, and Hill (1968) developed a scoring formula, based on California Psychological Inventory scales, that discriminated between student teachers rated good or poor by training supervisors. Cross-validation studies showed that the student-teacher scoring formula (STSF) predicted student success fairly well. The researchers also wished to identify personal characteristics related to high and low scorers on the STSF, and asked fraternity and sorority members to rate one another on the Gough's Adjective Checklist. The present study concerned the 12 adjectives most chosen by these Ss to describe high female scorers on the STSF: dominant, persevering, persistent, serious, opinionated, ambitious, demanding, logical, rigid, clear-thinking, determined, responsible. The 12 adjectives most chosen to describe low female scorers were: curious. affectionate. careless, easy-going, unconventional, dreamy, understanding, irresponsible, cheerful, natural, individualistic, thoughdul. The present study undertook to determine whether supervisors of elementary teachers would characterize ideal female elementarv teacher in a similar manner to the above-listed peer perceptions of high scorers, and whether students in practice teaching would be closer to supervisors' perceptions of this ideal than would students taking their first course in the teacher-training sequence. A 30-item forced-choice test was constructed of the 2 lists of adjectives, each pair consisting of an adjective from the high scorer's list and one from the low scorer's list. Pairing coupled positive adjectives with positive adjectives and negative adjectives with negative ones. The resulting list was administered to 16 female supervisors of elementary teachers, 16 female elementary student teachers, and 16 female smdents in educational psychology classes who were asked to select the adjective in each pair that best characterized the ideal elementary teacher. When responses were scored according to a key based on the high scorer's list, mean scores were: supervisors 15.3, student teachers 13.3, and educational psychology students 9.27. The corrected (Spearman-Brown) split-half reliability of the questionnaire was 34. Analysis of variance gave an F ratio of 5.66 (p = .02). Results suggest that ideal-teacher concepts held by practice-teaching supervisors are closer to the personality stereotype that emerges from the peer judgments of high scorers on the STSF than are the concepts held by students entering the teacher-education program. Students actually engaged in practice teaching, however, score closer to the supervisors' mean than those who have not had this experience. Such results are consistent with what one would expect from social learning theory in that exposure to a powerful model elicits imitation. It is also possible that experience with actual classroom problems led student teachers to change some of their preconceptions regarding the personal qualities needed to be an effective teacher. This should be studied.

The Major Purposes and Functions of Supervision as Perceived by New Jersey Public School Superintendents, Supervisors and Building Principals

The Major Purposes and Functions of Supervision as Perceived by New Jersey Public School Superintendents, Supervisors and Building Principals

Moscow Airport Food Service

Recently on several occasions I visited the Moscow air terminal and ate in its restaurant. Because of my long-time interest in restaurants I obtained as much information as I could about the Airport Restaurant. Since my knowledge of Russian is limited, most of this information was obtained from an English-speak ing female supervisor.—L.K.