oa Aan welke activiteiten van leidinggevenden hebben medewerkers vooral behoefte? Nieuwe onderzoeksresultaten en suggesties

What leadership activities do employees need from their supervisor? New research findings and suggestions

Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 24, nr. 3, pp. 233-256.This article focuses on employees’ expectations and preferences about the behavior and activities of their direct supervisors. A sample of 304 employees working in four different organizations was asked which of 20 leader activities they needed personally, and which activities they considered neccesary for work unit performance in general. Both the series of items measuring the personal and general need for leadership could adequately be explained by one underlying dimension. The response patterns on the questions measuring the general need for leadership were more strongly associated with the employees’ work unit and organization than the response patterns for the personal need for leadership. In addition to the commonly used presentation of work unit averages and organization averages, graphical configurations based on multidimensional unfolding provided insightful information about individual and subgroup preferences. Research into employees’ general and personal need for leadership may result in usable information in determining organizational policy.