Conflict & Perceptions of Empowerment

Conflict & Perceptions of Empowerment

Although organizational conflict among team members has been researched extensively, less attention has been afforded to conflicts between employees and supervisors.  However, it is important to note how empowerment relates to conflict.  “A higher sense of empowerment implies greater self-control and higher levels of intrinsic motivation through which people can self-manage their work behavior and performance standards” (Chen, Lam, Zhong, 2007).  Typically, “in supervisor - subordinate relationships, technical and administrative issues - which fall into the category of substantive conflicts - were the major topics of disagreements between employees and their supervisors” (Landry, Vandenberghe, 2009).  Instances of conflict resulting from personality clashes or barriers to interpersonal communication (i.e., relationship conflicts) are much less common.  These substantive conflicts (also called issue or task conflicts) refer to differences regarding ideas, opinions, organizational policies and procedures, and differing views on working situations (Landry, Vandenberghe, 2009).

In this particular study, the sample used consisted of 238 supervisor-subordinate dyads drawn from two Chinese limited corporations of the motor manufacturing industry, each with more than 1,500 workers.  Questionnaires focused on Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), empowerment climate, sense of empowerment, negative-feedback seeking behavior, and the insubordinates’ in-role performance, were administered to the groups of employees and supervisors in separate rooms.  The results were as follows:

1. LMX was found to be positively related to negative-feedback seeking behavior.
2. LMX was positively and significantly related to both the objective and subjective in-role performance of the subordinates.
3. Negative feedback-seeking behavior partially mediated the links between LMX and the subordinates’ objective and subjective in-role performance (Chen, Lam, Zhong, 2007). 

In summary, "subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior was found to mediate the relationship between LMX and work performance, a team’s empowerment climate was found to be positively related to subordinates’ sense of empowerment, and the moderating effect of LMX and empowerment was found to negatively moderate the LMX-performance link” (Chen, Lam, Zhong, 2007).

References:

Chen, Z., Lam, W., & Zhong, J.A. (2007). Leader-Member Exchange & Member

            Performance: A new look at Individual-Level Negative-Feedback Seeking

            Behavior & Team-Level Empowerment Climate [Electronic version].

            Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(1), 202-212.

Landry, G., Vandenberghe, C. (2009). Role of Commitment to the Supervisor,

            Leader-Member Exchange, & Supervisor-Based Self-Esteem in

Employee-Supervisor Conflicts [Electronic version]. Journal of Applied Psychology, 149(1), 5-27.

Depression & its affects

           

Depression & its affects

            “The World Health Organization (2000) estimates that unipolar depression is the currently the most prevalent psychiatric condition and predicts it to become the second most significant cause of global disease burden by 2020” (Thomas & Hersen, 2004, p.133).  Depression affects people of all genders, races, ages, and economic backgrounds, yet is twice more prevalent among women than men.  Factors causing depression include biochemistry, genetics, family history, substance abuse, illness, and traumatic life events.  In some cases the depression may be mild, while others are quite severe.  Some of these factors also become the effects of depression, i.e. substance abuse and illness.  This indirectly leads to increased accident rates, medical hospitalization, and outpatient care.  “The manifestations of depression are estimated to burden the U.S. economy as much as $44 billion per year…The most significant indirect cost is decreased productivity, which is a result of increased absenteeism” (Thomas & Hersen, 2004, p. 133).

            Due to the nature of the affects of depression on a national and personal level, Julie Totten founded Families for Depression Awareness (FFDA), a non-profit organization whose mission is to “help families recognize and cope with depressive disorders, to get people well, and prevent suicides” (familyaware.org, 2010).  (It’s one of the eighty national partners of the Outreach Partnership Program of the National Institute of Mental Health: NIMH).  They provide education, outreach, and advocacy to support families who have lost a loved one to suicide or have witnessed a family member experience depression, with little knowledge concerning how to assist them.  Families for Depression Awareness provide family profiles / interviews, promotional activities, speaking engagements, conferences, workshops, community outreach to schools, police stations, health facilities, religious organizations, nursing homes, and employers.  A workplace program to assist employers was created in response to the current economic crisis.  This program helps employers to lower costs, increase productivity, and realize a better utilization of the company’s Employee Assistance Programs (EAP).  Within this program, FFDA implements workplace training, community service, employee communications, and disability education.  To learn more, contact: Julie Totten at

( 781)-890-0220 or info@familyaware.org.

            The Nurse Practitioner, the American Journal of Primary Health Care, posted a review of depression’s effects on work performance.  Between 2001 and 2003, “researchers compared the workplace habits of 286 depressed workers to those of 193 who were not depressed” (Lerner, Adler, Rogers, 2010).  The depressed group suffered from a lack of motivation, fatigue, managing their workload and routines, keeping up with a fast pace, and multitasking, all of which decreased their productivity.  Again this problem has become widespread and poses large economic and personal costs.

            As more outreach organizations such as Families for Depression Awareness and Employee Assistance Programs combat depression in the workplace, hopefully America will “reduce indirect workplace costs caused by the disorder” (Lerner et al., 2010).

References:

Families for Depression Awareness. Retrieved from http://www.familyaware.org. 

Lerner, D., Adler, D.A., Rogers, W.H. et al. (2010). Workplace Performance of

Employees with Depression: the impact of work stressors. Literature Review: Depression’s effects on work performance. The Nurse Practitioner: The American Journal of Primary Health Care, Vol. 35, 6-6. Retrieved from American Journal of Health Promotion, 24(3): 205-213.

Thomas, J. & Hersen, M. (2004). Psychopathology in the Workplace. New York, NY:

            Brunner-Routledge.