Date of Award
1995
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Abstract
The present study examined the effect of three leadership styles (i.e., charismatic, structuring and considerate) and three feedback conditions (i.e., internal inspection, external inspection and no feedback) on individual performance on a manufacturing task and on attitudes towards the task and the leader.;One hundred and forty eight graduate business students were randomly assigned to one of three leadership conditions and one of three feedback conditions. They then participated in an exercise which required them to build four electrical wiring harnesses and complete a series of questionnaires. The questionnaires measured their self-efficacy before each trial and their attitude towards the task and the leader after the last trial.;Repeated measures multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that both internally- and externally-generated feedback produced significantly greater product quality over time than did no feedback. A significant interaction effect between leadership style and task feedback revealed that the quality of the products made by participants in the charismatic leadership condition was sustained even in the absence of task feedback. When self-efficacy was added to the multivariate analysis of covariance as a second covariate, the significant interaction effect between leadership style and task feedback became nonsignificant. This indicates that self-efficacy mediates this relationship.;Multivariate analysis of covariance also indicated that leadership style affected participants' attitude towards the task such that those in the charismatic leadership groups found the task to be more significant than those in either the structuring or considerate leadership groups. Leadership style also affected participants' attitude towards the leader such that those in the structuring leadership condition reported less liking for the leader than participants in either the charismatic or considerate condition.
Recommended Citation
Shea, Christine M., "A Test Of The Effects Of Leadership Style And Task Feedback On Self-efficacy, Performance Quality And Attitudes" (1995). Digitized Theses. 2480.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/2480