Management Communication Style, Tolerance for Disagreement, and Innovativeness as Predictors of Employee Satisfaction: A Comparison of Single-Factor, Two-Factor, and Multiple-Factor Approaches

Abstract

The construct of Management Communication Style (MCS), presumed to be a product of the organization's leadership style and the supervisor's communication style, was advanced as a theoretical predictor of employee satisfaction. It was found that MCS could be consistently and reliably measured and that MCS was linked in a linear fashion to employee satisfaction. As MCS becomes more subordinate-centered and interactive, employee satisfaction is increased. Because of the causal pattern implied, it is argued that future research involving intervention to alter MCS and study effects on employee satisfaction is justifled. Supplementary findings indicated that employee satisfaction is also linked to the employee's perception of her/his supervisor's tolerance for disagreement and the innovativeness of both the organization and the employee. Locke (1976) has estimated that over 3,300 studies on the subject of employee satisfaction have appeared in the literature. This volume of research certainly suggests that employee satisfaction is of considerable interest to a wide variety of scholars and implies such satisfaction is linked to "bottom line" concerns of organizations, such as productivity. While a clear one-to-one relationship between employee satiSfaction and employee productivity does not appear to exist, it is generally acknowledged by both scholars and practitioners that some relationship does exist, particularly in service-related organizations where real productivity is very difficult to define, much less measure. Similarly , employee satisfaction has been linked to employee turnover rates, a costly concern of most organizations whether their primary output is constituted of products or services. Of course, humanistic concerns have also influenced many to seek to understand the dynamics of employee satisfaction. Few would argue with the implied value premise that it is better for people to be happy than unhappy. With this large volume of research in the area of employee satisfaction it might be assumed that a consensus would have formed concerning the nature of such satisfaction. Quite the reverse is the case. There have been nearly as many operationalizations of employee satisfaction as there have been studies of the phenomenon. Conceptual definitions have also varied sharply, although not to the extent that operationalizations have. Before we present the foundations of the present study, therefore, it is important that we examine the nature of employee satisfaction as viewed in previous research.