Do birds of a feather communicate better? the cognitive style congruence between managers and their employees and communication satisfaction

Abstract

The paper investigates whether cognitive style congruence of managers and employees on the analytic-intuitive dimension influence employee communication satisfaction. The cognitive style and employee communication satisfaction was measured in 136 manager/employee dyads. Polynomial regression and surface analysis were used to analyze communication satisfaction under four conditions. First, an analytic congruence condition where both manager and employee are analytical, second, an intuitive congruence condition where both are intuitive, third, an incongruence condition where an intuitive manager manages an analytic employee, and fourth, another incongruence condition where an analytic manager manages an intuitive employee. Results supported the similarity effect hypothesis indicating that congruence increases employee communication satisfaction in general. Furthermore, the surface analysis also allowed us to see that the communication satisfaction is higher in the intuitive congruence condition. The study did not support the hypothesis that in incongruent dyads intuitive managers are preferred.