The Influence of Supervisor Temperament on Subordinate Job Satisfaction and Perceptions of Supervisor Sociocommunicative Orientation and Approachability

The goal of this study was to re-examine McCroskey, Valencic, and Richmond’s findings about the impact of a teacher’s temperament on her or his students by examining the findings in a different context, the supervisor-subordinate relationship in organizational settings. This study measured a supervisor’s temperament to see if it affected a subordinate’s job satisfaction, motivation, and perceptions of supervisor credibility, sociocommunicative style, and approachability. Results indicated a positive relationship between supervisor psychoticism and subordinate job satisfaction and motivation, while supervisor extraversion and neuroticism negatively related to subordinate job satisfaction and motivation. Furthermore, results indicated a positive relationship between supervisor extraversion and subordinate perceptions of supervisor responsiveness, and a negative relationship between supervisor neuroticism and psychoticism and subordinate perceptions of supervisor responsiveness. Overall, a supervisor’s temperament was shown to affect subordinate perceptions of supervisor communicative behavior.