Premium
The Role of the Foreman in Modern Industry: III. Some Correlates of Foreman Identification with Management 1
Author(s) -
BALMA M. J.,
MALONEY J. C.,
LAWSHE C. H.
Publication year - 1958
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1958.tb00039.x
Subject(s) - identification (biology) , psychology , feeling , productivity , work (physics) , social psychology , applied psychology , economics , mechanical engineering , botany , biology , engineering , macroeconomics
Summary H aving reported in previous issues of Personnel Psychology (1, 2) on the nature of the changing role of the foreman, the development of an indirect measure of foreman identification with management (FIM), and the relationship between this measure and two aspects of supervisory effectiveness–work group productivity and employee attitude toward the foreman, the present article reports a series of secondary analyses which may assist in a better understanding of foreman identification with management. In the relationship study it was found that the FIM scores varied significantly between plants, as did the relationship between FIM and work group productivity, suggesting that certain plant variables may be more important than individual variables; however, the research design did not lend itself to the study of plant differences. It was possible to obtain some correlates of foreman identification with management, however, which should be taken into consideration in further research :1) superiority of the indirect approach to measuring foremen identification with management; 2) a lack of relationship between FIM scores and the foreman's feelings of importance received from his job; 3) a consistent trend upward, but no significant relationship between FIM scores and tenure as a foreman; 4) no significant relationships between FIM scores and foreman age or shift; 5) increasing sizes of work groups supervised showed significant increases in FIM scores; 6) foreladies scored significantly lower than foremen; and 7) better educated foremen scored significantly higher than less well educated foremen. Implications are discussed.