One hundred and twenty six undergraduates were cast
into a supervisory role in which they worked with a
subordinate (confederate) for two twenty minute work
sessions. Subjects were placed into one of nine conditions.
Subordinate reaction (positive, negative, or none) and
subsequent performance (increased, decreased, or same) were
manipulated by the confederate. Both reaction conditions
were predicted to influence a leniency bias in the
supervisor's rating behavior, and either increase (negative
reaction), or decrease (positive reaction) amount of
supervision. Also, supervisors exposed to the positive
reaction were hypothesized to provide more self attributions,
while supervisors in the negative reaction
group should tend toward greater self—serving attributions.
In addition, supervisor response to interpersonal
attraction, conflict avoidance, and uncertainty scales were
obtained. Both ratings and amount of supervision measures
failed to yield significant results. Partial support was
found for the attribution hypothesis, and differences on the
interpersonal attraction scales were obtained for the
experimental reaction conditions. Implications of the
results and suggestions for possible research are discussed.
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