Interactions between leadership style, subordinate personality, and task type, and the effects of different combinations of these variables on group performance and satisfaction with supervision were investigated. Three different types of leaders were selected and trained; (a) high in human relations and high in task orientation, (b) low in human relations and high in task orientation, and (c) high in human relations and low in task orientation. Each leader worked with eight high-and eight low-dogmatism subjects on four tasks that differed in ambiguity and difficulty. As predicted, there were significant interaction effects for Leader X Subordinate X Task combinations (p<.0$). These effects on group performance were strongest for difficult-ambiguous tasks. Subordinates, regardless of their personality, were significantly more satisfied with leadership behavior that was high in human relations orientation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.