A close look at conflictual supervisory relationships: The trainee's perspective.

Abstract

In a qualitative study of negative supervision, 13 master's and doctoral trainees were interviewed about a supervision experience that had a detrimental effect on their training. Many supervisors were described as not being invested in the relationship and as being unwilling to own their role in conflicts. Many trainees described being overworked without proper supervision, some felt expected to support their supervisors, and many underwent extreme stress and self-doubt. Most participants reported ongoing power struggles with angry supervisors, and most relied on peers, other professionals, and therapists for support. Qualitative themes were consistent with trainees' high scores on the Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity Inventory (M.E. Oik & M.L. Friedlander, 1992) and with their low ratings of their supervisors' attractiveness and interpersonal sensitivity on the Supervisory Styles Inventory (M.L. Friedlander & L.G. Ward, 1984).

Predoctoral interns’ nondisclosure in supervision

“…Even supervisors find it difficult to give feedback to supervisees about the supervisory relationship (Hoffman et al, 2005), so it is not surprising that interns, who are one down in the power relationship, felt it too risky to address their concerns. Nelson and Friedlander (2001) similarly found that problems in poor supervisory relationships went unresolved.…”

“…Advanced trainees may be more susceptible to role conflict than novice trainees because they expect, and may have already experienced, collegial and collaborative supervisory relationships Nelson & Friedlander, 2001;Olk & Friedlander, 1992). As evidenced by the low scores on the SSI, however, interns in problematic relationships did not report collegiality from their supervisors and may also have felt that their supervisors did not acknowledge their clinical experience.…”

Stresses reported by UK trainee counselling psychologists

“…Some of the stressors identified in the survey cannot be thought of as essential or necessary aspects of training -for instance, poor supervision of client work (see also Nelson & Friedlander, 2001), and (something that affects clinical far less than counselling psychology trainees in the UK) financial costs, such as fees, loss of earnings while training, childcare, personal therapy and extra supervision (see also Jensen, 1995).…”

Testing and Expanding an Emotion-Centered Model of Workplace Aggression: The Moderating Effects of Perceived Intensity and Social Support in the Workplace

“…Social support has been shown to reduce a number of negative outcomes including increases in cardiovascular symptoms and negative affect (Buunk & Verhoeven, 1991;Evans & Steptoe, 2001;Halbesleben, 2006;Peeters et al, 1995). In a qualitative study, Nelson and Friedlander (2001) found that students experiencing conflict with their supervisors often turned to peers for support. Peeters and colleagues (1995) used a longitudinal design to measure female secretaries' stressful events, perceived social support, and negative affect over a one-week period and found within-and between-person buffering effects of task related social support.…”