THE ASSOCIATION OF LEADERSHIP STYLE WITH JOB SATISFACTION IN CONSULTING BUSINESSES (EMPLOYEE, MANAGER)

Literature on organizational behavior comes from a heritage of research done in industrial organizations. Because consulting businesses differ in nature from industrial ones, and from other service institutions, they may involve unique manager-subordinate relationships. Thus, this study was conducted because of the growing importance of the consulting industry, and the limited work that has been done on the relationship between manager leadership style and the job satisfaction of their employees in this type of organization. This study was conducted in two technical consulting firms, and two standardized surveys were used. The Leadership Opinion Questionnaire (LOQ) measured the leadership style of forty five managers in terms of their levels of consideration and structure. Job satisfaction was measured by the mean scores on the seven dimensions of the Existence, Relatedness and Growth (ERG) survey administered to 137 employees of these managers. The dimensions of the ERG are: pay, fringe benefits, freedom from physical danger, respect from superiors, respect from peers, respect from clients and growth. Managers and employees also responded to four demographic questions. Two hypotheses were tested: Hypothesis One. Managers who displayed high consideration, as indicated by their LOQ survey scores, would have more satisfied employees, as measured by the ERG survey scores, than managers who displayed a low consideration leadership style; Hypothesis Two. Managers who displayed high consideration and high structure leadership style would have more satisfied employees than managers with high consideration and low structure leadership style. A test of Hypothesis One by an analysis of variance routine indicated that the employees were more satisfied with their jobs on the dimensions of respect from peers and clients under high consideration managers than low consideration managers. A test of Hypothesis Two by an analysis of variance routine did not show any statistically significant differences on any of the seven job satisfaction dimensions between employees of the two manager groups. The results of this study could not definitively associate manager leadership style and employee job satisfaction. However, it suggests that manager/employees relationships be further studied in consulting organizations.