Supervisor and Employee Perceptions : Employees’ Perceptions of Their Supervisors’ Thoughts on Them

Abstract

Previous research has linked quality of the supervisor-employee relationship with job satisfaction. However, what employees perceive their supervisor thinks of them has not been examined. Quality of supervisor-employee relationships has also been associated with life satisfaction, but the role life satisfaction may play when considering all these associations is unclear. Using a Qualtrics survey with Spector’s (1994) Job Satisfaction scale, Rubin’s (1970) Liking Scale, Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin’s (1985) Life Satisfaction scale, and Weimann’s (1977) Communication Competence scale, this study looked for potential relationships between employee perceptions of supervisor liking and job satisfaction and tested whether life satisfaction moderated the relationship between the two. This study tests the self-fulfilling prophecy theory (Merton, 1948) to examine whether employees’ perceptions of relational realities are associated with outcomes important to individuals and organizations, thereby opening a potential avenue for improving the supervisor/employee relationship.