Differential self-perceptions of management personnel and line workers

Abstract

"A 64-pair forced-choice adjective check-list was filled out by 463 management personnel and 320 line workers. The responses of the individuals in the two groups were analyzed for each of the pairs of adjectives, and it was found that 25 pairs differentiated the two groups at the .05 level of confidence or better. From these differentiating adjectives, integrated pictures of the self-perceptions of the two groups were developed. Management personnel tended more often to describe themselves in terms of leadership-type traits, whereas line workers relatively more often pictured themselves in cooperative-follower terms. These findings were discussed as to their implications for understanding organizational structure and functioning and for labor-management relations." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)