The Dual Basis for Subordinate's Perception of Change

THE DUAL BASIS FOR SUBORDINATE'S PERCEPTION OF CHANGE Anthony Senger, B.S.M.E. Marquette U ni versity, 2012 Psychological research has shown that perception often works in a dual-basis in which a person examines a subject and weighs the subject against an ideal and non-ideal scale, independently. There have been few studies though, that have tried to apply this mechanism as a component of the dynamics involved in Leadership Studies, Organizational Behavior, or Change Management. If the mechanism is active in subordinates, then leaders can make better-informed decisions regarding their organizations, based on an understanding that reaction to both their actions and to changes that they enact are based not only on perceived ideal characteristics, but also non-ideal characteristics. This study (n = 114) sought to identify whether subordinates who have recently experienced a change within their organization were affected by the change and their leaders' behavior through a dual-basis of perception mechanism. Results confirm that the perception on ideal and non-ideal scales for a change and for leader behavior does account for some of the variance seen in an organization's members' engagement. The strength of the perception mechanism and the positive or negative influence that the perceptions have on the subordinates were not as expected. In the body of Leadership Studies, these findings add value to the understanding that leadership is founded in the leader-follower relationship and that this relationship is affected by perceptions of both ideals and non-ideals. THE DUAL BASIS FOR SUBORDINATE'S PERCEPTION OF CHANGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Anthony Senger, B.S.M.E. The first and primary acknowledgement is to my amazing wife, Beth. Without her encouragement, patience, and willingness to share in the burden of continuing education, I would never have been able to pursue this dream of a degree in leadership studies. The rest of my family, both Sengers and Garvins, are thanked for their patience and understanding through the years while I was often present but distracted with the necessary self absorption that comes from pursuing an advanced degree. I hope that the results of my work honor my family, especially my mother Mary Ann and my late father Gunter. Professionally, I'd like to acknowledge Dr. Jay Caulfield who acted as an advisor, a mentor, and an inspirational example of living as a leader. Thank you to Brian Truka for his guidance during the statistical analysis portions of this study and to Sharon Harney for her assistance as an editor. Dr. Mark Polczynski was tireless in his efforts at maintaining the Engineering Management Courses and in teaching real-world engineering. His work was critical to the Engineering Track portion of my degree. Emily Hernandez has been an amazing influence throughout my studies as a team member on projects, as a patient and diligent student advisor, and ultimately as a friend through common experience and values in life. Barbara Gaeth and Jason Marino, two fellow students in Leadership Studies, acted as great team members, personal inspirations, and confidants throughout my time at Marquette. Finally, I'd like to acknowledge all my friends, family, and the resulting snowball of friends and family that volunteered to share their experience and who gave of their own personal time to be a part of this study. THE DUAL BASIS FOR SUBORDINATE'S PERCEPTION OF CHANGE 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . i LIST OF TABLES . iv CHAPTER I. THE DUAL BASIS FOR SUBORDINATE'S PERCEPTION OF CHANGE . 1 II. LITERATURE REVIEW . 2 Leadership Perspective on Change . 2 Alignment between Leaders, Followers, and Organizations . 3 Member's Perception as a Component of Organization . 5 The Dual Scale Basis for Perception . 6 Engagement as an Effect of Leadership and Change . 7 Hypothesis . 9 III. METHODOLOGY . 10 Study Design and Population . 10 Dependent Variable Engagement . 11 Independent Variables Alignment to Ideal and Non-Ideal Change and Leaders' Actions . J 2 Moderating Variables . ] 3 Analysis . 14 IV. FINDINGS . 15 Demographic Summary . 15 Results . 16 Overall Data and Potential Outliers . 16 THE DUAL BAS IS FOR SUBORDINATE'S PERCEPTION OF CHANGE I II Perception of Change . 18 Perceplion of Leader . 20 Regress ion Models wi lhout Outliers . 22 VariHllce and Regress ion Estimates for Dummy Variables . 25 Discussion . , . , . 26 Y. CONCLUS ION . 28 Research Limitations . 28 Future Studies . 29 Concluding Relnarks . 30 Yl REFERENCES . 31