COMMUNICATION STYLE AND POWER ORIENTATIONS OF MANAGERS AND NONMANAGERS (NURSING).
Contributors: University of Denver.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 168
Subjects: Speech Communication.
Description: This descriptive comparative study was designed to investigate the difference between managers and nonmanagers in their orientations to power and in their communication style. A complementary purpose was to examine the relationships between the six orientations to power and communication styles.

The study was conducted by randomly selecting 47 hospitals in the State of Colorado. The director of nursing and a staff nurse from each hospital were asked to complete the Power Orientation Scale (Goldberg, Cavanaugh, and Larson), and to obtain peer ratings of themselves by asking five individuals with whom they work to describe them on the Social Style Profile (Wilson Learning Corporation).

The research hypotheses predicted that (1) managers would hold significantly stronger, more positive orientations to power than would nonmanagers; (2) managers would be perceived as communicating in a significantly more assertive and versatile manner than nonmanagers; and (3) there would be a significant positive relationship between each of the six power orientations and the communication styles of assertiveness and versatility.

Results of the study indicated that managers hold significantly more positive orientations to three of the six power orientations ("power as good," "power as political" and "power as control and autonomy") than nonmanagers. No support was found for the hypothesized differences between managers and nonmanagers in their orientations to "power as resource dependency," "power as instinctive drive," or "power as charisma." Thus hypothesis one was partially accepted.

The results of the study also indicated that managers were perceived as significantly more assertive than nonmanagers. No differences were found between managers and nonmanagers on versatile communication style. Hypothesis two was partially supported.

When correlations between the six power orientations and communication styles were analyzed, four significant correlations were obtained. Versatile communication style was negatively associated with "power as good" and with "power as resource dependency" at p < .001; versatile communication style was negatively associated with "power as charisma: at p < .01. Assertive communication style was negatively associated with "power as resource dependency" at p < .05. These findings partially support the position that power orientations are related to communication style, although the relationships were not in the direction anticipated.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-04, Section: A, page: 1114.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF DENVER, 1986.

School code: 0061.