Supportive and Non-Controlling Supervision Scale

Abstract

The Supportive and Non-Controlling Supervision scale is a 12-item psychometric instrument developed by Oldham and Cummings (1996) designed to assess employee perceptions of their immediate supervisor’s behavior. The measure is divided into two distinct subscales: Supportive Supervision (eight items) and Non-Controlling Supervision (four items).

Supportive supervision reflects behaviors where the supervisor shows concern for employee feelings and needs, encourages them to voice concerns, provides positive, chiefly informational feedback, and facilitates employee skill development. In contrast, controlling supervision, which is measured inversely by the non-controlling subscale, involves closely monitoring employee behavior, making decisions unilaterally, and pressuring employees to conform to prescribed ways of thinking or behaving.

Keywords

Supervision, Organizational Behavior, Supportive Supervision, Non-Controlling Supervision, Employee Perception, Job Complexity, Employee Creativity, Performance Ratings, Intentions to Quit.

Authors

Greg R. Oldham, Anne Cummings

Purpose

The primary purpose of the scale is to measure how employees perceive the motivational climate established by their direct supervisors, specifically focusing on the degree to which supervision is autonomy-supportive versus controlling. This measurement allows researchers and practitioners to link specific supervisory styles to critical organizational outcomes such as employee creativity and job performance.

The instrument operationalizes two key dimensions of supervisory behavior known to influence intrinsic motivation, providing a robust tool for analyzing contextual factors affecting employee outcomes in the workplace. It is specifically useful for investigating how leadership style impacts employee attitudes and behavioral outputs.

Construct

The scale measures two related but distinct dimensions of the supervisory relationship based partly on principles derived from Self-Determination Theory: Supportive Supervision and Non-Controlling Supervision.

• Supportive Supervision: This dimension captures the extent to which a supervisor demonstrates genuine care, facilitates employee growth, provides encouragement for voicing concerns, and offers positive, constructive feedback. It focuses on the proactive, positive assistance provided by the supervisor.

• Non-Controlling Supervision: This dimension reflects the absence of restrictive, controlling behaviors. A high score indicates that the supervisor avoids micromanagement, close monitoring, and the use of pressure, thereby granting employees autonomy in determining how to approach their tasks. This construct is crucial for fostering an environment conducive to creativity.

Validity

Evidence for the scale’s construct validity was established through its correlation patterns with established organizational variables, demonstrating relationships consistent with theoretical expectations (Oldham & Cummings, 1996).

• Non-Controlling Supervision: This subscale correlated positively with high levels of job complexity, favorable employee performance ratings, and enhanced employee creativity.

• Supportive Supervision: This subscale also showed significant positive correlations with job complexity, employee performance ratings, and the non-controlling supervision subscale. Critically, supportive supervision was found to correlate negatively with employees’ stated intentions to quit, highlighting its importance for organizational retention.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the two subscales was assessed using Coefficient Alpha ($alpha$). The results indicated acceptable to good reliability for both dimensions, confirming their internal consistency for research use (Oldham & Cummings, 1996).

• Supportive Supervision: The internal consistency for the eight-item subscale was strong, yielding a Coefficient Alpha of .86.

• Non-Controlling Supervision: The internal consistency for the four-item subscale was acceptable, with a Coefficient Alpha of .67.

Factor Analysis

An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted on the 12 items to confirm the underlying dimensional structure. The analysis successfully extracted a clear two-factor solution, which strongly supported the theoretical distinction between the two supervisory constructs measured by the scale.

The first factor was composed exclusively of the eight items reflecting supportive supervision. The second factor consisted of the remaining four items, which reflected non-controlling supervision. This clear two-factor solution confirms the measure’s psychometric integrity and its ability to separately assess both the positive (supportive) and permissive (non-controlling) aspects of supervisory behavior.

Instrument

Test Type: Psychometric Self-Report Scale

Format: 12 items utilizing a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). Four items are reverse-scored (R).

Language Available: English (Original Publication)

Population Group: Working Adults / Employees

Age Group: Adult (Typical working age population)

Population Details: Employees across various organizational settings, focusing on perceptions of their direct supervisor.

Test Methodology: Self-administered questionnaire, typically used in surveys designed to assess organizational climate, job design, and motivational studies.

Keywords

Organizational Climate, Supervisory Style, Autonomy Support, Micromanagement, Feedback, Retention, Psychological Measurement, Coefficient Alpha, Likert Scale.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was first published in 1996 in the Academy of Management Journal. The items were reproduced with permission of the Academy of Management via the Copyright Clearance Center for use in subsequent textbook formats. Researchers or organizations intending to use the scale should seek formal permission directly from the Academy of Management.

Test Year: 1996

Reference’s

Oldham, G. R., & Cummings, A. (1996). Employee creativity: Personal and contextual factors at work. Academy of Management Journal, 39(3), 607-634. The original items were sourced from the appendix (p. 634).

Deci, E. L., Connell, J. P., & Ryan, R. M. (1989). Self-determination theory: A dialectical framework for understanding the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. In D. R. Hales (Ed.), The nature of motivation (pp. 45-66). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Items of the Supportive and Non-Controlling Supervision scale

Responses are obtained using a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree.

Supportive supervision items:

1. My supervisor helps me solve work-related problems
2. My supervisor encourages me to develop new skills
3. My supervisor keeps informed about how employees think and feel about things
4. My supervisor encourages employees to participate in important decisions
5. My supervisor praises good work
6. My supervisor encourages employees to speak up when they disagree with a decision
7. My supervisor refuses to explain his or her actions (R)
8. My supervisor rewards me for good performance

Non-controlling supervision items:

1. My supervisor always seems to be around checking on my work (R)
2. My supervisor tells me what shall be done and how it shall be done (R)
3. My supervisor never gives me a chance to make important decisions on my own (R)
4. My supervisor leaves it up to me to decide how to go about doing my job

Items denoted with (R) are reverse scored.