Supervisory Support Scale

Abstract

The Supervisory Support scale is a robust nine-item measure developed by Greenhaus, Parasuraman, and Wormley (1990) to quantitatively assess an employee’s subjective perceptions regarding the extent and quality of support provided by their direct supervisor. This measure focuses on capturing behaviors that facilitate professional development and career advancement. Supervisory support, as measured by this instrument, includes vital elements such as providing career guidance, offering constructive performance feedback, assigning challenging work, and creating opportunities that enhance employee development and organizational visibility.

Keywords

Supervisory Support, Organizational Behavior, Employee Development, Supervisory Support scale, Job Satisfaction, Performance Feedback, Work Environment, Career Outcomes.

Authors

J. H. Greenhaus, A. Parasuraman, W. M. Wormley.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Supervisory Support scale is to provide researchers and practitioners with a reliable method for gauging the perceived level of positive interaction and resource allocation channeled through the immediate supervisor. This measurement is foundational for understanding the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship and its subsequent impact on employee well-being and productivity.

The scale specifically investigates the supervisor’s role as a career agent, assessing whether the supervisor is actively engaged in promoting the subordinate’s professional growth. It is designed to capture perceptions of support across various domains, including informational support (feedback, guidance), instrumental support (assignments, resources), and emotional support (caring about goals).

Construct

The scale measures the psychological construct of perceived **Supervisory Support**. This construct relates to an employee’s belief that their immediate manager provides them with the necessary resources, encouragement, and opportunities to succeed professionally and advance their career trajectory within the organization. It is a critical component of broader organizational support theories.

The nine items collectively operationalize support across three core areas: **Career Development** (learning goals, training support), **Performance Management** (feedback, advice, credit), and **Visibility/Opportunity** (challenging assignments, career information). The high internal consistency suggests that these facets converge strongly into a single, cohesive measure of overall perceived supervisory backing.

Validity

The initial validation study by Greenhaus et al. (1990) demonstrated strong criterion and construct validity through positive correlations with several established organizational variables. This suggests the scale accurately measures a construct predictive of positive career outcomes.

Specifically, the Supervisory Support scale demonstrated significant positive correlations with:

• Employee perceptions of acceptance within the work group or organization.
• Increased levels of job discretion and autonomy.
• Higher ratings of job performance, encompassing both task-related efficacy and relationship quality.
• Elevated employee promotability within the organizational structure.
• Overall high levels of career satisfaction.

Reliability

The Supervisory Support scale exhibits excellent internal consistency, indicating high reliability. In the original study (Greenhaus et al., 1990), the calculated internal consistency using Coefficient alpha was reported as **.93**. This value is significantly above the generally accepted threshold of .70, confirming that the items reliably measure the same underlying construct.

Factor Analysis

Although the original source content does not explicitly detail the factor structure derived from a specific factor analysis technique, the extremely high Coefficient alpha (.93) is highly indicative of a strong, unidimensional structure. This suggests that the nine items are best interpreted as loading onto a single factor representing the overarching construct of perceived **Supervisory Support** rather than multiple distinct sub-dimensions.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological scale

Format: Nine items scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale.

Language Available: English (Original publication language).

Population Group: Working Adults / Employees.

Age Group: Adult (Typically 20+).

Population Details: Originally administered to managerial and professional employees within a large organization in the United States as part of a study investigating career outcomes and organizational experiences based on race.

Test Methodology: Respondents are asked to rate their level of agreement with statements concerning their supervisor’s actions and attitudes toward them, using the provided 5-point scoring key.

Keywords

Organizational psychology, Human Resources, Management, Employee perception, Job performance, Organizational climate, Greenhaus, Career satisfaction.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in the source document.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in the source document.

Correspondence Address: Not specified in the source document.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1990

Permissions and Fees: The scale items were originally published in the appendix of the article in the *Academy of Management Journal*. The source notes that the items were reproduced with permission from the Academy of Management via Copyright Clearance Center for use in a textbook format. Researchers typically cite the original article when using the scale for non-commercial academic purposes. For commercial or large-scale use, permission should be sought directly from the Academy of Management.

Reference’s

Greenhaus, J. H., Parasuraman, A., & Wormley, W. M. (1990). Effects of race on organizational experiences, job performance evaluations, and career outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 33(1), 64-86.

Items of the Supervisory Support scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Responses are obtained using a 5-point Likert-type scale where 5 = strongly disagree, 4 = disagree to some extent, 3 = uncertain, 2 = agree to some extent, and 1 = strongly agree.

1. My supervisor takes the time to learn about my career goals and aspirations
2. My supervisor cares about whether or not I achieve my goals
3. My supervisor keeps me informed about different career opportunities for me in the organization
4. My supervisor makes sure I get the credit when I accomplish something substantial on the job
5. My supervisor gives me helpful feedback about my performance
6. My supervisor gives me helpful advice about improving my performance when I need it
7. My supervisor supports my attempts to acquire additional training or education to further my career
8. My supervisor provides assignments that give me the opportunity to develop and strengthen new skills
9. My supervisor assigns me special projects that increase my visibility in the organization