Worker responses to supervisory communication inequity: an exploratory study

Selected communication behaviors of a supervisor with eight-member, ex-perimentally created workgroups were varied to create relative conditions of "overreward "or "underreward. " Information timeliness, receptive-ness to subordinates ’ questions, and provision of verbal approval state-ments were manipulated to create inequities in experimental groups. Mea-surements sought to determine if subjects perceived communication ineq-uity and to what extent their responses to it were consistent with previous equity theory testing. AN INDIVIDUAL’S SATISFACTION at work may readily be effected by communication interaction he experiences. Effec-tive communication with a supervisor can be particularly rewarding in that such interaction can provide information that reduces uncertainty about one’s present or future conditions at work (Thayer, 1968). It can also serve to satisfy needs for affiliation. Elaboration of this viewpoint (Timm & Wilkens, 1977) indicates that communication behavior in an organization can be viewed as valued rewards for employees. When recognized as such, communicative behavior can be subject to allocation strategies similar to those applied to tangi-ble resources. This conceptualization is potentially valuable for several reasons. First, in complex organizations, allocation of traditional forms of resources and rewards such as salary, pro-motion, status symbols, etc., is often rigidly controlled by company policy and/or union agreements. Managers, especially-at the lower or middle levels of authority, have little flexibility *This study is based on the author’s doctoral dissertation research a