The contribution of supervisor behaviour to employee psychological well-being

Many employees affirm that super-visors affect employee well-being, and research has demonstrated associations between super-visor behaviour and employee psychological well-being. However, what hasn't been clear is the extent to which the association with super-visor behaviour compares with that of other variables known to affect well-being. This exploratory study addresses that issue. Our hypothesis was that supervisor behaviour can contribute to the prediction of psychiatric disturbance beyond the contribution of other influential variables. We created a new, questionnaire-based instrument to measure super-visor behaviour. We tested our hypothesis using stepwise regression with a convenience sample of 167 men and women working in a variety of organizations, occupations, and industries in the USA. Results supported our hypothesis: supervisor behaviour made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of psychiatric disturbance beyond a step-one variate comprised of age, health practices, support from other people at work, support from home, stressful life events, and stressful work events. This provides additional evidence that supervisor behaviour can affect employee well-being and suggests that those seeking to create healthier workplaces should not neglect super-vision. We believe that there is now ample justification for those concerned with psychosocial working conditions to consider super-visor behaviour as a potentially influential variable. Furthermore, we believe that we have presented a new instrument for assessing supervisor behaviour that has the potential to be of value in future studies.