Individual Power Balancing Styles in Organizations

It was hypothesized that organizational participants have one of four preferred power balancing styles--Independent Style, Outside Interests Style, Organization Man Style, or Collegial Style--and further hypothesized that such styles have biographical correlates and that certain styles will tend to be overrepresented in organizations. The Situation-Reaction Checklist was developed for measuring the preferred power balancing style of faculty members in one large school, in a university, and in two community colleges. Subjects were asked to respond to the mailed questionnaire, and a panel of raters at each of the institutions also assigned each subject to one of the four style categories. Statistical analysis of the data, showing close correspondence between subject and panel ratings, showed considerable proof of the existence of power balancing styles among college faculty. Biological correlates of styles were also demonstrated, and the groups were heavily biased toward Styles III and IV. The Style III (Organization Man) person (characterized by building of organizational dependency on the individual through hard work and flattery of superiors) is oloer, stable, pro-administration, and supports major cultural values. The Style IV (collegial) person (favoring unions or informal pressure groups) is young, anti-administration, less accepting of major cultural values, and has had a career path with an early calling. (JT)