FAITH IN SUPERVISION AND THE SELF-ENHANCEMENT BIAS - 2 PSYCHOLOGICAL REASONS WHY MANAGERS DONT EMPOWER WORKERS

This study provides evidence for 2 psychological processes that may he lp explain managers' reluctance to use worker empowerment practices su ch as delegation or self-managing teams: (a) a faith in supervision ef fect, which reflects the tendency of observers to see work performed u nder the control of a supervisor as better than identical work done wi thout as much supervision; and (b) a self-enhancement effect, which re flects the tendency of mangers to evaluate a work product more highly the more self-involved they are in its production. Because empowerment practices dilute managers' individualized supervision of work, they c an also reduce managers' biased perceptions of work quality. Support f or this argument was obtained in that (a) participants assigned higher quality to the identical work product as supervisory involvement incr eased, (b) they did so at elevated levels when they had more self-invo lvement in supervising the work, and (c) a team-based, empowerment ori entation curtailed both biases.