SUPERVISOR BEHAVIORS, ROLE STRESSORS AND UNCERTAINTY AS PREDICTORS OFPERSONAL OUTCOMES FOR SUBORDINATES

Among employees of comparable organizations in the United States and N ew Zealand, role stressors (ambiguity and conflict), along with effort -to-performance uncertainty, performance-to-outcome uncertainty and do ubt about acceptance by one's supervisor, generally predicted job sati sfaction, psychological strain and turnover intentions. Path analyses of three alternative theoretical models highlighted the importance of job satisfaction as a mediator of the effects of role stressors and un certainty on strain and turnover intentions. Role stressors contribute d separately and via uncertainty to all three outcome measures, but su bordinate perceptions of supervisor behaviors added little independent predictive power, once the role stressors and uncertainty were accoun ted for. These findings support the hypothesis that supervisors can in fluence the degree of role stress and uncertainty which their subordin ates experience, which in turn may affect levels of satisfaction, stra in and turnover intentions.