Individual Characteristic for Managerial Effectiveness in a Competitive

Environment: An Exploration

Manjari Srivastava*
Arvind K. Sinha**

Abstract

Increasing competition around the globe requires a cadre of effective managers to run the day
to day operations in their organizations. This study is an exploration towards identifying the
relationship between certain individual level variables and managerial effectiveness
variables. Secondly, the study further examines the underlying dimensions of “managerial
effectiveness variables”, which may be relevant for the organizations in present global
scenario. The individual level variables were values, needs, maturity, locus of control, work
ethic, self-monitoring, learned helplessness, self-awareness, self-limiting behavior, and self-
consciousness. Managerial effectiveness was conceptualized in terms of competence,
satisfaction, conflict resolution, need fulfillment, value realization, self-concept and
recognition. Factor analysis and canonical correlations were sought to answer the research
questions. Factor-Analysis Results revealed the underlying dimensions of the variables under
study. Canonical correlations revealed that a positive significant relationship existed between
these two. The nature of the dimensions and the implications are discussed.

*****
As we turn the first page of the new millennium, we witness a plethora of changes occurring
in the world. Name anything, world politics, social values, business, technology, people etc
they all are facing the heat of tough competition. Everything is getting affected by change
and in turn also affecting this ‘cycle of change’. It is time to take a step back from the
mundane and reflect on the path through which the management discipline guided the
business world so far. We may thus continue to learn from the past as it informs the present
and at the same time discern how and where we should go i.e. taking cue from the past
researches management has to develop and find a solution to deal with globalization led stiff
competition among business organizations.
Managerial effectiveness is one such issue which has caught the attention of theorists
as well as practitioners time and again to deal in competitive business environment. It is very
important for the survival and growth of the organization. It is difficult to define managerial
effectiveness in concrete terms. A review of literature shows that managerial effectiveness
has been studied with three perspectives:

1. Traditional/Conventional perspective
2. Organizational level competency based perspective, and
3. An individual level competency based perspective.

The traditional model emphasizes the ability to set and achieve goals where it is implicitly
assumed that managerial effectiveness leads to organizational effectiveness (Campbell,
1970). Personal effectiveness (in problem solving perspective) refers to an ability to solve
four of the systems problems. They are (a) adaptation, (b) goal attainment, (c) integration,
and (d) latency or tension management (Sutton & Ford, 1982).

* Assistant Professor, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Management Studies & Research, Navi Mumbai,
E-mail: s_manjari2@rediffmail.com
** Professor, HSS Department of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. E-mail: aks@iik.ac.in
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The organizational competency based approach implies that there is long-term future
orientation that accounts for both external and internal influences on the organizations. Bursk
(1955) suggested that executive effectiveness includes more than the achievement of
profitable records, it is more than individual brilliance and personal ability to solve problems.
It is the ability to strike balances among responsibilities to oneself, one’s company,
associates, industry and community. This approach highlights towards creating a vision for
the future of the organization, setting the goals for achievement. Here, the organization tries
to create the system and environment with the help of skills and characteristics of managers
that lead them to achieve strategic intents.
The individual competency based approach to managerial effectiveness focuses upon
the individual rather than the organization. The purpose of this approach is to develop
transferable (generic) management skills that are applicable across different circumstances
both nationally and internationally. Drucker (1967), Rao (1985), Katz (1974), Bandura
(1982), emphasize the development of individual competency to be an effective executive.
Effectiveness is best seen as something a manager produces from a situation by
managing it appropriately, producing the results or meeting the targets in every sphere of the
activities of organizations. The manager’s job is linked with three major dimensions—
technical, conceptual, and human (Katz, 1974). The productivity of any organization can be
increased by the effective management of all the three dimensions and specially by managing
the conceptual and human dimensions of management.
To be effective is the job of executive. The executive is expected to get the right
things done and this is simply saying that he is expected to be effective (Drucker 1967, p 1).
Individual’s effectiveness is a key component in making an individual successful in all
aspects of life; including the organizational life. That is why we need effective executives.
Apparently within a company, managerial competence is important, particularly at the level
where the shortage of top-flight ability is most keenly felt. However, little attention seems to
have been paid to managerial effectiveness in comparison to some other aspects of
organizational dynamics.
According to Campbell (1970) managerial effectiveness should reflect in
organizational effectiveness as well. Even if it does not, the effectiveness of the individuals
by itself should be a matter of concern; because performing well is a prerequisite to any
subsequent positive organizational dynamics.
The concept of effectiveness is dealt with different ways in different times by
theorists and real life practitioners. Undoubtedly it is difficult to arrive at a single conclusion
on the construct of managerial effectiveness. The present study is an attempt to explore
further on this ever important construct of managerial effectiveness.

Aspects of individual effectiveness

Individual effectiveness was conceptualized in terms of individual need fulfillment
satisfaction, value realization, competence, and conflict resolution. Research in management
discipline has evidences that above mentioned variables are relevant enough to be construed
as aspects of individual effectiveness.

Need Fulfillment
A number of theorists and researchers have expressed the significance of need fulfillment in
an individual’s overall success in life (Parker, 1991; Tellefsen, 2002; Cantor, 1994; Ryan &
Deci, 2001; LaGuardia et. al. 2000).

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Satisfaction
A number of researchers have equated satisfaction with personal effectiveness (Cox, 2003;
Organ, 1977; Spreitzer, Kizilos & Nason, 1997). Kanungo (1986) stated that for some role
incumbents, intrinsic needs may be more important than extrinsic needs and job satisfaction
results when organizations provide their employees with specific outcomes that they value,
expect to receive and consider equitable.
Off-the – Job satisfaction
Many Researchers have found that “off-the-job satisfaction” could also be thought of as
having multiple facets like job satisfaction. Takalkar and covert (1994) measured job
satisfaction in an Indian corporation. They suggested that the structure of job satisfaction in
India was a modification of an eight oblique factor model proposed by Spector (1985). The
eight correlated factors were pay, promotion, supervision, operation procedures, nature of
work, co-workers, communication, and benefits.
Das and Mital (1994) investigated the moderating effects of production feedback and
standard, singly or jointly, on the relationship between worker satisfaction and productivity.
Results indicated no substantial correlation between worker satisfaction and productivity.

Satisfaction in the present context. Satisfaction was conceptualized in terms of discrepancy

between what one aspires for and what one actually gets. The construct of satisfaction in this
work was planned to be explored with respect to the construct of value realization.
Discrepancy score was derived between aspired values and values actually attained, thus the
construct of satisfaction was treated to be related to the construct of value realization.

Competence
Competence is viewed as an ability, capacity or skill to perform a specific task. Wanger and
Morse (1975) probably for the first time, made an attempt to study competence of managers.
Recently a number of researchers have conducted studies on competence in work or job
context (Boyatzis 1982, Odewahn & Petty1980; Sekaram and Wagner, 1980, Shukla 1988).

Competence in present context The term competence was conceived as the capacities of an
individual to interact effectively with the person’s environment. Discrepancy score was
derived between the expected increase in capacities and attained capacities as a result of
experience on job. Conceptually the idea is to look for the person’s maturity in various
capacities in mastering personal effectiveness.

Conflict Resolution
By and large, conflict is a part of life, be it in a work setting or personal sphere of the
individual. Pareek (1982), Monat and Lazarus (1977), Karabik, Baril& Watson (1993), Xie,
Song & Sringfellow (1998), emphasized the significance of conflict resolution for managerial
effectiveness.

The Variables in the Study

This work is primarily about the effectiveness of individuals. It focuses on identifying certain
inherent personality variables which may be related to individual effectiveness criteria
mentioned above.

Individual Characteristics Variables

Certain variables which were proposed to be part of the individual’s ‘personal and
behavioral characteristics’ and may relate to managerial effectiveness are Learned
Helplessness, Locus of Control, Maturity, Need, Procrastination, Self-awareness, Self-

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consciousness, Self-handicapping, Self-limiting, Self-monitoring, Values, Work Ethic.

Various researches emphasize the significance of these factors contributing/ predicting
managerial effectiveness.

METHOD

Sample:
The data was collected from two hundred and fifty male executives, mostly belonging to
middle hierarchical level a total of thirteen organizations from both public and private sectors
constituted the sample. These organizations were located in three big cities of North India,
one city of Karnataka and the capital city of India. Further information about the sample is
listed in Table1.

Measures:
The measures used in this study were either a modified version of the original source or were
developed by the authors. Modifications include changes in wordings, sentence constructions,
scaling, response categories and selective use of items and ideas.

Table-1. Summary of the Organizational Characteristics and Number of Respondents

Organization No. of Industrial Ownership No. of

No. employees categorization respondents
1. 3198 Mechanical Public 20
2. 358 Chemical Public 25
3. 2500 Mechanical Public 23
4. 1160 Chemical Public 20
5. 8200 Mechanical Public 20
6. 3500 Mechanical Private 20
7. 2450 Mechanical Private 20
8. 1110 Textile Private 19
9. 13000 Chemical Private 26
10. 250 Chemical Private 15
11. 4148 Mechanical Public 15
12. 17000 Mechanical Private 16
13. 2230 Textile Private 11
Total 250

Procedure:
A list of the work organizations located in North India was compiled using the documented
sources of information. To avoid inclusion of small organizations, the organizations
employing more than 500 persons were located. The geographical region of the sample was
restricted to North India for the sake of convenience. Letters of request were sent for
obtaining permission to collect data from particular organizations, to which most of the
organizations responded favorably.
The sampling was purposive because of limitation in time and resource availability.
It was decided to take 20 respondents from each organization belonging to middle
hierarchical levels of management.
The respondents were approached individually mostly in duty hours, with permission
from their respective organizations as well as off duty hours. Data was collected through
structured interview schedule. Respondents and organizations were assured for keeping the
data in strict confidentiality.

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Results

The variables in the study were planned and executed largely within the framework of
multivariate conceptualization as opposed to more popular univariate conceptualization of
constructs. Owing to the complexity involved in conceptualization and treatment of variables
in a real life setting, it was argued that there could always be a possibility of
multidimensionality underlying the constructs that reflect social realities. To identify such
dimensionalities, it is necessary to investigate the subject with a view to realize their precise
nature and composition. The patterns of dimensions underlying a construct may interact with
the patterns underlying some other construct to produce a more complex representation but
which is a more authentic pattern reflecting the situational dynamism of social reality
compared to a unidimensional conceptualization of constructs.
To explore the underlying dimensionalities, all multi-item questionnaires were
subjected to factor analysis (principal factoring with iterations and oblique rotation). The
following stands were taken in using factor analysis results:

a) Extraction of factors was stopped after eigen value dropped below unity (except
where factor solutions had to be forced in limited number of factors due to some
methodological requirements):
b) The belongingness of items to specific factors was kept non-overlapping in the sense
that no item was included in more that one factor;
c) Only those items were retained in a particular factor which had a loading of equal to
or more than 0.50 on that factor but did not have a cross loading of equal to or more
than 0.30 on any other factor simultaneously;
d) Single item factors, i.e., factor had only one item left in it that had a loading of equal
to or more than 0.50, either by itself or as a result of adherence to the stand
mentioned in clause c above, were not retained because single item factor are known
to be notoriously unreliable; and
e) In tabular presentation of the factor analysis results, items discarded due to various
stands mentioned above would be reported under heading unclassified items,
however, for further analysis only those items would be used that satisfied various
criteria of item selection mentioned above.
In this research, the prime concern of factor analysis technique was items analysis and data
reduction with a view to identify underlying dimensions of various constructs having items of
clear and high loadings on representative factors. Hence, in further analysis, the factors were
treated as variables yielding composite scores on subscales of super ordinate constructs rather
than as factors in strict statistical sense.
The factor loadings, the item contents and the constructs from which the respective
factors had been extracted were kept in view while naming the factors. A brief description, of
various forms of questionnaire measuring the constructs used in this study and factors
obtained there of, follows.
1. Exploring the Underlying Dimensions of the Constructs: The Factor Analysis Results

The list of the various factors of major variables obtained through factor analysis is given
below.

Individual characteristics:
Maturity
1. Willingness for High Responsibility and Achievement (WRA).
2. Punctuality and Job Confidence (PJC)
3. Job Knowledge and Understanding (JKU)

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Individual Behavior Norm

4. Hard work, punctuality and high Initiative (HPI)
5. (Professional) Opportunity Seeking and high Work Involvement (OSWI)
Self-Handicapping
6. Inadequate Effort Investment (IEI)
7. Perceived constraints in Work and Lack of Confidence (PCWLC)
8. Lack of Imitative and Assertion (LIA)
Procrastination
9. Perfectionism based Procrastination (PP)
10. Fear of Failure based Procrastination (FFP)
Self-Limiting Behavior
11. (Presence) of Highly Qualified Persuasive Member (HQPM)
12. Unimportant or Meaningless Task (UMT)
13. Persuasive Member (PM)
Work Ethic
14. Work Ethic (WE)
Biographical Inquiry
15. Seniority (Sn)
16. Income and Status (IS)
Value Related Efforts
17. Valuing Social Relations and Activity at Work (VSRAW)
18. Valuing Comfortable Work Place (VCWP)
19. Valuing Work Perfection (VWP)
20. Lacking Power and Prestige Orientation, and Risk Taking (LPPORT)
Value Survey
21. Harmonious and Contentedness (HAC)
22. Having a Sense of Shame and Reciprocation (HSSR)
23. Intimate Friendship and Filial Piety (IFFP)
24. Kindness and Patience (KAP)
Learned Helplessness
25. Impaired Cognitive Functioning (ICF)
26. Uncontrollability of Events (UE)
Self Monitoring
27. Impression Management (IM)
28. Acting Ability (AA)
29. Congruence between Inner State and Self Presentation (CISSP)
Locus of Control
30. Internal Locus of Control (ILC)
31. External Locus of Control (ELC)
32. Synergic or Mixed Locus of Control (SMLOC)
Private and Public self Consciousness
33. Motivational and Affective (MA)
34. Reflective (R)
35. Self Consciousness in Public (SCP)
Private and Public self Awareness
36. Self Awareness (SA)
37. Positive Group Feeling (PGF)

Individual Effectiveness:
Need Structure
38. Need for Affection and Including (NAI)

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39. Capacity for Effective Dealing with Self (CEDS)

40. Effectiveness Potential (EP).
41. Potential Awareness and Capacity to Work in the Dilemmas of Life (PACWDL)

All the factors in this scale were derived variables, measuring satisfaction with need
structure.

Individual Need Fulfillment

42 Fulfillment of Recognition and Autonomy Needs (FRAN)
43. Fulfillment of Security and Altruistic Needs (FSAN)
Need Hierarchy Scale
44. Physiological Needs Satisfaction (PNS)
Value Realization
45. Satisfaction with Job-prestige and Patriotism (SJPP)
46. Satisfaction with Comfortable Living (SCL)
47. Satisfaction with Excellent Work Condition (SEWC)
48. Satisfaction with Omnibus Success (SOS)
49. Satisfaction with Own People Success Archetype (SOPSA)

All the factors in this scale were derived variables.

2. The another major aspect of the study is to explore the relationship between the
dimensions of individual characteristic and individual effectiveness variables.

To study this relationship canonical correlation (CC) was calculated. To interpret canonical
correlation results, an arbitrary criterion of + 0.30 was used as an index of importance of a
variable within a particular set of a variables or canonical variate. Such a stand has been
taken else where also (Lambert & Durand, 1975). Apart from tabular presentation, only those
canonical correlation results would be described in detail that consist Simultaneously of both
the left and right hand variates having loadings of + 0.30. That is, a CC results would not be
described if on either variate, no loading turnout to be equal to or greater than 0.30.
Canonical loadings rather than canonical weights were used in the analysis. Canonical
loading statistic offers the advantage over the weight statistic by being largely free from the
direct influence of multicolinearity and suppresser effects (Lambart & Durand, 1975).
Apart from the canonical roots, a redundancy index (Rdx) was also calculated. The
canonical roots provide the estimates of the amount of shared variance extracted from the set'
of variables. Often very little of the dependent variance is shared with independent variables
although canonical root values are sometimes very high. The redundancy index overcomes
this difficulty (Lambart & Durande, 1975).

Table – 2
Canonical Correlation showing relationship between the dimensions of Individual
characteristic variables and Individual effectiveness variables.

Variables Set 1 Loadings Sect 2 Loadings

Left Hand Set
WRA -06 -52
PJC -03 -21
JKU -03 -44
HPI -08 02
OSWI -07 -02

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Variables Set 1 Loadings Sect 2 Loadings

IEI -01 -05
PCWLC -07 12
LIA -07 15
PP -01 26
FFP -01 20
HQPM -05 26
UMT -04 17
PM -11 00
WE 06 15
S 05 -17
IS 08 08
VSRAW -03 11
VCWP -01 14
VWP -07 02
LPPORT -05 01
ICF 1.28 -01
UE 1.28 -01
IM -05 -02
AA 07 10
CISSP 01 09
MA 08 08
R -01 08
SCP -01 -02
PGF -14 14
Right Hand Set
SHAC -00 -05
SHSOSAR 09 03
SIFAFP 30 23
SKAP 95 -35
NAI -01 15
CEDS -00 13
SEP 01 22
SPACWOL -00 -26
NSPDCDS -02 -58
FRAN 01 25
FSAN -01 35
SJPP -02 -36
SOPSA -00 -05
SCL -02 03
SEWC 01 -05
SOS 00 11
RC .99473 .65952
RC² .98949 .43497
Chi Square 1600.32 566.23
Df 464 420
p> .01 .01
Variable RHS .22670 .02431
Rdx RHS .22432 .01057

Table 2 presents the results of CC in which Left Hand variate composed of variables of
individual characteristic was related to Right Hand variate composed of individual
effectiveness variables. Two CCs turned out to be significant (p < 0.01).

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The first CC results (RC = .99, RC2 = .98, *2 (464) = 1600.32, P < 0.01) showed that
Left Hand variate was significantly related to Right Hand variate. Both variates mutually
shared 98 per cent variance (it may please be noted that in description, the derived values
such as squares or square roots of a number may not exactly tally because they had been,
individually rounded off to two places after decimal from a four places after decimal number,
for instance. 0.98 is not the exact square of 0.99 in this case. However in tabular presentation
these values are expressed up to four places after decimal). The redundancy index (0.22432)
for Right Hand variate composed of Individual Effectiveness Related Variables showed that
0.22432 of the total variance (0.22670) in the Right Hand canonical variate was shared with
variance in or explained by the Left Hand canonical variate. Redundancy values, in a way,
may also be expressed in terms of percentage. Therefore the redundancy values are expressed
up to four places rather than two places after decimal for easy visualization in terms of
percentage. Thus the redundancy in this case may be thought in terms of percentage. Thus the
redundancy in this case may be thought in terms of 22.43 per cent of variance "explained" in
the right hand variate by the left hand variate. However, technically it is more precise to
express redundancies as the proportion only, that is, as 0.22432 in this case. The first Left
Hand Variate could be thought of loaded with impaired cognitive functioning,
uncontrollability of events. This Left Hand Variate was related significantly to Right Hand
Variate that was loaded positively with satisfaction with intimate friendship and filial piety
and satisfaction with kindness and patience.
The second CC results (RC = 0.66, RC2 = 0.43, x2 (420) = 566.23, p < 0.01) showed
that Left Hand Variate was related significantly to Right Hand variate. Both the variates
mutually shared 43 per cent variance. The redundancy index (.01057) for Right Hand Variate
composed of individual effectiveness related variables showed that 0.01057 of the total
variance (.02431) in the Right Hand canonical variate was shared with variance in or
"explained" by the Left Hand canonical variate. The second Left Hand variate could be
thought of loaded negatively with willingness for high responsibility and acceptance, job
knowledge and understanding. This Left Hand variate was related significantly to Right Hand
variate that was loaded negatively with satisfaction with kindness and patience. Non-
satisfaction with potentially decreased capacity to deal with self, satisfaction with job
prestige and patriotism, This Right Hand variate was loaded positively with fulfillment of
security and altruistic needs.

INTERPRETATION and DISCUSSION

The main objective of this research endeavor was to explore the relevant constituents of the
human side of enterprise, in relation to some of the indicators of Personal/executive
effectiveness in the behavioral sciences frame work, especially from a social-psychological
perspective.
For the purpose of data reduction and identification of salient dimensions underlying
the data structure, the responses on primary items were factor analyzed giving rise to a lesser
number of variables to be used in further analyses. Consequently there were 37 factors
representing 13 major concepts of scales comprising the individual characteristics; 12 factors
in the dimension of individual effectiveness representing 4 scales. For the present purposes,
the individual effectiveness could be understood as being represented in terms of the
variables reflecting need structure, need hierarchy and value realization.
To recapitulate, this study was an effort toward explorations in the structure and
dynamics of Individual effectiveness. Being exploratory in nature, no hypotheses were
proposed in advance. The construct of effectiveness was treated as the dependent variable,
whereas certain individual characteristics were considered as the variables that are relevant in
predicting the individual effectiveness.

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What are the relationships between the dimensions of individual characteristics and
individual effectiveness?

This question was sought to be addressed though a canonical correlation (CO) analysis (Table
2 of the result section). A perusal of the results shows that there are two significant canonical
correlations extracted.
The first CC result shows that the impaired cognitive functioning, and
uncontrollability of events, are related to intimate friendship and filial piety, and satisfaction
with kindness and patience. As the left hand variate primarily is loaded with the factors of
learned helplessness, the results may be interpreted to mean that the learned helplessness is
correlated to the socio-emotional support and satisfaction with it. This kind of relationship
might arise due to two reasons in the main. One is that, the helplessness naturally attracts
sympathy and since the sympathy is available it provides satisfaction as well. However the
second reason could be that when a persons' own endeavors fail to yield results (hence the
learned helplessness), he or she does not see any way out except to capitalize on the socio-
emotional support of friends and relative. This might he helpful in whatever little progress is
possible under the circumstances and such support might in turn brings a sense of satisfaction
with kindness and patience. While empirically it may be alright to think of receiving support
and getting satisfaction as the valid components of individual effectiveness, nevertheless the
result may not be misconstrued to suggest the desirability of learned helpless factors
mentioned above as essential for gaining support and satisfaction.

A perusal at the second canonical result show that lack of willingness for high responsibility
and acceptance, lack of job knowledge and understanding are related to lack of satisfaction
with kindness and patience, potentially decreased capacity to deal with self, deficit in job
prestige and patriotism and fulfillment of security and altruistic needs. It could be inferred
that negative characteristics of the person might yield unfavorable results if put forward to. If
the role incumbent lacks self and task related maturity he or she can not achieve
effectiveness. As far as fulfillment of security and altruistic needs is concerned, it may be
said that it is a basic, primary need which is being satisfied by the virtue of individuals being
employed in a work organization. Conversely, it may be said that if role incumbents are
possessed with self and task related maturity, they may maximize their personal
effectiveness.
Studies have shown that job maturity (Gillard & Price, 2005; Rastogi & Dave, 2004;
Blank, Weitzel & Green 1990), self monitoring (Semadar, Robbins, & Ferris 2006; Foti &
Havenstein 2007), learned helplessness (Maier & Seligman, 1976; Carlson & Kacmar 1994;
Sahoo &r Tripathy, 1990), self awareness (Svyantek 2003), locus of control (Judge &
Bono2001; Das & Agarwala, 1994) may be related to personal effectiveness.

The Summing Up
The study was taken up with a concern toward a relatively better understanding of the
structure and dynamics of a construct identified as individual effectiveness within a frame
work that could be of relevance to the behavioral scientists and the practitioners of human
resource management working in the area of organizational behavior. A closely related
concern was to understand the underlying dimensions of managerial effectiveness in
organizational frame-work with a special reference to the Indian setting. A need for this was
felt primarily because of the growing realization of the cross-cultural variations in the exact
nature of relationships among relevant variables across cultures. The results indicated that the
construct of effectiveness is an important concept and that there is some merit in
understanding the construct of effectiveness in terms of the individual effectiveness.

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The study could specify (a) the empirical dimensions of the constructs understudy,
(b) the interrelationships between the dimensions of the personal factors that significantly
contribute to the managerial effectiveness.

Implication of the Study

The study has been successful in bringing out the construct of managerial effectiveness in
Indian setting. It could also specify the nature of precise relationships among the dimensions
of the individual characteristics variables and managerial effectiveness variables. The
knowledge of these relationships may be utilized, by the organizations regarding the
enhancement of effectiveness at the individual level according to the specific needs.
The future academic endeavors might make use of the present study as stepping stone
for further exploratory and confirmatory research toward a more complete understanding of
the effectiveness considerations in particular and the related organizational dynamics in
general.

Limitations of the Study

A good amount of care was exercised in execution of the present study. Never the less it does
have its share of limitations just as most works of this nature are likely to have. Some of the
obvious limitations include the following.

1. No "Objective Criterion" was included in the study for evaluation of performance and
effectiveness related issues.
2. The organizations and respondents constituting the sample of the study were marked
by heterogeneity rather than homogeneity. Some times heterogeneity of sample is
treated as a weakness of the research design. Nevertheless there have been instances
where such heterogeneity has been treated to be the strength rather than the weakness
of a research (Kaur 1992; Shukla, 1988; Srivastva 1990). And it is argued that
heterogeneity as a sample contributes towards wider generalizability of the findings.
The matter remains debatable besides the non-random sampling imposes further
constraints on the generalizability issue.
3. Considering, the number of items, variables and the constructs included in the study,
a larger sample size would have been warranted, which could not be feasible due to
constraints of resources.

Suggestion for Future Research

The experiences gained during the execution of the present research endeavor impelled the
investigator to realize the limitations mentioned above and consequently some of the future
prospects could be realized. The important once are mentioned below.

1. The same project may be taken up in the other types of organizations such as
organizations with differing product-mix, service organizations, and
common wheel organizations.
2. The study may be extended for other hierarchical levels not included in this study.
3. The study could be done in a longitudinal design.
4. Though it's a difficult proposition in organizational research, a better sampling
procedure that would come closest to random sampling and a considerably larger
sample size would be highly desirable.
5. The objective or hard criteria could be sought and employed for validation of the
relevant variables.

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