A Comparative Analysis of Perceived Sources of Authority of Functional Versus Project Managers in the Air Force Logistics Management Environment.
Abstract
An examination was made of the perceptions of authority of functional and project managers in the Air Force Logistics Management environment. Questionnaire/interview sessions were conducted within the Directorate of Materiel Management, Sacramento Air Materiel Area, California, to measure and compare the perceptions of project and functional managers regarding sources of authority, authority styles and existent authority gaps. Five classifications of sources of authority and three authority styles were classified for a comparative analysis. The sources of authority were expect, formal, punishment, referent and reward authority; the three authority styles were the autocratic, utilitarian and supportive. Project and functional managers were asked to rate their most important and most frequently used source of authority, to estimate the amount of authority they possessed in their jobs and the amount of authority they wanted and to rate their most important and most frequently used authority style for routine and high priority situations. The analysis of the responses revealed that no significant differences existed in the perceptions of authority of project and functional managers. Project and functional managers perceived their sources of authority to be the same with referent, formal, and expert authority being the main sources of authority. Project and functional managers perceived similar reward and punishment authority gaps and predominantly used the supportive authority style for both routine and high priority requests irregardless of their primary source of authority. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0733378
Entities
People
- Herbert G. Edwards
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology