Follow-up survey
After 11.5 months, a follow-up survey was conducted to ascertain the extent to which
the leadership development program had an impact on the leadership behaviors of
first-line supervisors and what, if any, changes had occurred in the productivity and
affective outcome measures. During the months since the base-line study, two first-line
supervisors had been replaced and five shop units had either been disestablished or
their work and personnel had been transferred to other units of the company outside of
the purview of the study. This left 21 shop areas with 503 hourly workers and the same
supervisors as had been in place during the base-line study. Management verified that
there had been no new capital expenditures in the unit between the base-line and
follow-up studies and the work content of the 21 shop areas of interest was essentially
unchanged. A hiring freeze, in place for the entire period of the study, plus the removal
of five shop areas, had caused total employment in the unit to fall to slightly above 500
full-time employees at the time of the follow-up study. A survey administration
procedure identical to that used in the base-line study was employed; all employees
were required to attend one of several sessions at which they were asked to complete a
questionnaire identical to the instrument utilized in the base-line study. A total of 503
usable instruments were received from production associates in the 21 shop areas
remaining in the unit, with the same supervisors as during the base-line study. A
review of time and attendance records indicated that the 503 instruments represented
96.3 percent of all employees of record, in the 21 shop areas of interest, at the time of the
follow-up study