How Does Clinical Supervision Affect Job Satisfaction?

Abstract

This study examined 84 professionally trained workers in order to better understand the supervision of workers who serve seriously mentally ill persons and their relation to job satisfaction. The results demonstrated that workers satisfied with the quality and style of supervision evidenced greater overall job satisfaction and had specific preferences among four supervisory styles. Variables that influenced choice of supervisory style included increased time in practice and the supervision of others. The longer workers remained in their position the less satisfied they became with their supervision. Workers were generally more satisfied with their jobs when they were more satisfied with their supervision and liked their supervision better when it matched their preferred style. Implications to practice include to what extent the style, quality, and effectiveness of supervision affects supervisee job satisfaction and to what extent this may impinge upon the effectiveness of clinical services.

Key Words:

• Supervision and job satisfaction: quantity
• quality
• style
• attribute