Supervisor's behavioral complexity: ineffective in the call center

• Autores: León, Federico R., Burga-León, Andrés, Morales, Oswaldo
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2018
• Institución: Universidad ESAN
• Repositorio: ESAN-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.esan.edu.pe:20.500.12640/3394
• Enlace del recurso: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12640/3394
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Leader behavioral complexity; People-oriented leadership; Absenteeism; Competing values framework; Complejidad del comportamiento del líder; Liderazgo orientado a las personas; Ausentismo; Marco de valores en competencia; https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#5.02.04

An ample repertoire of leadership behaviors available to the manager is expected to guarantee his/her effectiveness transcending situations, but research in the call-center context has identified a specific form of effective supervision: people-oriented leadership. The purpose of this paper is to compare the effectiveness of leader behavioral complexity vis-a-vis people-oriented supervision. 268 employees out of 728 of a Peruvian call center filled in an on-line survey that included, among other questionnaires, the Competing Values Framework Managerial Behavior Instrument in reference to their front-line supervisor. The study analyzed the relationships between supervisory leadership and subordinate turnover intention and absenteeism. Behavioral complexity, like people-oriented leadership, predicted subordinate turnover intention but did not predict subordinate absenteeism, which people-oriented leadership did when other leadership orientations (to change, results, processes) were held constant. Our explanations consider that absenteeism is a concrete behavior and turnover intention an abstract attitude. The findings are consistent with the call-center literature, suggest important boundaries to the concept of manager behavioral complexity, and highlight the need for contingency theories of leadership effectiveness.