According to the Merit Systems Protection Board’s 2005 merit principles survey there is a “satisfaction gap” between supervisors and non-supervisors.
The survey, which sampled 37,000 federal employees at many levels about attitudes toward jobs, agencies, and motivations to work, highlights similarities and differences in how these groups see their work and perceive information sharing in the workplace.
Supervisors — here meaning supervisors, managers, and executives — are consistently more positive than non-supervisors about job satisfaction, 79 percent versus 70 percent; pay, 70 percent versus 59 percent; their own supervisor, 71 percent versus 63 percent; and how their agencies treat them in employment matters, 71 percent versus 58 percent, according to MSPB.
It said however, that just over a third of each group reports that their agencies’ organizational structure has been stable during the last two years, and just 40 percent of each group is satisfied with their organization’s performance appraisal system.
More supervisors than non-supervisors, 78 percent versus 57 percent, believe information is shared freely in their work units, and 80 percent versus 63 percent say a spirit of cooperation and teamwork conducive to information sharing exists in their work units, the survey said.
It said 69 percent of supervisors have a moderate level of trust in their own supervisors and upper management to keep them informed, and that non-supervisors are less likely to believe they will be given important information by their supervisors — 59 percent — or by upper management — 49 percent.
