The Subordinate's Predicaments
DO
The Subordinate’s
Predicaments
T
NO
Eric H. Neilsen and Jan Gypen
PY
CO
No. 79507
SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 1979
The Subordinate’s Predicaments
Eric H. Neilsen and Jan Gypen
How can subordinates improve relations with their superiors? And how can superiors help their subordinates feel comfortable in what is often a tense relationship?
These questions have usually been dealt with only indirectly in management circles. Yet the relationship is so threatening to many subordinates that they react in ways that are damaging to themselves and their organizations.
Drawing heavily on the work of psychologist Erik
Erikson, the authors present dilemmas that commonly confront the surbodinate. They point out that being aware of these dilemmas can make them more manageable and then offer advice to superiors to aid subordinates in handling such situations.
Mr. Neilsen is associate professor in the Department of
Organizational Behavior at the School of Management of
Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of numerous articles on the organization and development of groups and a coauthor (with Dexter C. Dunphy, David
Fraser, and Ricardo Zuniga) of The Primary Group: A
Handbook for Analysis and Field Research (AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1972). Mr. Gypen is a Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve
University. Before starting his research there, he served as a consultant at the Management Development Center at the University of Leuven, Belgium.
Nearly everyone in the administrative world is subordinate to someone else. Thus getting along with superiors is critical to career success.
Managers, however, tend to approach the topic only tangentially by talking about effective leadership (the other half’s responsibility in the relationship) or by striving to get out of the subordinate’s role and into
the superior’s. Ignored is the fact that most managers will always be working under someone else and
The Subordinate’s
Predicaments
T
NO
Eric H. Neilsen and Jan Gypen
PY
CO
No. 79507
SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 1979
The Subordinate’s Predicaments
Eric H. Neilsen and Jan Gypen
How can subordinates improve relations with their superiors? And how can superiors help their subordinates feel comfortable in what is often a tense relationship?
These questions have usually been dealt with only indirectly in management circles. Yet the relationship is so threatening to many subordinates that they react in ways that are damaging to themselves and their organizations.
Drawing heavily on the work of psychologist Erik
Erikson, the authors present dilemmas that commonly confront the surbodinate. They point out that being aware of these dilemmas can make them more manageable and then offer advice to superiors to aid subordinates in handling such situations.
Mr. Neilsen is associate professor in the Department of
Organizational Behavior at the School of Management of
Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of numerous articles on the organization and development of groups and a coauthor (with Dexter C. Dunphy, David
Fraser, and Ricardo Zuniga) of The Primary Group: A
Handbook for Analysis and Field Research (AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1972). Mr. Gypen is a Ph.D. candidate in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve
University. Before starting his research there, he served as a consultant at the Management Development Center at the University of Leuven, Belgium.
Nearly everyone in the administrative world is subordinate to someone else. Thus getting along with superiors is critical to career success.
Managers, however, tend to approach the topic only tangentially by talking about effective leadership (the other half’s responsibility in the relationship) or by striving to get out of the subordinate’s role and into
the superior’s. Ignored is the fact that most managers will always be working under someone else and