Social Desirability and Leader Effectiveness

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Abstract
The effect of social desirability response bias on the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scale used in tests of Fiedler's Contingency Model of leadership effectiveness was investigated in two studies. In the first study, 89 managers of a steel fabricating plant completed a questionnaire containing the Crowne and Marlowe (1) measure of social desirability and three scales used by Fiedler in tests of his model (including LPC). None of these measures correlated significantly with social desirability. In the second study, 16 first-line construction crew supervisors were randomly assigned to two conditions. In the first condition, as the supervisors arrived at the testing site, they were taken aside and told by the company's president to “be supportive and considerate” of subordinates. In the second condition, the supervisors were not taken aside nor told to “be considerate.” A manipulation check using the Crowne-Marlowe social desirability scale indicated a significant difference between the two conditions (as expected), but no differences were obtained in any of the three Contingency Model measures administered to the respondents (including LPC).

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