Authoritarian Attitudes and Control in a Social Service Organization

Abstract

The hypothesis that highly authoritarian Ss would tend to desire a more traditional control structure than those who scored lower was tested by giving a sample of 44 members of a social service organization Tannenbaum's Control Graph and the California F Scale. Results were mixed, with highly authoritarian Ss desiring more influence from immediate supervisory positions and Ss lower in authoritarianism desiring more influence from the general planning and policy making group, i.e., the Board of Directors. Under conditions where ambiguity as to the appropriate function of that role exists, the amount of control attributed to that person or group may be a function of personality attributes, i.e., degree of authoritarianism.