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ABSTRACTThe study of the relationships between superiors and their subordinates of several companies in Jakarta started with our impression that there exists a need on the part of seine executives, managers and heads of work units in these companies to actualize a form of cooperation which they call 'participative management' or 'participative style of leadership?. Frequently the people who have managerial positions like those mentioned above state that they have difficulties in carrying out what they usually call 'participative management system' or 'participative style of leadership' in the companies where they are employed. They discuss the difficulties which they have in motivating their subordinates to participate in the decision making process and the solution of problems in everyday work. However, we are not primarily interested in the people in the very lowest echelons of the organization, but our interest is specifically focused on the people in the second and the third levels of the organization. The workers in the second layer from the bottom, the so-called 'first line supervisors', will in this study be called 'subordinates', and their immediate superiors will be called 'superiors'.
Our motive for scrutinizing the relations between the first-line supervisors, or the subordinates, and their immediate super-visor or the second-line supervisors, the superiors in this study, will be dealt with in the chapter on sampling. Based on their work experience, the superiors often express the troubles they have in understanding their subordinates. They want to have subordinates who are more active in carrying out -their daily tasks, more independent in solving the problems faced in daily work situations, and more active in the process of decision making on matters concerning their daily jobs.
They expect their subordinates to show more courage in putting forward new ideas, constructive thoughts, suggestions to increase working efficiency and to improve interpersonal relations, increase production quantitatively as well as qualitatively.
They notice that their subordinates act as if they were afraid to express their opinion in an outspoken manner, produce reports of mediocre quality. And, if there are problems which, according to the superior, could be solved at the subordinate level, they are more often than not, referred to the superiors. In short, subordinates appear to be more at ease when they are directed in how to carry out their work and how to solve problems. On the other hand, when the superior makes a decision directly concerning the task of the subordinates, no subordinate will feel happy with it. They will feel as if they were not being taken into consideration, not infrequently they would feel bypassed. They feel that their opinion is not heeded and they will consider their superior authoritarian. When questioned, however, before the superior reached a solution, they will hesitate to put forward a solution and often will state that they prefer to leave the solution to the superior, and they themselves desire only to carry out the steps to the final solution as instructed by the superior."
