The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 46, No. 1 - 35

Supervision and Job Satisfaction Factors of Residence Directors and Resident Assistants

Because RAs have responsibilities
as a student, peer, employee, and
policy enforcer, there will be times
when they face competing priorities.
One day the RA could be helping
a student who is dealing with
homesickness and the next day

to the creation of improved organizational
communication, which can lead to lower attrition of staff (Tull, 2006). Synergistic supervision was used as the framework in the present
study to better understand the relationship
that supervision has with factors that impact
job satisfaction. Synergistic supervision was a
particularly good fit for this study as its dualfocus emphasis aligns with the supervision of
RAs who are intent on pursuing their education while serving in the RA position.

could be documenting the student's
violation of policy.

vision of RAs and found that an individual
approach focusing on RAs' needs had a significant impact on RA motivation.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Though there are a number of theories of effective supervision, synergistic supervision is the
one most closely tied to work in student affairs.
Synergistic supervision focuses on both the
development of the employee and the achievement of departmental goals (Davis & Cooper,
2017; Janosik & Creamer, 2003). In their synergistic supervision model, Winston and Creamer
(1997) placed importance on the need for the
supervisor to dedicate time to the supervisee
and to be invested not only in the work that the
supervisee does but also in his or her development in the position and as a person.
The synergistic supervision model is seen
as a useful framework when supervising
student affairs staff (Dalton, 2003; Saunders,
Cooper, Winston, & Chernow, 2000; Winston
& Hirt, 2003). Synergistic supervision can lead

METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this study was to examine the
perceived level of synergistic supervision, job
satisfaction, intention to turnover, and levels of
role conflict and ambiguity in RAs. Additionally, the relationship between the satisfaction
of RAs and the job satisfaction of their supervisors (RDs) was examined (see Table 1). Surveys
were used to collect data pertaining to the participants' perspectives so that the researchers
could examine the perspectives of the sample
and generalize from the sample to the overall
population (Creswell, 2009). A correlational
design allowed for the variables to be analyzed
and to determine how they "either singly or in
combination, affect the pattern of behavior"
(Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2003, p. 324).
To test for internal consistency, Cronbach's
coefficient alpha, a commonly used test of reliability, was used for each test (Gall et al., 2003).
Internal consistency is used to measure the
correlation between the questions on the test
that are measuring for the same characteristic
(Simon & Goes, 2013). A common threshold
for positive internal reliability when using
Cronbach's alpha is .70 on a scale ranging
from 0 to 1.0 (Simon & Goes, 2013).
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 46, No. 1

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