The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between synergistic supervision behaviors and leadership attributes among middle managers in divisions of student affairs. The investigation examined supervision effectiveness and leadership attributes of 214 middle management student affairs professionals in the state of Ohio. Perceived effectiveness of supervision was measured by the Synergistic Supervision Scale (SSS) and leadership attributes were measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Form 5X (MLQ).
Synergistic supervision positively correlated with all of the transformational leadership styles, and with the transactional style Contingent Reward. Negative correlations were found between the SSS and the remaining two transactional variables and with the Laissez-faire variable. Conversely, just four of the nine leadership styles accounted for 85.7 % of the variance in synergistic supervision behaviors, Idealized Influence Attributed, Contingent Reward, Management by Exception Active and Laissez-Faire. This finding has implications for the breadth of the Synergistic Supervision Scale in measuring the construct of synergistic supervision.