Patterns of Association Between Birth Order Functions and Type of Work Relationships Among Managers

Abstract

Demography-oriented scholars claim that demographic characteristics such as birth order, sex, and age, shape relationships that people have. They supposedly affect personal relationships as well as relationships with colleagues in the work setting. According to theories, the most important demographic characteristics to consider are birth order, spacing between siblings, sex status, physical or mental disability, sibling death, and adoption. The birth order factor theory of Forer (1976) suggests that the inclination of an individual towards a particular type of work relationship is influenced by his/her ordinal position at birth. In order to validate this theory, this study attempts to look into the patterns of association between birth order functions and the type of work relationships of managers at the Supreme Court of the Philippines and the Quezon City Hall. While there have been numerous studies based on the relation of demographic characteristics with the attitudes and personalities of individuals, there seems to be no study which focused on the effects of birth order function on the work relationships of managers. As such, the researcher posed this problem for this study: Is there a pattern of association between birth order functions and type of work relationships among managers? In doing so, the researcher specifically aimed to answer the following questions: What are the birth order functions of managers in the Supreme Court of the Philippines and the Quezon City Hall? What type of work relationships do they exhibit? Is there a pattern of association between their birth order functions and their type of work relationships? The researcher conducted this study in two organizations. The study used the descriptive survey design and made use of survey questionnaires as tools for data gathering. A total of 43 manager respondents were chosen using the convenience sampling method. Each birth order had at least ten respondents to ensure that their resulting number would satisfy the requirement for the chi-square test of association. Majority of the respondents were female and were between 31 to 40 years of age. The quantitative methods, particularly percentages and chi-square, were employed in analyzing the data. It was found out from the results of the study that the birth order functions of the managers vary. The respondents were almost equally distributed among the different birth orders namely, firstborn, middle born, last-born, and only child. Majority of them had biological birth orders while only a few had functional birth orders. The most common demographic characteristics that affect those that have functional birth orders were spacing between siblings and sibling death. It was also revealed that most of the managers consider themselves to have a people-oriented work relationship. Firstborn and last-born managers tended to be people-oriented while middle bom and only children tended to be both task-oriented and people-oriented. Finally, it was concluded that the work relationships of managers are dependent on their birth order functions.