Question

Jerry is conducting a study on the type of leadership style (i.e., democratic or autocratic) a person has and the influence that style has on employee satisfaction. He plans on measuring satisfaction using a 10-question survey where participants respond on a 5-point scale. What is the dependent variable in this study?

Answer 1

Employee satisfaction is the dependent variable because this variable is determined by the employees that are being surveyed, and the score of it on the 5-point scale depends entirely on the leadership style of their employers.

Leadership style on the other hand is an independet variable because it can be determined regardless of employee satisfaction, or in other words, employee satisfaction is an effect of leadership style, while leadership style is the cause.