Transactional Styles and Gender — A Co-relational Study

Studying interpersonal relationships is a complex subject that is often given inadequate attention by behavioral scientists. Each individual in a group has unique interpersonal style that has been shaped by the lifetime of their experience with others. Interpersonal styles help a person to relate in positive or negative ways with superiors, subordinates and peers. This may mean being able to make and keep friendly relationships as well as being able to end relationships constructively. The study was done at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Kochi Refinery, erstwhile Kochi Refineries Limited, Ambalamughal, which is one of the premiere refineries in India. The refinery has a capacity of 7.5 million metric tons per annum, which is about to be expanded to 10.5 MMTPA. The study is an attempt from the behavioral perspective of individuals to understand the predominant interpersonal style of officers in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Kochi Refinery and also to analyze whether the transactional styles are same or different for male and female officers. The study takes into account factors like Transactional Analysis, Ego States and the 12 different Interpersonal Styles. It deals with assuming the level of OK styles displayed in the organization and developing strategies to improve the OK styles and reduce the Not-OK styles so that the interpersonal behavior is optimized which will lead to organizational effectiveness which is the assumption made in this study. The primary data collection was done with the help of a questionnaire and secondary data was collected from magazines, journals and the Internet. The size of the sample was 132 consisting of 118 males and 14 females where 17 were top-level officers, 73 were middle level officers and 42 were junior level officers. The sample consists of 62 officers from technical departments and 70 officers from non-technical departments. The sample was selected using stratified random sampling technique. The study revealed that the operating effectiveness quotient of the officers could be generalized to be average. Also there is need for training in creative child and regulating parent ego states. The study also revealed that there is significant difference between the transactional styles of male and female officers.