Nursing supervisors' view through rose-colored glasses: an overestimation of employees' positive attitudes.

Nursing supervisors, nurses, and nursing aides were surveyed regarding attitudes about their shared work environment. Results support the hypotheses indicating that supervisors will generally be more positive in their perceptions than will employees at lower levels in the organization. In this study, nursing supervisors reported higher levels of distributive justice and team cooperation as well as a more appropriate patient-to-staff ratio than did nurses and nursing aides. Further, the nurses reported significantly higher levels of politics than the supervisors. Suggestions for developing perceptions more realistic and consistent with subordinates are offered.