CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
In this introduction chapter ir will provide an overview of the study of the
influence of counterproductive event during supervision towards supervisory working
alliance of trainee counselor.The carried research moved in detail about some
important aspect which includes background of study, problem statement, research
objective, research question, research hypotheses, conceptual framework, definition of
term, significance of study, limitation of study and summary of this chapter.
Generally, in every research of study, chapter one is very crucial and considered as
being the gist of this study.
In order to ensure that the counselling client is not harmed and get a guaranteed
professional support by the trainee counsellor, every trainee counsellor need to be
undergo counselling supervision before they are allowed to be in the work setting.
Since undergrad student are just getting to exposed themself to involve in learning
how to work counselling profession, thus they need more guidance and assistance
from senior counsellor. Supervision is a process of interaction between supervisor and
trainee counsellor and it involved of giving and getting feedback through discussion
and observation. Throughout the supervision process , there are chances of
counterproductive event to happen as it is inevitably. Therefore, in this study, it aim to
investigate influence of counterproductive event during supervision towards trainee
counsellor perception about their supervisory working alliance with their supervisor. .
1
1.1 Research Background
The trainee counsellor tend to said that “I don’t really like my supervisor” or “I
didn’t get anything out of supervision with that person.” These are the feeling and
perception of a trainee counsellor who possibly had encounter a negative experience
with their supervisor during supervision.
According to Bordin (1983), the relationship between trainee counselor and
supervisor can be the factor that influence many aspect of supervision in term of
experience in their training, professional growth and development and most
importantly the outcome of supervisory and client. The relationship is usually referred
as the supervisory working alliance. Loganbill, Hardy and Delworth (1982) stated that
in their finding regarding supervisory alliance, supervisor play the major role in the
development of their trainee counselor as the supervisor will give affect towards
trainee development. In addition, to get the favourable outcome in supervision both
supervisor and supervisee must not take supervisory working alliance for granted
(Holloway, 1995).
The idea of relationship between counselling supervisor and trainee counselor
was borrowed from the relationship between counselor and client during counselling
session, which the working alliance in therapy (Nilsson & Duan ,2007). It is relevant
to implement the concept to the working alliance between supervisor and trainee. In
2
therapy, component of working alliance between counselor and client is an important
prospect that need to give attention in order to have a successful therapy outcome.
(Horvath, Del Re, Fluckiger & Symonds, 2011).There are three component of
working alliance in therapy which are as follow : (1) bond between counselor and
client, (2) agreement about the treatment goal, and (3) agreement about therapeutic
task that client need to do (Hatcher & Barends, 2006; Horvath & Bedi, 2002). These
component can be directly utilized to the concept of the superviory working alliance.
However, what happen when there is a counterproductive event exist during the
supervision process ? Does it can influence the supervisory working alliance that has
been build by the trainee and their supervisor ? Carifo and Hess (1987) stated that
there are a lot of focus were put on the factor of a good supervisor in term of
supervisory relationship , and various models of supervision itself. According to Ellis
(1991), supervisory relationship has been recognized as the most important element in
supervision by the trainee as well as in the supervision process. Without a good
supervisory working alliance between supervisor and trainee, effective supervision is
hard to achieve. Based on Loganbill (1982), Stoltenberg (1981) , and Watkins (1995)
the factor that can influence the dynamic process of supervisory working alliance are
the level of developmental and growth of the trainee counsellor to be a professional
helper, experience in term of attechment with their supervisor , and negative events
that occur during supervision.
In prior research , counterproductive events cannot be avoid during supervision.
According to Gray et al., 2001 Counterproductive describe as any event that
experienced by trainee counselor that perceived can be harmed or hindered their
growth and development as a counselor. In the other hand, Unger (1999) stated that
counterproductive events possible to occur on many form and may be difficult for
3
trainee to notice and aware and even harder for the trainee to get over the
counterproductive experience that happen to them. There are possibility that the
negative experience to be repeated again and the events can be destructive to the
trainee and the relationship of working alliance between supervisor and trainee
counsellor. According to Ellis (2001), it is very crucial for counselling supervisor to
understand and aware about what exactly are the harmful, or counterproductive events
happen during supervision and how such experiences on the event giving an impact
towards progress of growth and development of trainee counsellor. Thus, the purpose
of this research is to investigate the influences of counterproductive event during
supervision towards supervisory working alliance.
1.2 Problem Statement
Carifo and Hess (1987) stated there are a lot of attention has been putting on
element of a great supervisor that help development of trainee counselor and very
little research done to investigate the destructive element of supervision process such
as the counterproductive event. Both the constructive and destructive element of
supervision process need an equal treatment and investigation as both aspect is crucial
for the supervisor and trainee counselor to be aware of , to help them to improve their
supervisory working alliance ( Ellis, 2001). In Malaysia counterproductive event
during supervision are not getting much attention as there is lack of research has been
done to investigate the counterproductive event that has been one of the factor that
can influence the dynamic process of supervision. It is clear need for a research to
investigate the influence of counterproductive events towards the supervisory working
alliance in Malaysia background.
4
Besides that, methodological gaps were found from the research studies by
Ramos-Sanchez et al. (2000) and Kirk (2014). Both of the studies took the target
respondent respectively from doctoral level students population. Thus, there is lack of
research done to investigate the undergraduate level students as the population for the
studies. In the other aspect, the research design that has been utilized by the researcher
for both study was qualitative research design for the prior research by
Ramos-Sanchez et al. (2000). Meanwhile, Kirk (2014) implement quantitative
research design the study. In the current study, quantitative research design will be
utilized and the target population would be the undergraduate student who undergo
the internship placement.
1.3 Research Objective
1.3.1 General Objective
To investigate the relationship between counterproductive event during supervision
and supervisory working alliance.
1.3.2 Specific Objective
To investigate the relationship between counterproductive event during supervision
( interpersonal relationship and style, supervision task and responsibilities, and
conceptualization & theoretical orientation) and supervisory working alliance;
5
1.4 Research Question
1. What is the relationship between counterproductive event during supervision
(interpersonal relationship and style, supervision task and responsibilities, and
conceptualization & theoretical orientation) and supervisory working alliance ?
1.5 Research Hypothesis
This research is conducted to find relationship of the independent variables which
are interpersonal relationship and style, supervision task and responsibilities, and
conceptualization & theoretical orientation with the dependent variable, which is
supervisory working alliance. This research intends to test the following hypotheses:
H01 There is no significant relationship between counterproductive event during
supervision and supervisory working alliance among trainee counselor
H02 There is no significant relationship counterproductive event during
supervision (interpersonal relationship and style) and supervisory working alliance
among trainee counselor
H03 There is no significant relationship counterproductive event during
supervision (supervision task and responsibilities) and supervisory working alliance
among trainee counselor
6
H04 There is no significant relationship counterproductive event during
supervision (conceptualization & theoretical orientation) and supervisory working
alliance among trainee counselor
1.6 Significance Of Study
This study, examine the relationship of counterproductive event during
supervision and supervisory working alliance among trainee counsellor, is important
for a number of reasons. As the trainee counsellor undergo their internship , they are
expose to new environment and they need to work with a lot of pressure and also they
need to adjust to new environment, since in the organization , they do not have
anyone to tell their problem regarding to their supervision, this might harm the growth
of the trainee counsellor. Thus, it is importance to enhance the understanding of the
existing of counterproductive event during supervision can influence the supervisory
working alliance among developing trainee counsellor. These aspect is essential to
consider so it can raise the attention and awareness of counselling practitioners in
conducting supervision and become more alert on their approaches that may impact
the growth and development of their trainee counsellor and also their client, as well as
the level of confidence of the trainee counsellor on their ability to handle and treat
their clients’ issue. Besides that, this study will help in broaden and develop
knowledge of supervision context.
1.7 Scope Of Study
In this study, quantitative research design is implemented. The method for data
collection is by using survey, there are three selected instruments to get the data from
7
participants. First instrument is demographic questionnaire, the rational of using
demographic questionnaire is to get the information about the detail of participant’s
background such as age, years of study , internship placement. It will help researcher
to identify the whether the participant is compatible to be the sample for the study.
Next instrument is Role Conflict Role Ambiguity Inventory by (RCRAI; Olk &
Friedlander, 1992). The purpose of using RCRAI is to find out whether the trainee
counsellor ever experience the counterproductive event during supervision that they
perceived can harm their growth and development as a counselor. The last instrument
utilized in this study is the Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory (SWAI)Supervisee (Efstation, Patton & Kardash, 1990). The reason of using SWAI is to
discover the supervisory working alliance as perceive by trainee counselor. The target
population for this study is the fourth year student in counseling program which also a
trainee counselor in three different university : (1) Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
(UNIMAS), (2) Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), and (3) Universiti Utara Malaysia
(UUM).
1.8 Definition Of Term
1.8.1 Supervision
Conceptual Definition
Supervision is a part of the requirement that every trainee counsellor need to
fulfill, the supervision is a training process where the trainee counsellor is supervised
under senior counsellor. According to Bernard & Goodyear (2004), supervision is a
relationship that supervisor and trainee counsellor , it is evaluation and it has limit of
8
time. The main purpose of supervision is to enhance the function of trainee counsellor
to be more professional and also improve their quality in their helping services.
Operational Definition
Supervision is a process of intervention that provided by an experience counselor
that act as supervisor to the trainee counselor as a guidance and to facilitate growth of
trainee counsellor.
1.8.2 Counterproductive Event
Conceptual Definition
A negative event that trainee counsellor happened to experience during
supervision that trainee perceive may harm the growth and development as a
professional helper (Gray et al., 2001). Meanwhile, Magnuson, Wilcoxon and Norem
(2000) define counterproductive event during supervision from trainee perception
when supervisor unable to provide a safe environment, giving too much or too little
corrective feedback , being insensitive towards trainee’s professional needs and
avoided issues between supervisor and trainee.
Operational Definition
Counterproductive event is unfavourable event that happened during the
supervision perceived by trainee counselor. In this research, the counterproductive
9
event is focusing on this three aspect which are: (1) interpersonal relationship and
style; (2) supervision task and responsibilities; and (3) conceptualization & theoretical
orientation. The three aspect of counterproductive event is assessed by using Role
Conflict Role Ambiguity Inventory (RCRAI; Olk & Friedlander, 1992). RCRAI
contain of 16 items of role conflict and 13 items of role ambiguity.
1.8.3 Supervisory Working Alliance
Conceptual Definition
Working alliance between supervisor and trainee counsellor that includes of three
important aspect which are goal , tasks and bond. The supervisory working alliance
may influence the other part of supervision such as the trainee counsellor experience
in supervision, trainees’ development and growth as professional helper and the
outcome towards supervisory relationship and client.
Operational Definition
Supervisory Working Alliance is a relationship that developed during counseling
supervision between supervisor and trainee counselors. The relationship is important
to help the growth and development of the trainee counselor in order for them to be a
better counselor in helping their client. In this study, the supervisory working alliance
is measure by using Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory (SWAI)- Supervisee
(Efstation, Patton & Kardash, 1990) which is a self-report measure that evaluate the
trainees perception about their relationship that they build with their supervisor.
SWAI measured the trainee’s perception related to three factor of working alliance as
10
follow: (1) agreement on goals of supervision, (2) agreement on task of supervision
and (3) emotional bond.
1.8.4 Supervisor
Conceptual Definition
Counselling supervisor is the senior in the counselling profession who assist and
supervise the trainee counsellor during the period of supervision. The Supervisor act
as evaluator in order to enhance the development of skill and quality of the trainee
counsellor (Bernard & Goodyear, 2004).
Operational Definition
An experienced counselor that act as supervisor that help to facilitate and assists
the growth and development of the trainee counselor.
1.8.5 Trainee Counselor
Conceptual Definition
Trainee counsellor are those people who are aim to be a professional counsellor
licence. In order to be qualified to get the licence, each trainee counsellor need to
finished their practicum and undergo supervision as a training before they are expose
to the real work setting as a professional helper (Brian Carnahan, 2018).
Operational Definition
11
A undergraduate level counselling student who currently undergo internship in
order to complete their degree in counselling.
1.9 Limitation Of Study
This study has its limitations. First, there is limited sample of respondents since
the target population of this study those trainee counselor who undergo internship ,
which means the population on limit to the forth year student of counseling program
in three different universities.
1.10 Summary
In conclusion, this study has deeply discussed in relation to some external aspects
contained in this chapter one. All of the important aspects that found in this chapter
one are consist of background of study, statement of problem, research objective,
conceptual framework, definition of terms, significance of study and as well as
limitation of the study. Next in chapter two, this study will be explain more on the
literature review that contain of concrete evidence derives from the studies conducted
by the previous researcher to support this study.
12