“Understanding transactional analysis of managers: an empirical study in India”

Management is the process of accomplishing the activities efficiently and effectively with the help of human capital. The manpower in any sector is made to sail through a saga of productivity and profitability under the efficient captainship of the managers. This research paper gives insight into the implications of transactional analysis and ego states of the managers rendering the services in the companies of the IT sector in the Coastal Karnataka. To accomplish the objectives of the study, Transactional Style Inventory-Manager (TSI-M) is administered to the respondents, and scoring is done considering the Operating Effectiveness Quotient (OEQ). The research paper highlights that the demographic variables have a major influence on the interpersonal skills of the managers. It is found out that various ego states are predominant among managers, and the lowest state is the creative child ego state. The research concludes that by conducting transactional analysis-based leadership training, the productivity of employees can be enhanced in the future.


INTRODUCTION
An inescapable fact in today's growing economy is that human resources are essential in an organization. The participation and involvement of the workforce in an establishment is vital, and an organization can accomplish its goal and vision if the workforce consists of productive human resources. In an organization, management is the process whereby activities are accomplished effectively and efficiently with the help of human resources. A manager is the one who takes these responsibilities to perform certain roles and functions. Managers face challenging work dynamics, and effective people management is very relevant for the success and survival of an organization. All organizations are nothing but a plethora of experiences that are the result of interpersonal communication between people in the organization. Transactional analysis (TA) is perhaps one of the most popular ways of explaining the dynamics of interpersonal communication. It was originally developed by Eric Berne and is now accepted globally as a theory that incorporates personality, acuity, and communication. Although this method was originally used for psychotherapy, it is now used for the training and development of employees. The customary way of people interacting with each other can be called his/her interpersonal style. The framework that describes this interpersonal style is referred to as TA. Eric Berne, the founder of TA in various researches opined that individuals manifest three different kinds of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings in various situations (Berne & McCormick, 1977).

LITERATURE REVIEW
Research regarding interpersonal styles is a multifaceted subject that is often insufficiently considered by behavioral scientists.

Ego states concepts
Ego states model is the key concept of TA. It signifies a human character in three distinct ego states, viz., parent, adult, and child (P-A-C model). As defined in theory, transaction as a unit of social exchange takes place between two different individuals. These individual exchange transactions from one ego state to another, i.e., from parent to child, can be balancing, spanned, or covert (Mikkonen, 2006). Similar to this conceptual observation, the other classifications of ego states are the parent ego state, which is sub-divided into controlling parent and nurturing parent. The free child and adopted child are the two classifications of child ego state (Platt, 2009).
The personalities, according to TA, has been conceptualized in terms of five functional ego states such as critical parent (CP), nurturing parent (NP), adult (A), free child (FC), and adoptibe child (AC) (K. Williams & J. Williams, 1980). Transactional analysis is a method of understanding the relationships, communication, and individual personality. This theory is a social occurrence between two individuals (Mikkonen, 2006). The ego state influences the way we intermingle with others and conversely, others' communication also touches our awareness and in how we reply to them (Hargaden & Sills, 2014;Ciucur & Pîrvuţ, 2012;Platt, 2009;Weihrich, 1979). The 'critical parent' is the central point of the problem and relaxation of ten-sion, and the 'nurturing parent' presents positive interest. The type 'adult' shows the central point of the problem, positive interest, and relaxation of tension, and the 'free child' shows relaxation of tension, positive interest, search for social support, indifference, and the central point of problem, and at the same time, 'adoptive child' shows hopeful aspect, indifference, and the central point of the problem (Won & Kim, 2002;Heathcote, 2010;Bossenmayer, 2011).

TA and organizational development
Employees' behavior will improve by applying different transactional analyses. Adopting key features of the transactional analysis topics at the organizational staff development training program, as implemented in developed countries, can enhance better ego states (Ferrari, 1979). Organizational communication enhances trust and is related to safety, dynamism, and expertise in mass communication. Parent, child, and adult have affiliation with these qualities (Blakeney, 1986;Hay, 1992;Hay, 1993;Yzeed, 2012;Pareek, 1984). Managers, while trying to improve the performance of the employees, often commit the mistake of meeting their ego needs by assuming a parent-to-child posture while dealing with their subordinates (Wissink, 1994;Boholst, 2003;Novey, 1999Novey, , 2002. They need to uphold a level of respect and honest understanding of the employees. They must optimistically deliberate the issue and encompass the employee in the conversation and help them to find a solution to the problem (Hamstra, 1998;Park & Harison, 1993;Berne, Steiner, & Dusay, 1996;Pareek, 2007).
Aims. The study intends to find the various transactional styles exhibited by managers working in IT companies and to determine the impact of the demographic variables on transactional style.

Parent ego states
The parent ego states are recognized as a set of regulations and rules, standards, norms and codes, preconceptions, and assessments taken from an individual's parents or noteworthy individuals. It is a continued version of one's massive collection of childhood memories and experiences, which are stored, even though they are not logically meaningful. Parent ego is seen to consist of two classifications, such as the nurturing parent and the controlling parent who show both positive and negative aspects. Parents' decisions and behaviors can be nutritive, supportive, and warm. This may result in the constructive part of the nurturing parent. If the nurturing parent becomes coddling and discouraging individual personal growth, then it shows its negative aspect. The controlling parent is opinionated, powerful, punitive, principled, and strongly protective.

Adult ego states
The individual in adult ego state offers and seeks information based on data and makes decisions. In this ego state, the individual practices logical thinking to solve difficulties, and this ego is also an intermediary between the child and the parent ego state (Joines & Stewart, 2007). According to Berne et al. (1996), adult is being "principally concerned with transforming stimuli into pieces of information, and processing and filing that information based on previous experience" (Joines & Stewart, 2007). To make a decision, the adult ego state records, apprises, transmutes, and processes information from the parent and child states to make decisions (Jones, 2010). It is, therefore, not a completely autonomous ego state but typically aims at the request of the other ego states.

Child ego state
The child ego state is individual involvements or experiences, reasons, performances, and textures heard and reacted to in various situations and instances in his/her childhood and follow that experience in the present day. The child ego state means individual life events, which are sieved through his/her personal experience. It represents the brain's recordings of the inner measures connected with outside events that a child observes. It is the source of moods, perception, creativity, needs, conception, reproduction, and life energy (Wadsworth & DiVincenti, 2003). The child ego state is classified in three basic ways, such as creative child, rebellious child, and adaptive child, which may act both optimistically and undesirably.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Transactional analysis has been defined as the simplest method of studying people's interaction (Berne et al. 1996). Four life positions are combined with the three ego states. These ego states are functions with their sub-functions. However, the following twelve transactional styles depend to a large extent on overall individual ego states. In a supportive style, the managers offer support when needed. James (1975) uses the term 'supportive coaches' for managers with this style. These kinds of managers extend their concerns and encourage their subordinates by providing necessary recommendations and suggestions for continuous improvement. The sulking kinds of managers retain their negative feelings and avoid sharing with others. They avoid people's interaction in case they are unable to fulfill the task assigned to them. Managers of this kind, instead of confronting the problems, often avoid the situation and feel bad about it, and do not express their feelings openly. The normative style managers are concerned with appropriate norms of behaviors for their subordinates and in helping them to understand why some norms are more important than others. Such managers have their perceptions and beliefs, which they expect their subordinates to follow. The aggressive style managers are known to be fighters. They may fight for the interest of their subordinates, and their ideas and suggestions, hoping that this will help them attain the anticipated outcomes. In this child ego state, the interpersonal style of the manager's aggressiveness is considered as not OK, which makes people avoid them and not take them seriously. The problem-solving style of managers is worried about resolving the difficulties, but does not consider those problems as part of the task. For such managers, difficulties have various magnitudes.
These managers aim to deal with those problems and find suitable solutions. In Bohemian style, creative child is active. This kind of manager has many ideas and is unhappy and annoyed with the current practices. They are also less concerned with how the new ideas work and with the idea of themselves. These managers are creative and take risks to implement their ideas and approaches and enjoy it. More interestingly, they rarely allow one idea to establish before the implementation of others. Resilient style managers are OK style of creative child. In this style, managers show creative adaptability and often learn from other ideas and suggestions. They are willing to changing their approach when required. These managers are creative and accept innovative ideas of subordinates and the team. Rescuing style managers encourage the dependency relationship and often perceive their role as rescuing their subordinates. They consider their subordinates as incapable of taking care of themselves and requiring frequent intervention. These dependency behaviors of managers are of not OK nurturing parent. Confronting style managers are rebellious and are considered themselves being explorations of issues and problems in an organization. They are friendly to their subor-Source: Developed based on the literature. dinates and confront in an organization on behalf of their colleagues and subordinates to get things done. They are more concerned with confronting problems than with confronting others for the sake of confrontation. Prescriptive style managers are known to be critical of other's behaviors and develop rules, guidelines, and protocols to impose on others. They often make a quick judgment and insist that all should follow the norms and regulations developed. The prescriptive style managers are not OK regulating parent ego state holders. Innovative style managers are innovative and are passionate about new thoughts and ideas. They attempt new things and enthuse others. Unlike the Bohemian, innovative style managers pay enough consideration while nurturing new ideas they are very particular about, they are serious about the accomplishment of results and become co-opted in the system. Innovative style managers are OK creative child ego states holders. Task obsessive style managers are more concerned with the task and much concerned with their tasks, and any matter or assignment not directly related to either their or their team task is ignored. They are not much worried about the feelings and facts of others and are unable to native or identify the same since they are focused on only the tasks. They often function like machines and are insensitive regarding individual personal issues and emotional needs.

METHODS
The study was conducted in the Information and Technology (IT) sector of companies located in Coastal Karnataka. The preliminary objective was to TA of managers working in software companies. An empirical inquiry was conducted with the multi-stage sampling technique. A questionnaire was administered to managers belonging to all levels of the hierarchy from junior managers to general managers who were responsible for the operation and process-related work in various IT departments of the companies in Costal Karnataka covering three districts. The instruments were based on Pareek's Transactional Analysis Inventory-Manager's Scale. The analysis of the questionnaire was based on the OEQ scores of the respondents. The survey was conducted using a standardized questionnaire comprising of twenty-three varia-bles. The demographic questions included age, experience, and gender, and the transactional analysis question consisted of twenty-three items. The questionnaire was classified into 3 major types based on the ego states as parent (eight items), adult (four items), and child (twelve items).
Hypotheses H1: Gender has a significant influence on the ego state dimension of the manager.
H2: Marital status significantly affects the ego state dimension of the manager.
H3: Age has a significant influence on the ego state dimension of the manager.
H4: Experience has a significant influence on the ego state dimension of the manager.

RESULTS
To accomplish the objectives of the study, Transactional Style Inventory-Manager (TSI-M) was administered to 69 respondents, and the scoring was done considering the Operating Effectiveness Quotient (OEQ).
H1: Gender has a significant influence on the ego state dimension of the manager.  Tables A1 and A2 in Appendix). The gender of the respondents impacts on the ego state of the individual. The attitude and ego states of males and females differ as their issues and challenges are different. As per the OEQ norms, the parent ego of both nurturing and regulating parent of female respondents is high, but male respondents have lower nurturing parent and average regulating parent ego states. This reveals that women managers are more caretaking and concerned about the norms and regulations to be followed in an organization. The adult ego of male and female respondents was also found to be average. In child ego state, both male and female respondents have lower child ego state, but female respondents are highly reactive and adaptive, whereas male respondents possess average reactive and adaptive child ego state. The overall results show that gender has an impact on the ego states of the respondents. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 is accepted.
H2: Marital status significantly affects the ego state dimension of the manager.
The study results (Table 3) show the marital status of the respondents to have a significant impact on ego states. Both classifications, i.e., married and unmarried respondents' parent ego state, were found to be average, and further, the unmarried respondents showed lower nurturing parent ego state. The adult ego state of the respondents was also found to be average, which was expected to be more as per the TA consultants. The child ego state of both married and unmarried respondents was of a lower creative child and average reactive child. But the adaptive child was found to be different for these two categories, as it was average for married respondents and high for unmarried respondents. The results clearly showed that marital status did not impact much on the ego states. Therefore, Hypothesis 2 is rejected.
H3: Age has a significant influence on the ego state dimension of the manager. Table 4 presents the ego states of respondents based on their age group. The three types of ego states have an impact on the various classes of respondents. In parent ego state, nurturing parent was found to be average in all the three classes of ego states, i.e., below 35, 35 to 45, and 45 and above years, but in regulating parent ego state, respondents below 35 years were found to have high  H4: Experience has a significant influence on the ego state dimension of the manager.
The ego states of managers, i.e., the respondents, changes based on their experience. Table 5 shows the respondents' overall experience and level of ego states. In parent ego states, young managers with experience of ten years were found to have lower nurturing parent ego, while respondents with 30 years and more experience showed high nurturing parent ego states. In regulating parent ego states, younger managers proved to be more regulative, i.e., high regulating ego states than senior managers who maintained average regulating parent ego states. In adult ego state, the respondents were found to be average in all the categories of experienced managers. In child ego state, all the respondents showed low creative child ego. Respondents with experience of more ten years showed average reactive child ego state, and those with less than ten years of experience showed high reactive child ego state. The adoptive child ego states of respondents with experience of thirty years was found to be high, and of those with experience above thirty years was average. Considering these analyses, the experience of the respondents was found to differ significantly. Therefore, Hypothesis 4 is accepted. According to Berne and McCormick (1977), the three different ego states, such as parent, adult, and child have different verbal and non-verbal behaviors depending on the state of mind. The managers of the IT sector were found to be high regulating parent (OEQ 56) and adaptive child (OEQ 71) ( Table 6). These managers found the opportunity to establish proper norms for subordinates and to ensure that these were followed. Most of the respondents are normative regulating parent, that is, I'm OK, You're OK. Therefore, they were concerned with appropriate norms by involving subordinates and deciding how such norms should be followed. The adoptive child ego state respondents accept the norms of other colleagues and enjoy approval and conformity. The respondents in these  organizations dominating 'not OK' feelings and use to be not sharing their feelings with others and proceeds to be in a huff. These managers keep their feelings of dissatisfaction hidden, which is considered to be a dysfunctional adaption growing out of a need for safety. Another set of respondents showed functional adaptive ego states, wherein they adopted either the suggestion or the situation by assessing it and adapting to suit it. This is considered as an effective contingency behavior. This manager has 'OK' adaptive child ego and quickly assesses the situation and changes approach if there is any requirement or need.
The other three types of ego states, namely, nurturing parent, adult ego, and reactive child ego states were found to be average. The average number of respondents is 'OK' as well as 'not OK' nurturing parent ego state (OEQ 50) who extend necessary support to people they interact with. They extended support to only those in need. Similarly, the average level of dependency relationship has been maintained in the organization were these managers acting the main role as rescuing their subordinates. Being average ego states manager has this 'not OK' ego states, which are needed to be changed as per the theory, this is subject to create dependency relationship in an organization.

DISCUSSION
The 'OK' and 'not OK' adult ego states were found to be average among the respondents (OEQ 55).
The adult ego state is considered to be the most recommended in an organization because it has functions of collecting and processing information in the present. The respondents were concerned about solving the problem by working and involving colleagues. This form of ego stands different from being too much obsessed with the task. Ironically, that excessive concern and involvement with the task may help an individual to get a solution. Similarly, the respondents showed average 'I'm OK and You're not OK' states. Managers may overlook certain things when they are deeply involved in their task and obsessed with the work to be done. This makes managers consider other tasks as secondary. This creates conflict in the organization as subordinates or peers consider their issues as ill-treated.
The 'OK and 'not OK' reactive child ego states were found to be average (OEQ 64). The average ego state of the respondents is an assertive style, which is OK style. These managers are concerned with the exploration of problems, and perseverance is their main characteristics. They also confront the organization to get things done for their subordinates. They do not back away from confronting the organization in their zeal to get things done for their subordinates. Similarly, an aggressive style, which is 'not OK' reactive style of managers in the IT sector, expresses aggressiveness by making demands, infighting, and refuses to settle any matter peacefully. Even though the respondents were average of this ego state, it needs to be converted to adult ego states. The lowest ego state found in the respondents was the creative child ego state (OEQ 53). The creative style (I'm OK, You're OK) generally searches for a solution to problems and uses new methods. However, they also try to stabilize the existing innovation before they go for a new one. But the Bohemian style does not sustain with a single idea, instead, and they keep moving on to new ideas all the time. The generally overwhelm their subordinates with new ideas and create an uncomfortable atmosphere in the organization.  The structural equation model (Figure 4) emphasizes the impact of ego states on the demographic variables. Among the three ego states, the adult ego state (.63) has more impact in comparison with the other ego states. These respondents are termed logically minded and rational controllers. In terms of understanding the impact of these respondents on the demographic variables, the most suitable way to conceptualize adult ego states might be as cohesive.

Structural equation model
The parent ego is the second most dominating ego state (.59), which impacts the demographic variables. These respondents are filled with judgment, values, and attributes. They are like the superego and is about values of right or wrong.
The child ego state is the least dominating ego state (.51) impacting on the demographic variable. These respondents operate on the pleasure principle, unconscious, aimed at gratification and fulfillment of needs. They are more about expressing feelings and being intuitive.

CONCLUSION
Managers play several roles in an organization. Their effectiveness dependents on their functioning styles. Understanding interpersonal behavioral style in an organization enhances a healthy working environment in an organization. Transactional analysis is one such theory, which helps individuals to know each other in an organization. Transactional analysis is a useful approach, which effectively and precisely enhances self-growth by developing self-awareness. In an organization, managers hold multiple roles and make decisions. Managers have their unique styles with a comprehensive framework to understand and modify personality and style and behavior. The various life positions of managers as either OK or not OK are useful to analyze the interpersonal styles they have, and this measurement of ego states describes individual ego states with the life position.
Transactional analysis is the first and foremost therapeutic tool for positive change and individual growth. The current study proposes Berne's "ego states" and "OK Corral" theory to enhance managers