Leadership and interpersonal need compatibilities between optometrists and optometric assistants.

A comparison of optometrists' leadership style and the preferred leadership style of their optometric assistants as well as both groups' interpersonal need orientations indicated: 1) optometrists' consideration and initiating structure orientations were lower than those preferred by their assistants, structure was significantly lower (p less than .01) while consideration approached significance (p = .08); 2) optometrists had significantly lower needs for expressing control than their assistants had for wanting to be controlled (p less than .01), assistants had significantly higher needs for expressing participation and inclusion than optometrists had for wanting to be included (p less than .05), and optometrists had significantly higher needs for wanting to be controlled and influenced than their assistants had to control and influence them (p less than .05). Implications for the optometrist-assistant working relationship are discussed.