Redefining leader self‐awareness by integrating the second component of self‐awareness

This article aims to extend the current treatment of what constitutes leader self‐awareness. Discussion of self‐awareness in organizations and leadership research here focused on one component of self‐awareness; awareness of individual self‐resources. Drawing on Objective Self‐Awareness Theory (OSA theory, Duval & Wicklund, 1972), this paper explores a neglected second component of self‐awareness: the ability to anticipate the views of others. Leaders gain awareness of their influence on others through impulses to self‐focus, which leads to self‐evaluation against extrinsic standards, and insight regarding leader influence. Research and practical implications of the second component of self‐awareness are discussed.     

Growing Followers: Exploring the Effects of Leader Humility on Follower Self‐Expansion,Self‐Efficacy,and Performance

Although the effectiveness of leader humility has been well documented, our understanding of how leader humility influences followers psychologically is limited. Surpassing a mere leader‐centric understanding of the leader influence process by more fully understanding how leadership behavior shapes followers psychologically has been identified as a critical need by leadership scholars. Drawing on self‐expansion theory, we argue that leader humility triggers followers’ self‐expansion and that this psychological change enhances followers’ self‐efficacy, which in turn contributes to followers’ task performance. We also argue that the relationship between leader humility and followers’ self‐expansion is strengthened when leaders and followers are similar in age and gender. Using a time‐lagged research design with responses from 256 leader–follower dyads, we found support for our proposed model. We discuss the theoretical implications for our findings and suggest areas for future research.     

All in a day's work? Career self‐management and the management of the boundary between work and non‐work

This article reports the findings of a study that explored the links between career self‐management, management of the boundary between work and non‐work, and work–life balance, using a sample of young professionals. The findings show that individuals engage in different kinds of career self‐management behaviours, depending on their career goal. Management of the boundary between work and life outside work is identified as one such behaviour, with the consequence that, for some people, managing the career has a harmful effect on their work–life balance. The research adds to knowledge about the career self‐management process and shows how career stage influences career goals and career self‐management behaviour. It demonstrates how career attitudes and behaviours may be critical to the achievement of work–life balance and confirms that work–life balance matters to younger members of the workforce, regardless of their family responsibilities.     

Self‐Monitoring and Performance Appraisal Satisfaction: An Exploratory Field Study

Members of 12 project teams in five organizations participated in a study that assessed their self‐monitoring characteristics and level of satisfaction with their performance appraisal system. Overall, taking part in self‐ratings and upward appraisals of team leaders was associated with greater levels of appraisal satisfaction than was participating in peer evaluations. Self‐monitoring level was negatively associated with appraisal satisfaction after controlling for level of ratings generated by peers, self, and leader. The paper discusses results, and offers practical implications in light of the social and interpersonal context that surrounds performance evaluation. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Multirater and Gender Differences in the Measurement of Political Skill in Organizations

Organizational political skill is an essential component of a leader's success. The purpose of the current study was to ascertain whether differences existed in how individuals rated themselves and were rated by others on 13 political skills using the Brandon Partners and Seldman Learning Organizational Savvy Multi‐Rater Assessment. Over 4,500 individuals completed an online self‐rater assessment to test the reliability and validity of the instrument. A sample of 131 individuals with 1,056 observer ratings completed an online multirater assessment to address the research questions. The dependent variables were the 13 political skill set average scores and the independent variables included gender and rater group. Significant rater group differences in multirater assessment of political acumen were found in all skill sets. The greatest difference was between the self‐ratings, always the lowest, and the ratings of the four rater groups. No significant gender differences in self‐assessment of organizational political skill were found in the 13 skill sets. Significant gender differences in ratings by others were found with females scoring higher than males in two areas. The findings contribute to our understanding of gender differences regarding the perception of political skill. Organizations can use this knowledge in educational programs to elevate leader performance.     

Multisource Ratings Of Managerial Competencies And Their Predictive Value For Managerial And Organizational Effectiveness

This study examined the predictive value of multisource ratings of managerial competencies for managerial and organizational effectiveness. Data from 155 subordinates, 59 peers, and 28 supervisors were gathered in order to provide insight into their perceptions on managerial competencies for their managers. With regard to the outcome variable (i.e., effectiveness), both individual‐level (subordinates’, peers’, and supervisors’ ratings of managers) and organizational‐level (Balanced Scorecard) measures were used. As expected, subordinates, peers, and supervisors have distinct perspectives on the managerial competencies that are relevant for effectiveness. Moreover, the specific managerial competencies differ in terms of their predictive validity respectively for managerial and organizational effectiveness. The outcomes of our study suggest that a multisource and multimethod approach is valuable in assessing both managerial competencies and managerial and organizational effectiveness. Several implications for human resource management practices are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Existential–Experiential View of Self‐Sourced (In)Authentic Healthcare Identity

In the healthcare context, both nurses and doctors derive their professional identities from diverse backgrounds, thus resulting in two distinct professions. Becoming a leader and forming a leader identity that is separate from a strong professional identity is a difficult task. However, assuming a leader identity is considered an important aspect of actually being a leader, not just a professional with a leader position. The current article explores authenticity in generic healthcare leader identity formation by utilizing the concept of professional identity. Instead of committing to the humanistic ontological roots of the authentic leadership construct, the research analyzes the concepts of self and authenticity from an existential–experiential perspective. A conceptual framework of self‐sourced healthcare identity formation, including leader identity and professional identity, is presented. The framework shows how leader identity originates in the leader's experiencing self‐in‐situation, which is understood as the source of authenticity. The experiencing self, or the self as a subject, is differentiated from the experienced self, or the self as an object, by which professional identities are formed. The conceptualization provides a way of understanding and developing leadership in fields consisting of strong professional identities. The applications of the framework are also discussed.     

An empirical study of other‐oriented and rational self‐interest leadership approaches

Other orientation is defined as “the extent to which individuals are concerned with the welfare of others” (Meglino & Korsgaard, 2007, p. 59). Other‐oriented leaders focus their attention on organizational objectives coupled with a human resource emphasis, whereas rational self‐interested leaders concern themselves with organizational objectives coupled with self‐emphasis. This quantitative study examines philanthropian and servant leadership, which are other‐oriented leadership approaches, and transactional leadership, which is a rational self‐interested leadership approach, to determine the effectiveness of the approaches in the 21st century. This study further examines the results of a hermeneutic phenomenological study of philanthropian leadership that introduced a new other‐oriented leadership model. This study focuses on leadership preferences of leaders, employees, and third‐year undergraduate business students to determine if there is a significant difference between preferences among groups for other‐oriented and rational self‐interest‐oriented leadership approaches.     

Are you really doing good things in your boss's eyes? Interactive effects of employee innovative work behavior and leader–member exchange on supervisory performance ratings

Organizations increasingly depend on employee efforts to innovate. However, the quality of relationships between leaders and employees may affect the recognition that employees receive for their innovative work behaviors. Drawing from a social cognition perspective, we tested a model in which leader–member exchange (LMX) moderates the impact of employee innovative work behavior on supervisory ratings of employee performance. Results from two multisource studies combining self, colleague, and supervisor ratings consistently showed that employees receive more favorable performance ratings by engaging in innovative work behavior when they have high‐quality LMX relationships. Moreover, we found that this interactive relationship was mediated by leader perceptions of innovative employee efforts, providing support for a moderated mediation model. Implications for the literatures on performance appraisal, LMX, and innovation are discussed.     

Transfer of training: Written self‐guidance to increase self‐efficacy and interviewing performance of job seekers

Subsequent to training IT professionals ( n = 35) in skills for performing effectively in a selection interview, 16 were randomly assigned to a transfer of training intervention, written self‐guidance (WSG). This methodology is based on social cognitive and self‐persuasion theories. The results showed that WSG resulted in significantly higher ratings from an interviewer than did those in the control group. Self‐efficacy for interviewing skill mediated the relationship between WSG and performance. A content analysis of the WSG letters showed that the use of self‐affirming and self‐relevant statements was positively related to performance in the selection interview. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effects of nonprofit brand equity on individual giving intention: mediating by the self‐concept of individual donor

• Currently nonprofit organizations have to rely more on individual donors and less on the government for funding. Therefore, understanding the individual donor from the perspective of nonprofit has been of increasing interest to nonprofit marketers. In this research, the effects of nonprofit organizational brand equity and individual self‐concept on individual giving intention were studied by using survey to selected 393 valid respondents in China. The empirical results indicated that, (1) the three dimensions brand personality, brand image, and brand awareness of the nonprofit organization has positive direct impact on individual giving intention; (2) brand personality and brand awareness of the nonprofit organization has positive direct impact on the self‐concept of individual donor; (3) the self‐concept of individual donor has positive direct impact on individual giving intention; and (4) the self‐concept of individual donor mediates significantly the relationships between brand personality, brand awareness, and individual giving intention, while not significantly between brand image and individual giving intention.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Feeling Vulnerable? Disclosure of Vulnerability in the Charismatic Leadership Relationship

The current conceptual paper explores the role of vulnerability in the charismatic leadership relationship. “Sharing vulnerability” is defined as communicating an experience to followers, in which the leader was hurt emotionally, physically, or spiritually. We argue that sharing vulnerability may be an important mechanism through which leaders develop relationships with their followers and increase attributions of charisma. We also note several likely preconditions for sharing vulnerability, including humility, self‐awareness, and the courage to acknowledge imperfections. Further, we highlight that when leaders disclose emotions, it creates opportunities for followers to connect with leaders at an emotional level. Followers, in turn, may perceive increased psychological safety, be more willing to trust the leader, and be more motivated to engage in building a more egalitarian leader–follower relationship. Therefore, we propose sharing vulnerability as a potential avenue for building more compassionate and caring leader–follower relationships.     

Workaholism versus work engagement and job crafting: What is the role of self‐management strategies?

Job crafting refers to the proactive actions employees take to redesign their jobs in order to get a better fit with their competencies, expectations, and wishes. So far, little is known about job crafting's underlying mechanisms. In this study, we examine how two different states of affective well‐being (workaholism and work engagement) relate to job crafting 3 months later and how these well‐being states steer different self‐management behaviours, which ultimately lead to job crafting. Structural equation modelling on a heterogeneous sample (N = 287) revealed that work engagement and workaholism both relate to expansive job crafting through different self‐management strategies. Work engagement relates to challenge and resource seeking via self‐goal setting and self‐observation strategies, whereas workaholism associates with challenge and resource seeking only through self‐goal setting. In addition, the results show a strong relationship between workaholism and self‐punishment. Altogether, the findings suggest that self‐management strategies can function as an explanatory mechanism for different job crafting behaviours.     

Improving telephone fundraising by use of self‐prophecy

The self‐prophecy phenomenon served as the basis for a simple, inexpensive technique aimed at increasing donations in a telephone fundraising drive. Self‐prophecy is predicated on two psychological effects. First, asking people to make predictions about normatively influenced behaviours results in biased responses—people respond as they think they should. Secondly, when later asked to perform those same behaviours, people tend to be consistent with their predictions. In an experiment, asking people to make a prediction increased the success rate from 30.4 per cent to 49 per cent, relative to a control group. Although it may be limited to occasional use, the self‐prophecy technique appears a simple and economical tool for increasing donations. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

What makes a good project manager?

There is a growing awareness within project‐based sectors of the relationship between performance and managers' competencies. This article reports on research that investigated the competency profile of ‘superior’ project managers working within the construction industry, one of the most complex and dynamic project‐based industrial sectors. The study combined an assessment of both their behavioural competencies and job‐task competencies. The results reveal that while their job‐task competencies are highly specific to the industry in which they work, the behavioural competencies of superior project managers are mostly generic in nature and apply to a range of other management positions. This research shows how it is practically possible to identify the competency profile of superior managers and utilise this framework for managing the performance of this key management group.     

Measurement equivalence of executives' performance ratings for same‐ and opposite‐gender dyads

The measurement equivalence of performance ratings from different raters is important to establish if researchers and practitioners want to have confidence that raters are using the performance measurement system in the same way. The purpose of the present study was to examine the measurement equivalence of performance ratings from male and female direct reports. Women and men executives from various organizations participated in a multisource assessment process for feedback and development purposes and were rated by both women and men direct reports. The results indicated gender equivalence for direct reports' ratings of men and women executives, meaning that regardless of gender, raters provided ratings using the same psychological metric. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Accuracy and effectiveness in appraisal outcomes: the influence of self‐efficacy,personal factors and organisational variables

Two studies tested relationships of personal factors and organisational context variables with rating accuracy and perceived effectiveness of appraisals, and the role of self‐efficacy as a mediator of the relationships between the two sets of variables. Study 1 was a controlled experiment in which nurse supervisors appraised a video stimulus of a nurse's performance. Study 2 was a field study in which nurses and their supervisors each independently completed an assessment of their annual appraisal review, following the meeting. A ten‐item scale for performance appraiser self‐efficacy (PASE) was developed and tested for measurement properties on a large sample of nurses that included those who participated in either Study 1 or Study 2. The PASE scale was found to have high reliability and reasonable predictive validity. PASE predicted rating accuracy, appraiser and appraisee perceptions of effectiveness, and appraiser‐appraisee agreement on the effectiveness of an actual appraisal, after controlling for the effects of personal factors and organisational context. The main contextual influences were accountability, importance and management concern but the effects varied for self‐efficacy and different appraisal outcomes. The main predictor of self‐efficacy was the amount of training received by appraisers across the multiple sub‐tasks of appraisal.     

Empowered self‐development and continuous learning

Organizational changes are creating the need for continuous learning environments that support employees' self‐development. Self‐development means seeking and using feedback, setting development goals, engaging in developmental activities, and tracking progress on one's own. This assumes that people are capable not only of monitoring their own behaviors, but also of recognizing which behaviors and outcomes are most favorable and desirable. Drawing on self‐determination theory, this article shows how organizations can encourage self‐development by providing nonthreatening performance feedback, ensuring behavioral choices for learning, encouraging feedback seeking, and rewarding participation in learning activities and other self‐determined behavior. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Cooperative Goals,Leader People and Productivity Values: Their Contribution to Top Management Teams in China*

abstract This study proposes that when top management team members are convinced that their leader is committed to people and productivity, they conclude that their leader is effective and contribute to making their organization innovative. Cooperative goals among top management team members may be credible evidence that their leader has people and production values. Executives from over 100 organizations in China completed measures of their cooperative, competitive, and independent goals, their leader's people and production values, and their leader's effectiveness. CEOs from these firms rated their organization's innovativeness. Structural equation analysis suggested that cooperative goals among top management teams convince them that their leader values people and production and that these values in turn result in leader effectiveness and organizational innovation. Results, coupled with previous research, were interpreted as suggesting that cooperative goals and leader people and production values are foundations for leader and top management team effectiveness in China.     

Constructive Leader Behaviors,Likelihood of Derailment,and the Cuboid Personality Framework: A Replication and Extension of Gough (1990)

Gough (1990b) applied the California Psychological Inventory's (CPI) “cuboid” framework to various leadership contexts, noting the potential for continued, future application of this model within the leadership domain. However, subsequent to this initial investigation (and one similarly oriented but differently executed project), no cuboid follow‐up has taken place. Applying the framework to a large sample of international managers, cuboid classifications were recorded across cultural regions, gender, race, age, organizational level, and industry. Associations with indices of leadership effectiveness and derailment were documented via averaged 360° ratings. Results generally support norm‐favoring individuals as exhibiting leadership advantage, although this effect differed slightly across the leadership dimension being assessed (although remaining relatively stable across hierarchical leadership position). Potential future applications of the cuboid model to the management and leadership domains are suggested primarily in the topical areas of cross‐cultural leadership (different occupancy rates were documented across regions of origin), leadership emergence (interpersonally oriented, norm‐favoring individuals predominantly occupied leadership positions), and leader development (low “satisfaction” and rule‐questioning leaders were generally rated as having lower effectiveness ratings and an increased likelihood of derailment).