The Relationship between Styles of Creativity and Managerial Skills Assessment

This study examined the relationships between creativity style, as measured by the Kirton Adaption Innovation Inventory (KAI) and the self and other ratings on a 360- degree feedback instrument, the Management Skills Profile (MSP) among US managers. Results indicated that self-reports of the use of managerial skills were related to the individual manager's creativity style, but the ratings by others were not. Adaptive managers, as defined by the KAI, were more likely to underrate themselves, while self-ratings of innovative managers tended to concur with the ratings of others. Implications for helping managers understand discrepancies in self and others' ratings as a function of creativity style in a developmental context and directions for future research are discussed.     

Self–other agreement in empowering leadership: Relationships with leader effectiveness and subordinates' job satisfaction and turnover intention

We investigated the effect of self–other agreement in empowering leadership on leader effectiveness, job satisfaction, and turnover intention using a sample of 50 Norwegian municipal leaders (46 for leader effectiveness) and 168 (158) of their subordinates. The findings indicated that considering both self and subordinate ratings of empowering leadership was useful in predicting the outcome variables. In particular, subordinates of over-estimators reported lower job satisfaction and higher turnover intention. Moreover, leaders who underestimated their leadership were perceived as more effective by their superiors. For agreement (i.e., leader's self-ratings were in agreement with subordinates' ratings) the relationship between empowering leadership and leader effectiveness was curvilinear with an inverted U shape. Agreement in ratings of empowering leadership was not found to be related to subordinates' job satisfaction and turnover intention. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Which leadership roles matter to whom? an examination of rater effects on perceptions of effectiveness

Using a 360-degree feedback approach, we examined the extent to which raters vary in the leadership roles they associate with effectiveness, as well as the extent to which self-ratings reflect those of other raters. Using data from 252 managers and their subordinates, peers, and superiors from the public utility industry, we found that, depending on the rater-ratee relationship, different leadership roles are associated with effectiveness. The managers themselves resembled their superiors the most in terms of the leadership roles they associated with effectiveness. These results lend support for the importance of 360-degree feedback for both practitioners and researchers. Organizational researchers, then, should not only examine levels of rater agreement, but also try to better understand what different raters consider critical leadership roles. This article is a step in that direction.     

Self-monitoring and 360-degree ratings

We examined the relationship between self-monitoring (SM) and supervisor, assessor, peer, and subordinate ratings for 191 managers who participated in a developmental assessment center. We collected self-ratings from the managers concerning their ability and motivation to engage in self-monitoring. SM ability was positively related to supervisor and assessor ratings of interpersonal effectiveness (e.g., empowerment, managing teams, influencing others) but was unrelated to supervisor and assessor ratings of business competence (e.g., planning, decision making, strategic thinking, business knowledge). In contrast, SM motivation was negatively related to peer ratings of business competence. Still, SM explained relatively little variance in 360-degree ratings. 360-degree ratings do not appear to be contaminated by the target manager's SM; the small but significant relationship between SM ability and ratings appears to be job-related (and therefore desirable).     

Leader behaviors and career derailment potential: A multi-analytic method examination of rating source and self–other agreement

Based on extensive research that views leadership as a multi-faceted phenomenon, we examined how the relationships between task-oriented and relationship-oriented leader behaviors and career derailment potential vary by observer perspective. We present findings using three different analytical techniques: random coefficient modeling (RCM), relative weight analysis (RWA), and polynomial regression (PR). RCM findings suggest that self-, direct report, peer, and supervisor ratings of leader behaviors differ and are associated with career derailment potential. RWA results indicate that self-ratings matter the least, whereas peer ratings of leader behaviors typically matter the most in predicting career derailment potential. PR analyses indicate that career derailment potential is lowest when self-ratings are lower than other ratings of leader behaviors and/or when self–other ratings converge on higher, rather than lower, ratings of leader behaviors. Implications for leadership and self–other agreement research and professional practice are discussed.     

Self-concept based aspects of the charismatic leader: More than meets the eye

This research examines the relationships among leader self-concept based dispositional attributes (i.e., self-consciousness, self-monitoring, and purpose-in-life) with ratings of charismatic leadership. Questionnaires were used to collect data from different sources: 64 managers rated themselves on self-concept based dispositional attributes, while 194 subordinates assessed their manager's leadership style. Results indicated that leader private self-consciousness, self-monitoring, and purpose-in-life were positively related to charismatic leadership. Leader purpose-in-life was negatively related to both private and public self-consciousness. Private self-consciousness was positively related to self-monitoring. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.     

Job stress in managers, professionals, and clerical workers

The intensity and frequency of occurrence of 30 job stressors as measured by the job stress survey (JSS) were examined in white-collar employees of a large manufacturing firm, consisting of 68 managers, 171 professional (mostly engineers), and 69 clerical personnel. The highest levels of stress intensity were attributed to 'lack of opportunity for advancement' and 'poor or inadequate supervision'. Individual stressors rated as occurring most often during the past six months were 'frequent interruptions', 'meeting deadlines', and 'dealing with crisis situations'. Factor analyses of the ratings of individual job stressors identified two job-stress factors, job pressure and lack of support, which were differentially related to age, gender, occupational level, locus of control, and job tenure and satisfaction. All three occupational groups attributed greater intensity to stressors that reflected lack of organizational support than to job pressures. Managers reported experiencing job pressures more often than professionals/engineers, but attributed less stress intensity to these pressures. 'Lack of opportunity for advancement' and 'inadequate salary' were the most salient stressors for the clerical workers. Implications of the findings for the design of stress management and organizational change programmes were discussed.     

Job stress in managers,professionals, and clerical workers

Abstract

The intensity and frequency of occurrence of 30 job stressors as measured by the job stress survey (JSS) were examined in white-collar employees of a large manufacturing firm, consisting of 68 managers, 171 professional (mostly engineers), and 69 clerical personnel. The highest levels of stress intensity were attributed to ‘lack of opportunity for advancement’ and ‘poor or inadequate supervision’. Individual stressors rated as occurring most often during the past six months were ‘frequent interruptions', ‘meeting deadlines’, and ‘dealing with crisis situations’. Factor analyses of the ratings of individual job stressors identified two job-stress factors, job pressure and lack of support, which were differentially related to age, gender, occupational level, locus of control, and job tenure and satisfaction. All three occupational groups attributed greater intensity to stressors that reflected lack of organizational support than to job pressures. Managers reported experiencing job pressures more often than professionals/engineers, but attributed less stress intensity to these pressures. ‘Lack of opportunity for advancement’ and ‘inadequate salary’ were the most salient stressors for the clerical workers. Implications of the findings for the design of stress management and organizational change programmes were discussed.     

Beneath the mask:: Examining the relationship of self-presentation attributes and impression management to charismatic leadership

We tested several hypotheses derived from Gardner and Avolio's [Acad. Manage. Rev. 23 (1998) 32.] self-presentational theory of charismatic leadership. We collected multisource field data in an information technology (IT) consulting firm and examined linkages among managers' self-system attributes (i.e., desired charismatic identity, self-monitoring), pro-social and self-serving impression management of managers, charismatic leadership of managers, and two measures of performance. Eighty-three managers provided self-reports of self-system attributes. Six months later, 249 subordinates rated the focal managers' impression management and charismatic leadership styles. Superiors of the focal managers provided performance ratings 7 months after collecting the subordinate ratings. Results indicated that complexity of desired charismatic identity was positively related to self-monitoring. Self-monitoring was negatively related to ratings of pro-social impression management and positively related to ratings of self-serving impression management. Pro-social impression management related positively to charismatic leadership, which predicted managerial and unit performance.     

A new approach to analyzing the Achilles' heel of multisource feedback programs: Can we really trust ratings of leaders at the group level of analysis?

This research addresses the Achilles’ heel of all multi-source leadership feedback programs regardless of whether they use 360°, 270°, or 180° ratings. Namely, should all feedback be universally aggregated by feedback groups and reported to respondents? A sample of raters from the Center for Creative Leadership (N = 15,500 including subordinates, peers, and others) was grouped to align with each raters’ matching focal subject (J = 1,550). Two scales from CCL’s Benchmarks instrument (Building and Mending Relationships and Career Management) were used to: (1) predict a derailment factor (Problems with Interpersonal Relationships) and (2) determine the operative level of analysis and its aggregation characteristics using Within and Between Analysis (WABA). In many cases, the variables under consideration did not aggregate optimally. Using a technique based upon each group’s coefficient of variation as a measure of internal consensus, between 3% and 25% of groups should not have their averages reported. Alternative approaches are discussed.     

The role of personal values in the charismatic leadership of corporate managers: A model and preliminary field study

This study used multi-source field data collected in five organizations to examine linkages among managers' personal value system (i.e., intensity of openness to change, traditional, collectivistic work, self-transcendent, and self-enhancement values), charismatic leadership of managers, and three outcome measures. Two-hundred and eighteen managers provided self-reports of their personal values and ratings of their followers' extra effort and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Nine-hundred and forty-five subordinates rated the focal managers' charismatic leadership. Superiors of the focal managers provided ratings of managerial performance 2 months after collecting the managers' and subordinates' ratings. Results indicated that traditional, collectivistic work, self-transcendent, and self-enhancement values related positively to charismatic leadership, which predicted managerial performance and followers' extra effort and OCB. Managerial performance moderated the relationships between leaders' values, charismatic leadership, and followers' outcomes.     

Corporate Managers' Reactions to Assertive Social Skills Exhibited by Males and Females

While a number of investigators have suggested that assertiveness is an important interpersonal skill for both males and females in work-related settings, few studies have empirically evaluated how corporate managers react to assertiveness exhibited by others. The current study examined whether managers react differently to identical assertive responses made by females versus by males, and also compared manager reactions to several different types of verbal content in assertive responses. The procedure consisted of presenting managers with taped vignettes that showed either a male or female model handling several work-related conflicts assertively. The portrayed models were either directly assertive, assertive but moderating their assertion with an empathic comment to the antagonist in the situation, or assertive but tempering the response with a self-effacing comment. Based on interpersonal evaluation ratings completed later by the managers, self-effacing assertive models of both sexes were rated unfavorably relative to either directly assertive or empathic-assertive models. Empathic comments preceding an assertive response resulted in more favorable manager reactions on several criteria. Finally, on almost all measures, assertive behavior exhibited by females was evaluated as positively as the same behavior exhibited by males. Implications for assertive training of males and females in the business setting are considered.     

Single‐ and Multiple‐Informant Research Designs to Examine the Human Resource Management−Performance Relationship

During the last decades, many empirical studies have analysed the relationship between human resource management and firm performance. Despite the call for multiple‐rater designs, a relatively large number of researchers still rely on survey responses provided by a single informant in each organization. Single‐informant designs suffer from a number of problems, especially when the responses provided by different types of raters across firms are pooled into a single dataset prior to assessing their equivalence across raters. Using an illustration of the relationship between high performance work systems and firm performance, in this paper we observe that responses provided by managers holding different positions (human resource managers and sales managers) differ significantly and therefore pooling their responses into a single dataset may result in confusing conclusions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that differences arise in the estimated parameters when a multiple‐key‐informant approach, compared to a single‐informant design, is adopted. For these reasons, data collection using multiple key informants is recommended, based on the assumption that some raters in the firm will be more knowledgeable about the variables of interest than others.     

Impact of rater personality on transformational and transactional leadership ratings

This study addresses the role of rater personality in ratings of transformational and transactional leadership. In a naturalistic field study, we found that rater personality (i.e., agreeableness, openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness) was positively associated with ratings of transformational leadership, but significant rater personality effects were not found in an experimental study where leadership behavior was invariant. These results suggest that disagreements among raters about leaders' behaviors are not due solely to random error and may instead reflect true differences either in (a) the behaviors leaders exhibit toward individual followers or (b) personality-related differences between followers in attention to and recall of leadership behaviors. We also found that personality (of subordinates and peers) was not randomly distributed across leaders, though clustering effects were generally small. Practically, our results suggest that (a) individual reports of leadership may be better at predicting leadership outcomes than aggregated group reports – especially those related to individual attitudes and behaviors – though they are rarely used in the literature; (b) aggregation is complicated because rater personality is associated with leadership ratings and is not randomly distributed across leaders; and (c) corrections for measurement error based on inter-rater agreement may not be appropriate due to non-random unique rater variance.     

The Content of the Psychological Contract

The perceived obligations of the two parties to the employment relationship, the employee and the organization, were explored using the critical incident technique. Incidents were elicited which exceeded or fell below the treatment which each party might reasonably expect from the other; obligations were then inferred from these incidents. Respondents were a representative sample of UK employees (n=184), and a sample of UK managers (n=184) (the organization group).
Twelve categories of organization obligation and seven of employee obligation were inferred from these data. While the two groups identified the same content categories as each other, they did so with different relative frequency. The organization group quoted more relational than transactional forms of organizational obligation, the employee group the reverse. This finding was attributed to a lack of trust of the organization by employees, and to their job insecurity. The groups, however, did not differ in terms of the frequency of the most commonly cited employee obligations; timekeeping, good work and honesty. This was taken to indicate the prevalence of a traditional and input-oriented view of employee obligations. Examples were discovered of a reciprocal element to the contract. It was concluded that, despite the level of agreement between the two parties regarding the elements of the psychological contract, they were in danger of holding different perceptions of its balance; and that organizations should only expect employee commitment if they themselves have fulfilled their side of the contract.     

Self–other rating agreement in leadership: A review

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on self–other rating agreement (SOA) related to leadership in the workplace, focusing primarily on research published between 1997 (the year of Atwater &; Yammarino's seminal paper on SOA) and the present. Much of the current interest in SOA derives from its purported relationships with self-awareness and leader effectiveness. The literature, however, has used a variety of metrics to assess SOA, resulting in discrepancies between findings across studies. As multi-rater (360-degree; multisource) feedback instruments continue to be widely used as a measure of leadership in organizations, it is important that we more clearly understand the relationships between SOA and its predictors and outcomes. To this end, in this article, we review (a) models of agreement, (b) factors affecting self-ratings and the congruence between self–others' ratings, (c) factors affecting others' ratings, (d) correlates of agreement, and (e) measurement issues and data analytic techniques. We conclude with discussions of practitioner issues and directions for future research.     

Analysis of human capital development in Puerto Rico: summary and conclusions

This study explored whether perceptions of organizational business ethics differ by hierarchical levels. The study sample included more than 40,000 executives, mid-level managers and non-managerial employees from business organizations in six countries: Brazil, China, Germany, India, the UK and the US. We found that executives provided the most positive assessment of ethical business culture within their respective organizations. Employees’ assessments were less positive, and mid-level managers’ assessments fell in the middle. Organizational size and respondents’ age were not related to differences in responses. Statistically significant differences among hierarchical levels were found in Brazil, the US, Germany, the UK and China. Differences were not significant in India. Executives with longer tenure at the same organization tended to provide higher ratings of organizations’ ethical cultures, while managers’ and employees’ ratings tended to decrease with time.     

A review,analysis, and extension of peer-leader feedback agreement: Contrasting group aggregate agreement vs. self-other agreement using entity analytics and visualization

In reviewing peer-leader feedback within Multi-Source Feedback programs, the group aggregate agreement (GAA) method is contrasted with self-other agreement (SOA). Past research (Markham, Smith, et al., 2014) has demonstrated convergence problems with GAA for groups of peer raters. To evaluate dyadic convergence, we used the Benchmarks data to investigate two derailment factors (Building & Mending Relationships and Interpersonal Problems) for 4607 peers describing 1505 focal respondents. For high-agreement dyads, the r_total = ? 0.66** with 88% of the combined variance and covariance based on dyadic averages converging as whole units. Only 50% of all dyads demonstrated this type of high convergence. For low agreement dyads, the matching correlation (r_total = ? 0.56**) was almost exclusively a function of within-dyad divergence with only 4% stemming from between-dyad sources. Research implications for evaluating SOA under these agreement conditions are highlighted. Practitioner applications for using an entity-based visualization of dyads also are prototyped and discussed.     

An empirical evaluation of the impacts of telecommuting on intra-organizational communication

This study represents a preliminary step towards developing an understanding of how telework arrangements affect intra-organizational communication. The following general research questions are addressed: (1) Do telework arrangements change the way in which teleworkers communicate with their superiors, their subordinates, their colleagues and their clients?; and (2) Do telework arrangements change the way in which managers communicate with subordinates who telework? The study, which was conducted at two Canadian federal government departments, was designed to collect information from four groups: (1) teleworkers (n=36 at Time 2); (2) managers of teleworkers (n=28 at Time 2); (3) co-workers of teleworkers (n=27 at Time 2); and (4) a control group (n=25 at Time 2). Three data collection techniques were used in this study: paper and pencil questionnaires, telephone interviews, and focus group interviews. Data were collected at three points in time: (1) two weeks prior to the start of the telework pilot; (2) three months after the telework pilot had begun; and (3) six months after the start of the telework pilot. Analysis of the data suggests that, with a few important exceptions, part-time telework arrangements have little impact on intra-organizational communication.     

The Primary Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethicality in Corporate Reputation: An Empirical Study

We examine three assumptions commonly held in the corporate reputation literature: (1) reputation ratings of owners and investors are generally representative of all stakeholders; (2) stakeholders will generally provide a higher reputation rating to firms that emphasize corporate social responsibility versus firms that do not; and (3) profitability is the primary criterion of importance to all stakeholders when rating a firm's reputation. Using an exploratory in‐class exercise, our findings suggest that: (1) there are significant differences among stakeholder groups in their reputation ratings; (2) firms that emphasize corporate social responsibility are not rated more highly across all stakeholder groups; and (3) for all stakeholder groups, the ethicality criterion explained more of the variance in firms' reputation ratings than the profitability criterion.