Managerial self awareness in high-performing individuals in organizations

Individual differences in the construct of managerial self-awareness (MSA) —operation-alized as congruence between self and direct reports ' behavioral ratings—were examined in 134 high-performing (HP) and 470 average-performing (AV) managers obtained from 4 independent datasets. Results based on several different approaches to measuring ratings agreement indicated that HPs were significantly more managerially self-aware compared with AVs. This relationship was consistent regardless of data source, organization, or method of assessing managerial performance. No overall relationships were found be-tween congruence and level of item importance, gender, management level, age, or tenure. When compared with other measures for assessing self-focus, the construct of self-monitoring was found to be convergent with managerial self-awareness, whereas the construct of self-consciousness appeared to reflect primarily rating leniency effects. The article concludes with a comparison of the measurement approaches used, limitations, and suggestions for further study. With the rising popularity of multirater or 360 degree feedback systems in organizations (e.g., Church, 1995; Hazucha, Hezlett, & Schneider, 1993; London & Beatty, 1993) designed explicitly to enhance self-knowledge and improve managerial behavior, a number of researchers have begun exploring the psychological concept of self-awareness from an applied ratings-based perspective (e.g.