Managerial self-awareness in high-performing individuals in organizations

Individual differences in the construct of managerial self-awareness (MSA)-operationalized 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 between 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.