Agreement in Self–Other Ratings of Leader Effectiveness: The role of demographics and personality

Personality and demographic attributes for a set of 1221 focal managers were examined as correlates of leadership effectiveness evaluations that were obtained via a 360° feedback program. Polynomial regression was used to study the congruence of self‐ratings provided by focal managers relative to the different evaluative perspectives (i.e., immediate superior, peer, and subordinate). Analyses supported the prediction that focal manager's sex and age would be associated with the ratings provided by themselves and others. Plus, the tendency to overestimate one's own leader effectiveness relative to evaluations provided by others was found to be greater for males and older managers. Focal managers who expressed greater social sensitivity were evaluated more favorably by subordinates and peers, although not by superiors. Ratings of leader effectiveness from immediate superiors were, instead, more readily predicted by judgments of the performance of the focal manager's organizational unit relative to comparable units. Results of polynomial regression analysis, however, indicated that self–other agreement was related to the focal's sex, social sensitivity, and social dominance. Implications for understanding obstacles to openness to change are discussed.     

Independent Threats and Self-Evaluation Maintenance Processes

Abstract

The present study investigated the independence of Self-Evaluation Maintenance (SEM) processes and the larger self-system. SEM processes are activated whenever another's performance is made salient relative to one's own. According to the SEM model, when one is outperformed by a close other on a task high in self-relevance, self-esteem is lowered and a negative affect state is generated. When one is outperformed by a close other on a task low in self-relevance, however, self-esteem and positive affect are actually enhanced, because one can take pride in the other's accomplishments. There are many sources of threat or enhancement to self-esteem, however, that are unrelated to one's performance relative to another's. The present study, using American undergraduates as subjects, examined the impact that these unrelated self-esteem threats or enhancements might have on SEM processes, that is, whether a prior unrelated ego-threatening or ego-enhancing experience modulates the effects of SEM processes. It was expected that a prior ego-threatening experience would augment the impact of SEM variables, whereas an ego-enhancing experience would attenuate the effect. Results, however, indicated little interaction between SEM processes and unrelated threats or enhancements to self-esteem.     

The unique and combined benefits of accuracy and positive bias in relationships

An experiment investigated the independent and combined effects of receiving feedback from romantic partners that varied in both accuracy (i.e., profile agreement) and positive bias, as compared with one's self‐perceptions. Both members of 55 romantically involved couples were randomly assigned to receive either high or low levels of accurate or positively biased feedback ostensibly created from a comparison between their self‐ratings and their partner's appraisals. After receiving this feedback, participants rated how positive and intimate they felt in their relationships. As expected, both accuracy and positive bias in partner feedback had independent positive effects. Importantly, positive bias and accuracy were found to operate additively; participants who received feedback that was simultaneously positively biased and accurate rated their relationships particularly positively.     

Plagiarism as an illusional sense of authorship: The effect of predictability on source attribution of thought

Previous studies have shown that contextually high-predictability ideas are essential for one to sense the authorship of thoughts and that having the sense that one came up with an idea of one's own, instead of through hearing of another's idea, results in the feeling that one has output the ideas. In this study, we investigated the effects of an idea's predictability on the misattribution of another's thought to oneself. The participants were asked to write down two original ideas about how to use various objects while avoiding the duplication of another's ideas that had been presented beforehand in an input–output phase. In the monitoring phase (1 week and 1 month after the input–output phase), the participants were asked whether each idea had been generated by them, by another, or not generated at all. We found that a high-predictability idea is likely to be regarded with the notion “I generated the idea.” This tendency increased with time, suggesting that participants were more likely to have a sense of authorship when high-predictability ideas were presented. We also discovered that they were more likely to conclude that the source of high-predictability ideas was the “Self.” We discussed the results from the viewpoint of the participant's sense of agency as well.     

Does how I look at what you're doing depend on what I'm doing?

Previous studies showed that people proactively gaze at the target of another's action by taking advantage of their own motor representation of that action. But just how selectively is one's own motor representation implicated in another's action processing? If people observe another's action while performing a compatible or an incompatible action themselves, will this impact on their gaze behaviour? We recorded proactive eye movements while participants observed an actor grasping small or large objects. The participants' right hand either freely rested on the table or held with a suitable grip a large or a small object, respectively. Proactivity of gaze behaviour significantly decreased when participants observed the actor reaching her target with a grip that was incompatible with respect to that used by them to hold the object in their own hand. This indicates that effective observation of action may depend on what one is actually doing, being actions observed best when the suitable motor representations may be readily recruited.     

Helping is not enough: Recipient's reactions to aid as a function of positive and negative information about the self

The present research investigated the effects of experimentally induced positive and negative feedback about the self on the recipient's subsequent reactions to aid. In line with a consistency prediction, subjects given positive feedback who later received aid had lower mood ratings and less favorable self-evaluations than those who were given positive feedback but no subsequent help. Conversely, subjects given negative feedback who later received aid had higher mood ratings and more positive self-evaluations than those who were given negative feedback but no subsequent help. Subjects' evaluations of another individual were characterized by aid main effects, which indicate that an other who helped was evaluated more favorably than an other who did not help. The conceptual and applied implications of these results are discussed.     

Sizing fish and ponds: The joint effects of individual- and group-based feedback

The present paper explores the combined effects of individual- and group-directed feedback on perceived need for individual and collective change. Valence of feedback about individual and group performance (positive versus negative) was manipulated orthogonally. The results revealed that responses to various combinations of two-level feedback were moderated by group identification. With respect to the perceived need for collective change, high-identifiers (but not low-identifiers) were motivated by discrepant feedback: When group feedback was negative but individual feedback was positive, high identifiers perceived collective change to be more important than low-identifiers. With respect to the perceived need for individual change, low-identifiers (but not high-identifiers) were discouraged by the discrepant feedback: When group feedback was positive but individual feedback was negative, low-identifiers perceived individual change to be less important than high-identifiers. These data highlight the interplay between individual and collective feedback, and suggest that the meaning of feedback at each level (individual or group) is framed by the feedback received at the other level. Moreover, group identification seems to play a crucial role in reconciling differences between one's individual self and the performance of one's group.     

Vicarious shame

We examined an account of vicarious shame that explains how people can experience a self-conscious emotion for the behaviour of another person. Two divergent processes have been put forward to explain how another's behaviour links to the self. The group-based emotion account explains vicarious shame in terms of an in-group member threatening one's social identity by behaving shamefully. The empathy account explains vicarious shame in terms of empathic perspective taking; people imagine themselves in another's shameful behaviour. In three studies using autobiographical recall and experimental inductions, we revealed that both processes can explain why vicarious shame arises in different situations, what variation can be observed in the experience of vicarious shame, and how all vicarious shame can be related to a threat to the self. Results are integrated in a functional account of shame.     

Leader Attributions for Subordinate Performance: Consequences for Subsequent Leader Interactive Behaviors and Ratings1

An important application of attribution theory deals with leader explanations for subordinate performance and their effects on future leader–member interactions and performance. In the present study, subjects worked on a 2-trial task in which there was a leader and 2 members. Leaders received performance feedback and an attributional explanation for subordinate performance after Trial 1, and subsequent Trial 2 behavior was videotaped. Results showed that attributions significantly affected the amount of time spent by the leader talking to the group during the second trial, as well as the number of negative leader comments. Level of performance was a significant determinant of subordinate ratings and reward/punishment recommendations. Attributions differentially affected the punishment advocated by leaders, with failure due to internal causes more likely to be punished than failure due to external causes. Implications for an attributional theory of leadership are discussed.     

360 Degree Feedback and Developmental Outcomes: The Role of Feedback Characteristics,Self‐Efficacy and Importance of Feedback Dimensions to Focal Managers' Current Role

This longitudinal study investigates whether developmental changes following 360 degree feedback are predicted by the favourability of ratings received, and moderated by focal individuals' self‐efficacy and perceived importance of feedback. Five developmental criteria are investigated longitudinally: (i) self‐assessments, (ii) line managers' ratings, (iii) amount of developmental activity, (iv) global self‐efficacy and (iv) self‐efficacy for development. Feedback ratings from certain rater groups predicted changes in ratings, but not changes in self‐efficacy or amount of developmental activity. Self‐efficacy significantly moderated the feedback–performance association for certain rater groups, but feedback importance did not. Contrary to expectations, the focal individual's initial self‐assessment predicted changes in self‐efficacy, over the favourability of ratings received. The implications of these findings for organizations using 360 degree feedback for developmental purposes are discussed.     

The Influence of a Manager's Own Performance Appraisal on the Evaluation of Others

This study examined the possibility that the performance appraisal process is affected by a pervasive and inherent effect that has heretofore been unidentified. This effect derives from the results of the performance appraisal most recently performed on the manager who subsequently conducts appraisals of others. The nature of this effect was examined in four studies. In a case study, the ratings received by two area coordinators in a university academic department affected their subsequent ratings of faculty. In a simulation, 30 managers received hypothetical feedback regarding their own job performance. The managers subsequently evaluated an employee on videotape. Managers who received positive feedback about their performance subsequently rated the employee significantly higher than managers who received negative feedback regarding their own performance. This occurred despite the fact that the managers knew the evaluation of them was bogus. The results of two follow‐up field studies involving 74 manager–employee dyads in a manufacturing company in Canada and 39 manager–subordinate dyads in a retail organization in Turkey are consistent with the view that one's own performance appraisal is related to the subsequent appraisal of one's subordinates. Both anchoring with insufficient adjustment and a mood induction may explain this effect, but the results are more consistent with the former explanation than the latter.     

Receiving right/wrong feedback: Consequences for learning

Prior work suggests that receiving feedback that one's response was correct or incorrect (right/wrong feedback) does not help learners, as compared to not receiving any feedback at all (Pashler, Cepeda, Wixted, & Rohrer, 2005). In three experiments we examined the generality of this conclusion. Right/wrong feedback did not aid error correction, regardless of whether participants learned facts embedded in prose (Experiment 1) or translations of foreign vocabulary (Experiment 2). While right/wrong feedback did not improve the overall retention of correct answers (Experiments 1 and 2), it facilitated retention of low-confidence correct answers (Experiment 3). Reviewing the original materials was very useful to learners, but this benefit was similar after receiving either right/wrong feedback or no feedback (Experiments 1 and 2). Overall, right/wrong feedback conveys some information to the learner, but is not nearly as useful as being told the correct answer or having the chance to review the to-be-learned materials.     

Perceptions of Control and Causality as Predictors of Compliance and Coping in Hemodialysis

In the present study we examined the relationships among hemodialysis patients' perceptions of control over their health, attributions of causality, and staff ratings of coping and compliance. Patient responses to questions posed during a semi-structured interview were predictors entered into multiple regression analyses with coping and compliance ratings as criterion variables. Results indicate that having tried to prevent kidney failure and not succeeding predicts poor compliance and poor coping. Perceived control is associated with positive coping but is unrelated to compliance. Finally, patients who wondered, "Why me?" but had not arrived at an answer received the poorest coping and compliance ratings from staff. Results are discussed in light of current theory regarding the beneficial effects of perceived contingency between actions and outcomes, and the need to find a meaning for one's illness.     

Trust,Belief, and the Second-Personal

Cognitivism about trust says that it requires belief that the trusted is trustworthy; non-cognitivism denies this. At stake is how to make sense of the strong but competing intuitions that trust is an attitude that is evaluable both morally and rationally. In proposing that one's respect for another's agency may ground one's trusting beliefs, second-personal accounts provide a way to endorse both intuitions. They focus attention on the way that, in normal situations, it is the person whom I trust. My task is to develop an account of the latter insight without the controversial theoretical commitments of the former. I propose a functional account for why the second and third-personal ‘systems’ operate not just in parallel, but in tandem, in support of a cognitivist account of trust.     

Do Student Evaluations of University Reflect Inaccurate Beliefs or Actual Experience? A Relative Rank Model

It was shown that student satisfaction ratings are influenced by context in ways that have important theoretical and practical implications. Using questions from the UK's National Student Survey, the study examined whether and how students' expressed satisfaction with issues such as feedback promptness and instructor enthusiasm depends on the context of comparison (such as possibly inaccurate beliefs about the feedback promptness or enthusiasm experienced at other universities) that is evoked. Experiment 1 found strong effects of experimentally provided comparison context—for example, satisfaction with a given feedback time depended on the time's relative position within a context. Experiment 2 used a novel distribution‐elicitation methodology to determine the prior beliefs of individual students about what happens in universities other than their own. It found that these beliefs vary widely and that students' satisfaction was predicted by how they believed their experience ranked within the distribution of others' experiences. A third study found that relative judgement principles also predicted students' intention to complain. An extended model was developed to show that purely rank‐based principles of judgement can account for findings previously attributed to range effects. It was concluded that satisfaction ratings and quality of provision are different quantities, particularly when the implicit context of comparison includes beliefs about provision at other universities. Quality and satisfaction should be assessed separately, with objective measures (such as actual times to feedback), rather than subjective ratings (such as satisfaction with feedback promptness), being used to measure quality wherever practicable. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

The effect of social comparison information on learned helpless and mastery-oriented children in achievement settings

The present study investigates the effect of social comparison information on learned helpless and mastery-oriented children's attributions, behaviour, and affect following a failure experience. Ninety-one fifth grade children experienced failure in the context of high consensus or group failure feedback, low consensus or personal failure feedback or no social comparison feedback. The Jindings point to the robustness of the helpless and mastery response patterns: the behaviour of learned helpless children, as compared to mastery-oriented children, deteriorated following failure regardless of the social comparison feedback they recieved. However, the attributions made by the two groups of children differed. Mastery-oriented children appeared to use social comparison information more accurately in that they appropriately made higher task difficulty ratings when receiving group failure feedback than when receiving personal failure feedback. Learned helpless children were more likely to use a self-derogatory bias and made attributions to their low ability, even when presented with social comparison feedback that was contrary to their bias. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for education and for intervention with learned helpless childrens.     

Effects of personality and gender on self–other agreement in ratings of leadership

We explore the role of leader personality (i.e., the Big 5 traits: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism) and gender in self–other (dis)agreement (SOA) in ratings of leadership. We contend that certain aspects of the leader's persona may be more or less related to self‐ or other‐ratings of the leader's behaviour if those aspects are (1) more or less observable by others, (2) more or less related to internal thoughts versus external behaviours, (3) more or less prone to self‐enhancement or self‐denigrating biases, or (4) more or less socially desirable. We utilize statistical methodologies that capture fully the effects of multiple independent variables on the congruence between two dependent variables (Edwards, 1995 , Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 64, 307), which previously have not been applied to this area of research. Our results support hypotheses predicting less SOA as leader Conscientiousness increases and greater SOA as Agreeableness and Neuroticism increase. Additionally, we found gender to be an important factor in SOA; female leaders exhibited greater SOA than did their male counterparts. We discuss the implications of these findings, limitations, and future research directions.

Practitioner points

• Popular practices such as 360‐degree feedback may reveal discrepancies between a person's self‐ratings and other's ratings.
• Although often attributed to a lack of self‐awareness, these discrepancies also may be explained by factors such as the personality and gender of the focal individual.

     

SELF‐SACRIFICE TO SAVE THE LIFE OF ANOTHER IN JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS1

Although both the Jewish and Christian traditions permit and even valorize self‐sacrificial death for the sake of God (martyrdom), and for other people, they diverge on the issue of self‐sacrificial death for the sake of a single individual. The Jewish tradition prohibits such self‐sacrifice on the basis of the principles that (1) God owns the body and that (2) one cannot exchange one's life for another's. Christian ethics, in contrast, permits sacrificing one's life to save a single person based on the model of Christ's self‐sacrificial love. This ethical disagreement exposes a fundamental theological disagreement between the two traditions concerning what constitutes the imago Dei.     

Anticipated compatibility as a function of attitude or status similarity1

Two experiments explored the effects of self-other discrepancies in attitude or status on judgments of another's desirability as a companion It was found that increasing discrepancy in status or attitudes led to lower judgments of compatibility and liking In one experiment, similarity of attitudes of another was found to correlate with liking him, desire to befriend him, do favors for him, and possibly conform to him. The contribution of some personality measures to the relationship between similarity and anticipated compatibility was a major focus of the study The inhibitory effect of a target's status discrepancy was more pronounced for subjects who were more sensitive to rejection Also, between targets of equally discrepant status, there was a general preference to affiliate with the one whose status was higher than the one whose status was lower–an effect which was even more pronounced for subjects who were sensitive to rejection More anxious subjects judged themselves as generally less acceptable to others, particularly to others of higher status. When predicting attitudes on the basis of limited information, females showed a greater tendency than males to see others as similar to themselves Finally, persons holding different attitudes from one's own were judged as more harmful socially, a bias which was more pronounced in females than in males.     

Morality‐ and identity‐related antecedents of children's guilt and shame attributions in events involving physical illness

It is theorised that guilt‐ and shame‐related appraisals vary on two separate dimensions. Guilt implies an appraisal that one has either committed a moral transgression or that one has otherwise been involved in the creation of a morally wrong outcome. Shame implies one's appraisal that the current event or condition reflects negatively on one's identity. To test these claims, 206 7‐ to 16‐year‐old children gave shame and guilt ratings of three types of events that were drawn from the domain of physical illness and that were designed to elicit primarily guilt, primarily shame, or both emotions. The 12‐year‐olds and older children's ratings were fully consistent with our hypothesis. Younger children's greatest difficulty was in not attributing shame to protagonists who were involved in causing a moral wrong without there being the threat of an unwanted identity.