Know thyself? Self- and other-ratings of a manager’s work-related personality and their relation to the occupational well-being of subordinates

Abstract

In our study, we examined the relations between a manager’s work-related personality and the occupational well-being of subordinates. A manager’s work-related personality was assessed by a manager him-/herself (self-rating) and his/her subordinates (other-ratings) by using Working Personality Inventory (WOPI). In addition to studying the direct relations between the ratings and subordinates’ occupational well-being, we examined the phenomenon of self-other rating agreement (SOA). We explored whether SOA (i.e., agreement or disagreement on ratings) on a manager’s work-related personality was related to the occupational well-being of subordinates. Furthermore, we studied the relations between demographic factors (a manager’s age and gender) and self- and other-ratings of a manager’s work-related personality. Our theoretical framework was the model of self-other rating agreement (Atwater & Yammarino, 1992; 1997). The measures of subordinates’ occupational well-being (work-related positive emotions, high team spirit and low work-related strain) were based on a multidimensional model of occupational well-being (Van Horn, Taris, Schaufeli, & Schreurs, 2004).

Data were collected in a Finnish public funded expert organization in 2006. Data collection was carried out as a part of a broader personnel survey. The response rate in the personnel survey was 74.4%. The complete data in our study included 144 managers and 702 subordinates (N = 846). All the subordinates’ responses were analyzed as mean scores at a team level, and average team size was 4.94. From those managers who reported their gender, 33 out of 122 managers were women and 89 were men. The average age of the managers was 44 years. The research questions were examined through polynomial regression analysis, response surface tests and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).

Our results revealed two rating tendencies of the manager’s work-related personality that were relevant to the subordinates’ occupational well-being: direction of discrepancy and agreement on the ratings. The right end of WOPI’s scale can be described as ‘leader-like’ (e.g., inspiring, supporting, pursuing ideas), whereas the left end of the scale is more ‘expert-like’ (e.g., reserved, distant, pursuing facts) description of work-related personality. The subordinates experienced more work-related positive emotions and high team spirit when they assessed their manager’s work-related personality close to the right end of WOPI’s scale regardless of the manager’s own assessment. Occupational well-being was lower when the manager assessed his/her work-related personality close to the right end of the scale, but the subordinates’ assessment was the opposite. In addition, agreement on the ratings was related to the subordinates’ occupational well-being, but this rating tendency was less frequently relevant than the direction of discrepancy. None of the ratings were related to the subordinates’ low work-related strain. Older managers self-assessed their work-related personality more often close to the left end and the younger managers close to the right end of the scale. The subordinates assessed women more often close to the right end and men close to the left end of the scale.

The main results of this study underline the importance of the subordinates’ assessments and the manager’s self-awareness from the point of view of the subordinates’ occupational well-being. The subordinates of the ‘leader-like’ managers (especially, when the subordinates gave the assessments) experienced more occupational well-being. Overall, our research shed light on the rarely studied association between the manager’s work-related personality and the subordinates’ occupational well-being. This study has important practical implications for successful recruitment processes and leadership development, for example.