| Multisource feedback is a widely used technique in organizations for the purpose of individual performance assessment and development. However, empirical research to date has failed to demonstrate a consistent positive link between self-awareness and performance, particularly organizational performance, and it has also largely ignored the role of contextual variables (e.g., organizational culture and climate) in exploring the link between feedback congruence and organizational performance. The present study addresses these issues by implementing a mediating pathway based on the Service-Profit Chain that will attempt to explicate the link between leader self-awareness and organizational performance. Leader self-awareness was expected to lead to favorable employee attitudes, which in turn result in favorable customer perceptions and higher organizational financial performance.;Archival data on store manager multisource feedback ratings, store employee attitudes, store customer attitudes, and store financial performance were collected from 752 stores of a Fortune IOU U.S.-based retail organization. Structural equation model fit statistics, path coefficients, and three-dimensional response surface analysis graphs were evaluated to determine the impact of leader self-awareness on employee, customer, and financial outcome variables. Self-awareness was operationalized as the degree of congruence in self and others' multisource feedback ratings.;Results showed that, in almost all cases, there was no significant difference in organizational financial performance when leaders' self and other ratings were high than when self and other ratings were low, but employee attitudes were significantly more favorable for leaders with high self and other ratings than low self and other ratings. There was no significant difference in organizational performance regardless of whether a store manager was an overrater or an underrater. The direction, magnitude, and significance of the path relationships among the employee attitude, customer attitude, and organizational performance variables depended upon the specific facets of each class of variables being considered. Implications of these findings for leader self-awareness and for the impact of leaders on their organizations are discussed. |
