Investigating the relationship between effective leadership and self-awareness.

Abstract

Self-awareness is an essential component in how we as individuals go about our daily lives – both as participants in society and stakeholders in organizations. The way in which we lead, depends on the person we are. Knowledge of the self is a robust and expansive field in human development; one that has sparked an ardent business interest – this is due partially to the understanding into the impact of intrapersonal (softer) skills in leadership. Studies into the linkage between self-awareness and leadership have not been given as much of the spotlight over the years as other concepts such as communication, relationship building and emotional intelligence (EQ). The aim of this study was to expand on and critique the current literature that exists between the concepts of self-awareness and effective leadership as well as to explore a current real-life scenario in order to determine the relationship between self-awareness and effective leadership. The study adopted a quantitative research approach and involved inviting 115 subjects of a mortgage-financing institution to participate in a survey. These individuals were selected from a population of 765 using a purposeful sampling technique. The major findings from the analysis of the primary data found that the leaders considered themselves highly effective but perceived themselves as having lower levels of self-awareness. An inverse relationship between self-awareness and effective leadership was found during this study. Effective leadership was found to have a negative relationship to organizational performance, most leaders perceived organizational performance to be of average levels whilst perceiving themselves to exhibit high levels of the characteristics abundant in those of effective leaders. Recommendations for further research includes using alternative research methodologies so that those in executive and senior levels within the organization are rated from the perspective of non-executive and non-senior members. Those in executive and senior levels within the organization can be asked to rate themselves. The ratings could be compared to provide more validity and reliability to the study. The study can also be carried out on a more diverse level in terms of using different organizations across different sectors.