The BE GREAT LLC Academic World Tour heads to the UK
The paper titled “Front-Line Manager Performance: Biased Self-Assessment” will be presented at the 19th International Conference on Human Resource Development Research and Practice across Europe, taking place at Newcastle Business School, North Umbria University. The paper was co-authored by John Rovens, CEO of BE GREAT LLC; Andrew Rovens, of BE GREAT LLC; Darlene Russ-Eft, professor of Adult & Higher Education in the College of Education; and Laura Boehme, a doctoral student at Oregon State University.
The paper, to be presented by Professor Russ-Eft, examines why front-line managers see themselves differently than their direct supervisors and subordinates in terms of performance effectiveness. This is an important area that has not been explored sufficiently. "Front-line managers are unaware that their own performance is lacking and, quite frankly, terrible in many cases . Frequently, leaders see themselves as better performers than they actually are. This is largely because leaders are not known for their self-awareness" (Chamorra-Premuzic, 2017).
The results confirm the theory of egocentric bias as operating in the ratings by these front-line managers. Little previous work has been done on egocentric bias and front-line managers; therefore, the findings inform researchers and practitioners regarding a needed area of study in human resource development. Conducting additional work in this area is required to expand this study’s findings about the lack of awareness of front-line managers’ regarding their leadership aptitudes and human resource’s role in closing this gap.
Implications of this work for human resource development practice focus on the front-line managers’ view of their own effectiveness and lack of investment in front-line manager training and development. Without sufficient human resource feedback and development systems, these critical leaders are only equipped with their innate ego-based reasoning. Ultimately, their biased egocentric evaluative capacity causes the front-line manager to inflate the quality of their actual leadership skills and behaviors.
