Assessing the Flexibility of Managers: A comparison of methods¹

Abstract

Despite keen interest, questions remain about defining and measuring the behavioral flexibility of managers. This paper reports a conceptual and empirical comparison of three alternative methods of assessing this construct. Results suggest that the way managerial flexibility is typically assessed in practice -as a trait-like characteristic with coworker ratings that describe a general tendency to vary behavior across situations -is deficient. However, more complex models that represent flexibility as a higher-order construct reflecting mastery of specific and opposing behaviors in both the social/ interpersonal domain and the functional/organizational domain show promise. They demonstrate construct validity evidence, predict as much as 42% of the variance in overall effectiveness, and provide more specific diagnostic information to guide behavior change.

Great man or great myth? A quantitative review of the relationship between individual differences and leader effectiveness

“…When considering specific individual differences with sufficient data to test for moderation, performance measures were more valid than paper‐and‐pencil measures of flexibility, organizing and planning, and initiative, whereas paper‐and‐pencil measures of creativity and interpersonal skills were more valid than performance measures. Consistent with Kaiser, Lindberg, and Craig's (2007) recent work on approaches to measuring flexibility, performance measures of flexibility had a much stronger effect on leader effectiveness than did paper‐and‐pencil measures of effectiveness. In addition, the weak effect of creativity may be attributable to the low base‐rate of creativity and the inability of more open‐ended, performance based measures to capture low base‐rate behaviours.…”

On the Shortcomings of Shortened Tests: A Literature Review

“…However, for most of the shortened tests the procedure was not performed as thoroughly as advised in the literature (Coste et al, 1997;Smith et al, 2000). Exceptions included the SKILLSCOPE R (Kaiser, Lindberg, & Craig, 2007) and the Material Values Scale (Richins, 2004). For example, items for the shortened SKILLSCOPE R were selected as follows.…”

A Little More Rigidity: Firming the Construct of Leader Flexibility

“…For example, a leader may vocalize a sense of urgency too often (motivated by, for example, the reduction of his or her anxiety), and create more work for an already overburdened team. This behavioral rigidity (of seeing everything as urgent), may eventually lead to burnout or under performance of the team members (Kaiser et al, 2007). As described above, if a leader is aware of his or her personal attributes such as self-monitoring, empathy and locus of control, he or she can work toward building on these attributes to incorporate more flexibility in interpersonal behavior.…”