SELF- O THER RA TING A G REEMENT AND LEA DER EFFEC TIVENESS John W. Fleenor* Cynthia D. McCauley Stkphane Brutus Center for Creative Leadership This study examined relationships between two models of self-other rating agreement and leader effectiveness. Using differences between self- and subordinate ratings, managers (N = 2,056) were first categorized into four groups: over-estimators (who rated themselves higher than others rated them); under-estimators (who rated themselves lower than others rated them); in-agreement/good raters (whose self-ratings were favorable and similar to the ratings of others); and, in-agreement/poor raters (whose self- ratings were unfavorable and similar to the ratings of others) (Atwater & Yammarino, in press). Then, managers were classified using a six group model (Brutus, Fleenor, & Taylor, 1996). which introduced a further distinction-over-estimators/good, and under-estimators/poor. With the four group model, superiors appeared to rate in-agreement/good raters and under-estimators as more effective than over- estimators. However, with the six group model, in-agreement/good raters and under-estimator/good raters were not seen as more effective than over-estimator/good raters. The results suggested that six groups are necessary to fairly compare agreement groups. Self-other rating agreement typically is defined as the degree of agreement or congruence between self-ratings and the ratings of others in the workplace (superiors, peers, subordinates, etc.) (Yammarino & Atwater, 1993). Often, these ratings are gathered using multi-perspective rating instruments, which solicit input from various sources regarding the target managers’ performance (see Van Velsor & Leslie, 1991, for a review). In the past, differences between self-ratings and the ratings of others have been thought of as error variance that should be reduced or eliminated. More recently, however, these differences have come to be viewed as useful and meaningful information (Tomow, 1993). For example, according to Atwater and Yammarino (1992) there appears to be a * Direct all correspondence to: John W. Fleenor, Center for Creative Leadership, One Leadership Place, P.O. Box 26300, Greensboro, NC 27438-6300. E-mail: fleenorj@leaders.ccl.org. Leadership Quarterly, 7(4), 487-506. Copyright 0 1996 by JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 1048-9843