Integrity's place among the character strengths of middle-level managers and top-level executives

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Integrity's place among the character strengths of middle-level managers and top-level executives
The Leadership Quarterly

One purpose of this study was to extend integrity research in organizations into the ranks of middle management. We therefore examined whether middle-level managers' behavioral manifestations of integrity related to ratings of their performance. Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that direct report ratings of a middle-level manager's integrity were positively related to boss ratings of that manager's performance. A second purpose of thisstudy was to understand differences in integrity's relative importance to performance among other character strengths and as a function of context (e.g. managerial level). We extend research in this area by showing through relative weight analysis that integrity was relatively less important to middle-level managers' current performance compared to other character strengths (e.g. social intelligence). In contrast integrity was relatively more important for the performance of top-level executives — roles middle-level managers may hold in the future. Implications of these results for future research and practice as well as the current study's limitations are discussed.

Citation: 
The Leadership Quarterly 24 (2013) 395 – 404

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