DATA REPORT published: 04 November 2015 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01694 A trait prole of top and middle managers Anna K. Baczynska 1* and Tomasz Rowinski 2 1 Department of Management, Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland, 2 Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland Keywords: general mental ability, top and middle managers, prole, personality, emotional intelligence INTRODUCTION Edited by: Pablo Fernndez-Berrocal, University of Malaga, Spain Reviewed by: Linda M. Pittenger, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, USA Kerrie Unsworth, The University of Western Australia, Australia *Correspondence: Anna k. Baczynska abaczynska@kozminski.edu.pl Specialty section: This article was submitted to Organizational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology Received: 02 July 2015 Accepted: 20 October 2015 Published: 04 November 2015 Citation: Baczynska AK and Rowinski T (2015) A trait prole of top and middle managers. Front. Psychol. 6:1694. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01694 Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org Although trait leadership theory has been widely criticized by scholars over the past century (Stogdill, 1948; Mann, 1959) employers always want to know what kind of abilities and psychological traits distinguish their future employees. The trait approach plays an important part in human resource management practices for selecting, developing and planning the career paths of managers (Armstrong, 2010). Interestingly, Zaccaro (2007) points out that even Stogdill (1948) review, although cited as evidence against leader traits, contains conclusions suggesting that individual dierences can still predict leader eectiveness. Trait leadership is dened as integrated patterns of personal characteristics that reect a range of individual dierences and foster consistent leader eectiveness across a variety of group and organizational situations (Zaccaro et al., 2004). Top and middle level managers play dierent roles in organizations and therefore require dierent skills (Komi ski, 2011, 2013; Grin, 2013). In many studies, top managers are shown z n to dier from middle managers in terms of (1) analytical mental ability (Jensen, 1998; Schmidt and Hunter, 1998; Judge et al., 2004; Sternberg, 2007; Caruso et al., 2013); (2) emotional intelligence (Miller, 1999; Barling et al., 2000; Palmer et al., 2001; Gardner and Stough, 2002; Goleman et al., 2002; Goleman, 2006; Boyatzis, 2011; Caruso et al., 2013); and (3) personality (Judge et al., 2002; Hogan and Holland, 2003; Bono and Judge, 2004). Other results underline that mental ability and personality together play a signicant role in management (Lepine et al., 2000). MATERIALS AND METHODS Participants Our research was conducted at the beginning in 2015 year. The study sample consisted of 233 managers (aged 27-54 years, M = 35.26; SD = 4.77), formed of two groups: (1) managers currently undertaking MBA studies who hold positions of Chairman, Managing Director, Departmental Director or Regional Director (F = 18, M = 60; Mage = 34.90; SDage = 4.97) in organizations, and (2) participants of post-graduate managerial courses at Komi ski University in Warsaw, Poland z n (F = 59, M = 84; Mage = 35.98; SDage = 4.27) who hold positions such as departmental or section manager, or team leader. The managers were selected from elds such as \"fast-moving consumer goods,\" automotives, pharmaceuticals and IT, worked a minimum three years in their position, and received the highest scores in performance appraisals at work. The participants (N = 233) took part in the study voluntarily. During the rst session of Career Development module, each participant received three scales: Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM), the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (EIQ) and the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits Portrait (CPM-P). They fullled RPM in the classroom, the next ones we collected in month. Participants received their results on the individual feedback session. In further stages of our analysis we included only participants who 1 November 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 1694 Baczynska and Rowinski A trait prole of top and middle managers completed the tests without missing responses. There were 220 participants who completed RPM (M = 143; F = 77; 94.4% response rate), 176 who completed EIQ (F = 63; M = 113; 75.5% response rate), and 190 who completed CPM-P (F = 68; M = 122; 81.5% response rate). and serenity. He/She feels happy and optimistic about the future; He/She likes to engage in new initiatives. He/She quickly adapts to new situations. According to the authors Strus et al. (2014), a metatrait can be understood as a personality dimension which dierentiates people in thinking, behavior and emotions. The model consists of eight measurements: (1) Plasticity (0 in the circle) is linked to a tendency toward exploration of the environment, cognitive, and behavioral openness to change, engagement with new experiences, an individual tendency to widen one's horizons, (2) Integration (45 in the circle) is a positive, pro-social attitude to people, a balance between work and family, the successful realization of life goals, (3) Stability (90 in the circle) signies stable functioning in emotional, motivational, and social spheres, (4) Self-Restraint (135 in the circle) represents low emotionality, unwillingness to show emotions, strong control of one's behavior and conformism, (5) Passiveness (180 in the circle) constitutes cognitive and behavioral passivity, apathy, and submissiveness, (6) Disharmony (225 in the circle) represents withdrawal from social and professional activity, a distrustful attitude, distance from others, a tendency to view events and the world pessimistically, (7) Disinhibition (270 in the circle) indicates a tendency toward emotional instability, low resistance to frustration, aggression, and antagonism toward people and governing rules, (8) Sensation-Seeking (315 in the circle) signies impulsiveness, emotional liability, sensation-seeking, a desire to dominate and expansiveness in interpersonal relations. Materials Raven's Progressive Matrices This scale is designed to measure general mental ability (general intelligence). We used the standard progressive version to investigate the level of analytical ability of managers. This is a popular tool of measurement for general mental ability and its reliability (Cronbach's alpha is above 0.80) and validity have been empirically proven in many studies (Raven, 2000; Shamosh and Gray, 2007; Harrison et al., 2015; Little and McDaniel, 2015). Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire This scale was developed by Jaworowska and Matczak (2005). The tool is based on the Salovey and Mayer (1989) approach of emotional intelligence and consists of a scale of four theoretical concepts: (1) Acceptancethe measured ability to accept, express and use emotions in action, (2) Emotional Understanding the ability to understand one's own emotions, (3) Controlthe ability to control one's own emotions, (4) Empathythe ability to understand and recognize emotions in other people. Reliability measured using Cronbach's alpha is good and is above 0.76 for all scales. Participants indicate their level of agreement with statements on a 5-point Likert-type scale from 1I strongly disagree to 5I strongly agree. Sample statements are: When someone is angry, I can usually feel it; Often I don't know if someone really likes me or is just acting. Dataset Description The managers dataset, called Data Managers, is deposited at https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxlrazavrai4lfx/Data_Managers. sav?dl=0 and has SPSS 22 format. The variables are described within. Circumplex of Personality Metatraits Portrait In order to measure personality we used a scale which investigates the personality dimension in a circumplex model. This is reliable (Cronbach's alpha for all scales is above 0.70) and validates 54 items, which are scored on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1not similar to me at all to 7very similar to me. Sample items are: He/She feels good both in the company of others as well as by himself/herself. In every situation retains inner harmony FUNDING This research was partially supported by grants DEC2014/15/B/HS4/04428 from the National Science Centre, Poland. REFERENCES Gardner, L., and Stough, C. (2002). Examining the relationship between leadership and emotional intelligence in senior level managers. Leadersh. Org. Dev. J. 23, 68-78. doi: 10.1108/014377302104 19198 Goleman, D. (2006). Working with Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Trade Paperback Reissue. New York, NY: Bantam Books. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. E., and McKee, A. 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Emotional intelligence and eective leadership. Lead. Org. Dev. J. 22, 5-10. doi: 10.1108/01437730110380174 Raven, J. (2000). The raven's progressive matrices: change and stability over culture and time. Cogn. Psychol. 41, 1-48. doi: 10.1006/cogp.1999.0735 Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org Conict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or nancial relationships that could be construed as a potential conict of interest. Copyright 2015 Baczy ska and Rowi ski. This is an open-access article distributed n n under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. 3 November 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 1694 Copyright of Frontiers in Psychology is the property of Frontiers Media S.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. Details: Synthesis is the act of creating something new from multiple existing entities. Synthesis of research, then, is creating a new idea from existing ideas. It is a process developed through time and practice. In this assignment, you will apply the synthesis process to the course journal readings and your selected readings. As you synthesize, consider how leadership style influences leadership practice and results. For example, leadership style effects followers through the choice of public vs. private engagement or the use of public praise vs. active coaching. In some cases, what a leader does not say or do can have a significant effect on both the sense of value and the motivation of group members. General Requirements: Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment: Refer to the annotated bibliography and outline you created in the Module 2 assignment along with the assignment feedback from your instructor. Locate at least two additional, topically-related, empirical articles. Use "Empirical Research Checklist" to guide your selection. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center. You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center. Directions: Locate the annotated bibliography and outline you created in the Module 2 assignment. Using the outline you developed, the information from the annotated bibliography, and the feedback provided by your instructor, write a paper (2,000-2,250 words) that synthesizes three of the articles assigned in the first two modules of this course with the two (or more) topically-related, empirical articles you selected. Do that by including the following: 1. A statement of at least three common themes addressed in all of the articles. 2. A statement of the conclusions that can be drawn when the articles are taken together as a single entity. What is the overall message of the group of articles? Focus specifically on the connection between leadership style and leadership theory in areas such as individual identity, culture, and worldview. What are the potential effects of these and other individual leadership characteristics and style; how do they