SELF-CRITICAL MANAGER

The aim of this study was to explore and understand self-criticism and its opposite term self-compassion in the role of manager. Using exploratory qualitative research we examined the perception of self-criticism, difference in thinking between self-critical and self-compassionate managers about self-criticism, influence of self-criticism on managers, expressing self-criticism, accepting criticism and dealing with problems in both groups. In this research we used FSCRS questionnaire to verify the self-criticism and self-compassion of managers and then selected twelve participants with whom we did semi-structured interviews. Interviews were rewritten and analyzed by phenomenological analysis. In this way we have tried to understand explored issue. The results revealed that self-critical managers generally consider self-criticism in the role of manager as positive but self-compassionate managers consider self-criticism as negative. A significant difference between these two groups is that self-critical managers accredit mistakes to themselves and take responsibility for them, but self-compassionate managers mostly accredit problems to the group or a whole team. When accepting criticism, self-critical managers are open and generally perceive it as something that can be used for improvement. Self-compassionate managers do not agree in issue of accepting criticism. When dealing with problems, self-critical managers consider as helpful when they can have a conversation with someone, when they have enough information and basically resolution of problem. Based on results we defined recommendations for practice and further research.