Interpersonal Relationship Orientations, Leadership, and Managerial Level: Assessing the practical usefulness of the FIRO-B in organizations

This paper investigated whether interpersonal relationship orientation, as measured by the Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientations-Behaviour (FIRO-B), predicts ratings of leadership capability and managerial level of attainment. In all, 547 participants reported their managerial level in their organization, and were rated by trained consultants on their leadership capability. Results showed that several scores on the FIRO-B positively predicted ratings of leadership capability and managerial level reached even after controlling for the effect of intelligence and demographic variables. This study provides some initial evidence for the validity of the FIRO-B in the prediction of perceptual and objective measures of leadership capability. Implications for selection and assessment are discussed.