Comparing the validity of multiple social effectiveness constructs in the prediction of managerial job performance

Abstract Social effectiveness constructs have been receiving increased attention in organizational research. However, the proliferation of such constructs raises questions of their relative effectiveness as predictors of job performance when used in multivariate comparison. The current study examined four social effectiveness constructs (i.e., self‐monitoring, leadership self‐efficacy, emotional intelligence and political skill) in the prediction of managerial job performance. Bivariate correlations showed that performance was predicted by social effectiveness constructs with the exception of self‐monitoring. Multiple regression analyses, using gender and seniority as control variables, found political skill to be the strongest predictor and that it has significant incremental validity in the prediction of performance over the prediction provided by the other three social effectiveness constructs as a set. Strengths and limitations of the study are discussed, as are directions for future research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.