The paper adds to the increasing body of knowledge in the sphere of transformational leadership. Although there has been a lot of research in the area of leadership, especially in transformational leadership and emotional intelligence, there has been only limited research in the area of self-awareness (as a component of emotional intelligence) and transformational leadership (as constructed by Alimo-Metcalfe and Alban-Metcalfe, 2005). The paper empirically establishes the relationship between self-awareness and transformational leadership, and the sample was drawn from software product development organizations. It also indicates that there exists a relationship between managerial hierarchy and transformational leadership.

Leadership has been around for thousands of years, and yet there is no single definition every one would agree on. The reason for this is that leadership is continuously evolving and it depends on how one looks at it and perceives it. Also, leadership is becoming less tangible in the present business scenario, which puts pressure on leaders to deal more effectively with choice and complexity. Church (1997) indicated that high-performers were significantly more self-aware than those performing less well. In the context of career development, there are studies that suggest managers should involve self-awareness as a component of their development. The paper tries to empirically establish the relationship between self-awareness and transformational leadership.

Self-awareness has been defined as "one's own ability to self-observe (Wicklund, 1979) and to precisely evaluate one's behavior with respect to set norms" (Atwater and Yammarino, 1992). Self-awareness is the practice of reflecting on and accurately assessing one's own behavior and skills as they are manifested in workplace interactions (Church, 1997). Malcolm (2000) has described self-awareness as "the awareness of our own feelings and the ability to recognize and manage them. Self-awareness involves leaders being aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and possessing the ability to be frank and honest about them. Goleman (1996), who has worked extensively on emotional intelligence, has said that self-awareness is a component of emotional intelligence.

A few key studies that have dealt with the topic of self-awareness are authored by Atwater and Yammarino (1992), Van Velsor et al. (1993) and Church (1997). The authors have viewed self-awareness as congruence between `self' and `other' ratings through a 360-degree feedback. This type of conceptualization has traditionally been represented statistically by difference in scores (Church, 1997), and within 360-degree literature this has also been referred to as `congruence-d' (Warr and Bourne, 1999). In a 360-degree feedback, leaders whose self-ratings are below others' (peers/followers/superiors) ratings are referred to as underestimators. Leaders whose self-ratings are high and similar to the others' rating are referred to as in-agreement/good estimators.

Organizational Behavior Journal, Self-Awareness, Transformational Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Software Product Development Organizations, Multisource Feedback, Organizational Strategy, Intellectual Stimulation, Organizational Hierarchy, Managerial Hierarchy, Metcalfe Model, Business Environments, Demographic Variables.