Evaluating the Leader’s Profile from the Team Members’ Perspective: A Case Study Applying Johari’s Window

Abstract

Leadership in an organizational environment is responsible for enabling team members to achieve their daily objectives. Leadership has evolved continuously over time, demonstrating flexibility as a core aspect of its essence. In an organizational setting, the feedback between leaders and led has great significance, particularly for teams with shared goals. This study aims to analyze the leader’s behavior using the Johari Window tool from the subordinates’ perspective in a food company, providing feedback on the leader’s behavior to foster a more harmonious relationship. This study adopts an applied methodology with a descriptive objective and qualitative approach, utilizing the Johari Window framework to conduct a case study. Data collection involved administering questionnaires to gather insights into the behavior of both the sector leader and those being led. The results indicate that 60% of employees have different perceptions from the sector manager, concentrated in the “Blind” area, suggesting infrequent feedback exchanges. This could occur in situations in which behaviors are visible to others, but unnoticed by the leader. Therefore, communication is a critical element in the management of an organization. When practiced clearly and objectively, managers can follow paths that lead to effective and efficient decision-making.

1. Introduction

According to Marinho, Moura and Kontoyannopoulos [1], leadership is the art of leading people, attracting admirers who positively influence the minds and behavior of their followers. Chiavenato [2] states that leadership goes much further than just commanding or giving directions. According to the author, the leader needs to operate by influencing people and engaging them, leading and guiding them, with a view to focusing on everyone’s overall objective.

According to Martins, Nascimento, and Moreira [3], leadership must be capable of understanding human relationships, valuing and recognizing the professionals involved, encouraging their satisfaction and motivation, and fostering group spirit and teamwork. According to Dionísio et al. [4], one of the main leadership factors investigated in the literature is leaders’ concerns about the difficulty of the task. This is associated with delegation and flexibility, both of which are strengthened by the commitment of workers and depend on how leadership is shared.

Throughout the history of industrial development, leadership has been indispensable in an organizational environment. By motivating, influencing and setting goals, leaders have guided their teams effectively and efficiently towards success [5,6].

Israel [7] goes on to say that, over the years and the evolution of the literature, leaders have had to evolve together to such an extent that they adapt very easily to certain transitions, making them more flexible to changes in organizations. Also, according to his studies, the evolution that has taken place in the industrialization of the market has changed the profile of employees.

Cipriano and Rizzi [8] bring up a fundamental concept related to a form of fundamental dialog between two people (leader and led, for example) in terms of how they are doing, what they have done and said: feedback. The main objective is improvement with a view to development for use in the present and future. In organizations, business feedback is the way in which leaders and those they lead, or stakeholders, build clear links that are important for not only professional but also personal development, with the aim of achieving organizational success [9,10].

According to Albuquerque et al. [11], when leaders are in the habit of sharing their methodology of acting and thinking and when they are determined to accept feedback, it becomes easier to communicate, making the proposed objective clearer. As a result, the team will be more motivated and more competent, raising the organization’s level of productivity. From this perspective, for organizational success to be achieved, the leader needs to be attentive to his or her workers and the execution of the pre-established tasks. In addition, it is essential that leaders seek feedback on their leadership, understanding the effects it has had both positively and negatively on their team.

Given the context presented, this study addresses the characteristics related to the feedback that should be exchanged between leaders or managers and their subordinates, using the management training tool: Johari’s Window. Its main objective is to analyze the leader’s behavior by applying the Johari Window tool from the perspective of their subordinates in a food company in the state of Pernambuco using a collection instrument to analyze the leader’s profile.

The specific objectives include the collection instrument for analyzing the leader’s profile, applying Johari’s window in the industry surveyed, identifying the leader’s profile, and analyzing the leader’s profile according to the opinions of their subordinates. The aim is to seek a better understanding of the leader/leadership relationship with the aim of achieving cooperativeness and meaningful partnerships in the workplace in order to achieve the established organizational objectives.

The company investigated and studied in this research falls into the primary and secondary economic sectors. Primary because it carries out agricultural activities, and secondary because it uses agricultural products as inputs for processing in its manufacturing plants. According to data extracted from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics [12], the agricultural sector was responsible for a growth of BRL 677.6 billion, equivalent to approximately 6.22% of the country’s entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the same year. The industrial sector, on the other hand, was responsible for a growth of BRL 2.4 trillion, approximately 22.02% of the country’s entire GDP that same year. In other words, these two sectors account for around 28% of GDP in Brazil.

In view of these data, it is possible to highlight and justify the importance of this work, as it investigates leadership in organizations belonging to these sectors, which are important to the country’s economy. They are responsible for producing basic items and inputs for industries to operate, as well as processing these inputs, transforming them into finished and semi-finished products that are consumed in various places around the world.

This research is organized into five chapters. The Section 1 introduces the research, presents the topic that will be worked on in the research, along with the objectives that this work seeks to achieve together with the justification for the application of the study. The Section 2 contains the literature review, based on concepts related to the subjects covered by the topic. The Section 3 presents the methodology, which details the characterization of the research. The Section 4 presents the results and discussions of the case study. Finally, in the Section 5, the final considerations are presented.

2. Literature Review

This research is contextualized by discussing the fundamental concepts for understanding how the leader’s behavior and way of acting can influence those they lead. This section will present concepts of leadership, the Johari Window tool and its applicability in the academic literature.

2.1. Leadership

For many years, leadership was defined as a process of influence. It was considered that every time you tried to influence people’s thinking as well as their way of acting, whether in your personal or professional life, you were practicing leadership activities [13]. Leadership transforms and influences the way people act when they are led by an influential leader.

According to Godoy and Mendonça [14], transformational leadership is essential to the development of employee strength and qualities. According to Johnson and Hackman [15], leadership is a special way of communicating with the people around you.

According to Banwart [16], communication research related to leadership has always focused more on the leader and less on the led, for simple reasons. The ability to express oneself well is one of the qualities of a good leader. The ease with which leaders express themselves in public and their oratory gives confidence to those who follow them. In this way, wherever there is a leader, there will always be people who appreciate and follow their work.

According to Chiavenato [2], leadership means guiding or directing employees, defining objectives to be achieved and providing them with new horizons, always monitoring the evolution of their subordinates.

In this context, it is worth mentioning that there is a difference between management and leadership. According to Hersey and Blanchard [17], this difference lies in the way it is practiced. Management is a specific form of leadership, where the achievement of the organization’s goals and objectives will predominate. On the other hand, whenever you try to influence someone’s behavior, you are directly practicing leadership. Leadership is strategic and is essential if organizational objectives are to be achieved.

According to Singh et al. [18], there is abundant research into strategic management. However, strategic management as management was really only leveraged after the introduction of upper echelon theory to the management literature by Hambrick and Marson in the 1980s.

According to Sweeney, Clarke, and Higgs [19], large organizations have focused their efforts on training future leaders in order to gain competitive advantage in a globalized context.

The study by Silva, Mesquita and Ferreira [20] sought to understand the impact of good management on the production process. The study was carried out in two organizations, X and Y, asking employees to evaluate their previous and current leader: the form of dialogue with their leader, their treatment, what help and motivation they provided, for example. From the data obtained, it was noted that in company X the employees felt that, in terms of performance, the current leader was less competent (52%) than the previous one (87%). In company Y, the following results were obtained: the current leader is better accepted by his employees because they consider him to be an exemplary leader. He was responsible for 76% of performance compared to 48% for the previous leadership. These studies have shown that leadership can have a positive impact, motivating and encouraging those it leads, or a negative impact, hindering the creative development of those it leads.

In the studies by Prasad and Rao [21], the authors used the Johari Window tool with employees of an electronics retailer in Hyderabad. Their aim was to use the tool to expand the team’s public area to improve the well-being and psychological state of their employees. Sixty employees were surveyed using an 18-point scale, known in psychology as the Ryff scale. The research was carried out over the course of a semester, obtaining results in which the “unknown” and “blind” areas were higher than the “public” and “secret” areas. The authors point out that if the number of interviewees had been greater, they would possibly have obtained more accurate data, emphasizing that for more promising results it would be interesting to repeat the study annually to increase the sample studied.

In his studies, Hespanhol [22] emphasizes that leader behavior is classified into seven styles, two of which are better known: democratic leader behavior and authoritarian leader behavior. The democratic leader is more centered on those they lead, sharing their leadership duties with those they lead, involving them in the execution of activities and in planning them. Group decision making is always prioritized, and discussions are open before the leader makes a decision. The authoritarian leader is more self-centered, delegating activities to his subordinates and telling them what to do and how to do it. The decision is always taken by the leader himself, without consulting his subordinates, because practitioners of this type of behavior believe that the employees under their power are not worthy of trust.

Dallabona et al. [23], in their study, analyzed employees’ perceptions of leadership in a retail company in terms of motivation, performance and satisfaction. An online questionnaire was developed where employees could answer questions about leadership, performance, satisfaction with management and motivation in the leader-leadership relationship. The real power of this type of survey was noted, where in a confidential way the employee can expose their relationship with the sector’s management. After the surveys, they realized that the employees were unmotivated by salary issues, as well as by the management of the leaders, exposing the need for the employees to be engaged. The authors indicate that a survey should be carried out with a certain frequency in order to improve the motivation, engagement, performance and satisfaction of the team in the organizational environment.

In health research, the studies by Silva, Felex and Saccomann [24] looked at leadership practices in the nursing sector, with a survey of nurse leaders and subordinates. A total of 186 people were interviewed, 42 managers and 144 subordinates. Through the research, it was identified that influence is the main pillar of leadership, noting that it proves to be more effective in achieving the desired results and defined objectives, with the help of interpersonal behaviors to motivate their subordinates to engage and always strive as much as possible to help in the care and focus of the team.

2.2. Johari Window

Hersey and Blanchard [17] state that the Johari Window tool is another option that can help managers encourage their employees to demonstrate their ideas and encourage leaders to show their feelings. From the perspective of Sousa et al. [25], one of the main characteristics of a leader is a good relationship with their subordinates and the ability to adapt to change. In an organization, it is very important that the leader and subordinate have a good working relationship.

According to Luft and Ingham [26], when difficulties begin to appear, when day-to-day methods start to go wrong, there is no other solution than to reflect on one’s own way of acting.

According to Albuquerque et al. [11], in a way it may seem simple to tell leaders that they should apply the theory and results of behavioral research to improve the diagnoses obtained and seek better effectiveness in the process. However, the whole process is not so simple to implement. Even with good diagnostic skills and abilities, managers need to mold their way of leading to the needs of the environment.

Luft and Ingham [26] did not expect so many people, particularly university students, to be so interested in the tool. It proved to be useful as a way of seeking to understand relationships between humans. Figure 1 shows the Johari Window model elucidated by Hersey and Blanchard [17].

In the model illustrated in Figure 1, the top left quadrant is “Public”. This area is known to you and to others, i.e., it will be where your skills, motivations and behaviors will be apparent to everyone within the organizational sector. The top right quadrant illustrates the “Blind” area, i.e., the area that is unknown to you (the leader) but is known to others.

There may be skills that are known to everyone, but the individual is unaware of them or does not have the ability to recognize them. The lower left quadrant shows the covert side, i.e., the “Secret” area. This area is unknown to others but known only to the leader. These are details which the leader prefers to keep secret from his employees, keeping to himself.

The lower right quadrant is the area where neither those being led nor the leader is aware of these behaviors. The model proposed by Luft and Ingham [26] calls this area “Unknown”.

According to Littlejohn [27], the Johari Window tool focuses on aspects of the person that are known and those that are far from conscious understanding. But the most crucial thing, when it comes to communication, is the changes in conscious perception that take place over time. Quadrant 1 should grow with communication. If the way of communicating is good, revelation occurs, moving feelings and behavior from Quadrant 3 to Quadrant 1. Good communication also emphasizes feedback, moving feelings and behavior from Quadrant 2 to Quadrant 1. The unknown sector of Quadrant 4 is difficult to know, but can become known in retrospect through reflection, projective techniques and dream action.

The study by Bucáloiu [28] verified internal communication efficiency criteria considering the use of the Johari Window tool. It looked at aspects and ways of making communication more efficient, where the act of feedback was one of the main ways of achieving such internal efficiency. The author emphasizes that for the organization and its employees to be able to communicate efficiently, it would be necessary to expand the Public areas of the Johari Window and try to restrict the Blind and Unknown areas. The aforementioned research concludes by revealing that when the leader distinguishes himself, he gives those around him information about himself, and when feedback is exchanged, this Blind area of the window is reduced, and the good relationship becomes clearer and more meaningful.

In the research by Netto et al. [29], the aim was to apply Johari’s Window as a tool for analyzing personal data. The tool was used in a practical case to demonstrate its usefulness, where it was used in the following situation: an insurance company, an insured person and an agent of that insurance company, in order to show the effectiveness of the tool. Johari’s window was able to show, in a simplified way, the flow of data between a customer and an operation, clearly showing the risks of a breach of privacy, helping developers to determine which use case should modify the situation. The research revealed that Johari’s Window is a tool that, despite being from the field of psychology, can be useful for modeling privacy in shared digital environments.

An application of the tool by Oba and Amadi [30] aimed to use the tool for virtual collaboration in construction project management. It was observed that when an innovation happens, which is strategic in a way, it is difficult for employees to adapt to this reality. Based on this, the aim was to understand how the project teams were formed, as well as the relationship between project members, communication and the form of relationship between manager and followers in this management modality.

In the studies by Albuquerque et al. [11], the tool was used in a building materials distribution center in order to understand the leader’s behavior from the perspective of his subordinates. Through questionnaires, the data obtained showed that the employees interviewed had different points of view regarding the leader due to the experiences of each individual. After carrying out the analysis, the following diagnosis was made: the leader was in the “Blind” zone of Johari’s Window. As a way of mitigating the situation and improving the good relationship between leader and subordinate, it was recommended that the “Public” zone be expanded through the exchange of feedback and more frequent communication between leader and subordinates. With this, the “Blind” and “Unknown” zones would be mitigated and a good relationship between leader and subordinates would emerge.

In the study by Lumbanraja, Lubis and Nadapdap [31], Johari’s Window was used as a major theory of human resource competence that is recognized as having a major influence on improving employee performance in the organization. The study revealed that it is crucial that competencies are created to keep up with the changes taking place in the global environment, with a focus on the business world.

Esmaeeli and Yazdani [32] applied the tool to develop techniques for improving motivation to learn a foreign language and willingness to communicate using the Johari Window in English-speaking contexts. The application of this tool in the context offered by the research aims to develop techniques to boost performance and motivation in the learning environment. The tool participated in the research as a self-regulator, presenting relevant results within the universe investigated, showing teachers how students saw them, as well as providing clarity in understanding the gaps in the environment, to maintain student motivation.

In the studies by Avelina, Yakub and Mahdum [33], the Johari window tool was used to study the effects of a tutor’s guidance on the self-assessment of a group of Malaysian students. Eight students were interviewed using questionnaires and descriptive statistical data analysis using the Wilcoxon and Spearman Rank tests. The findings of the studies showed that compared to the previous scenario, there was an improvement in the self-assessment of these students. Following the results of the tests, it was found that use of the Johari window to guide the self-disclosure of a group of students improved the process by 69.5%.

2.3. Applications of the Johari Window in Industries

The industrial sector, specifically the food sector, has grown a lot in recent years in Brazil. According to the Brazilian Food Industry Association [34], the industrial area linked to food and beverage processing is the largest in the whole of Brazil: with all this influence at a national level, it processes around 60.9% of everything that comes from the countryside, with around 41,000 organizations in Brazil producing the equivalent of 270 million tons of food annually.

According to IBGE data [35], around 8.4 million people are employed in the industry. According to Silva et al. [36], globalization brings with it an increasing need for competitiveness, since competition is growing exponentially and because of this, organizations are looking for differentials to remain competitive in the market. Having a more efficient manufacturing process is a key differentiator.

With so many people carrying out industrial activities in Brazil, there is a leader behind each activity who coordinates and monitors these activities so that they are the most efficient and least stressful for each person they lead. As a way of showing how interesting and efficient the tool is in an organizational environment, below are presented some uses of the Johari Window in industries as a way of showing its potential.

In the studies by Baú [37], the application of Johari’s Window was verified, analyzing the perception of the leadership of a beverage machinery organization about the practice of feedback. The study sought to verify how feedback was given in the organization and, from this, to analyze its impacts on the relationship between leader and subordinates. It was observed that the main way of evaluating employees was individually in an isolated place. In addition, it was found that the leadership only gave feedback when different day-to-day activities arose and there was a certain difficulty in giving this feedback, as well as dealing with people. This case study had significant impacts, because without this investigation, it would not have been noticed that feedback was not being used correctly by the industry’s leadership, and it would not have been possible to assess the power of this tool. As an improvement, the research suggested a greater frequency of communication, in order to create a healthy environment between employees and leaders.

In the studies carried out by Goes et al. [38], there was a concern about the amount of time that leaders spend in an organizational environment, looking for some possibilities to make this environment more beneficial and better for the well-being of the leaders. From this perspective, the authors analyzed how interpersonal relationships and how these behaviors can somehow have an impact on the organization. An organization in the cosmetics industry was studied. In order to find solutions, a number of objectives were proposed: verifying the forms of interpersonal relationships in the sector using the Johari Window tool; investigating the institutional climate; investigating whether the impacts caused to the environment are the result of these interpersonal relationships; and evaluating these behaviors in the business environment. They used questionnaires to obtain the data, applying them to employees in the sector. Several different profiles were identified, leading to an unknown. Could these behaviors be harmful to the organization? The authors recommended more frequent communication and feedback to improve employee satisfaction with the organizational environment.

The research by Giustina, Gasparetto and Lunkes [39] sought to analyze the effects caused by leadership styles using management control systems and industrial performance. A study was carried out in companies located in southern Brazil, where 81 leaders were interviewed. Using statistical methods and structural equations, it was identified that the initial structural form of leadership has a direct impact on the formal and informal use of management controls. The consideration of form of leadership has a direct impact on the use of informal controls and on organizational performance, which is also positively influenced by the use of formal controls.

3. Methodology

3.1. Characterization of the Research

This study is of an applied nature, because according to Gil [40], applied research aims to achieve results by solving problems identified in the real world where people live. In addition, in terms of objectives, this study is descriptive, as it describes information acquired without any alterations. According to Gil [41], descriptive research aims to analyze and get to know the characteristics of a certain group of people, studying physical and mental state, age, gender and level of education, for example, with the aim of showing characteristics of something that can be called a phenomenon, without intervening in the data obtained, which can come from interviews through questionnaires or just in the form of observation of the environment.

This study has a qualitative approach. According to Ternoski, Costa and Menon [42], this type of approach takes a more detailed view of the real objective of the research, seeking to understand in some way the real causes that are causing a particular problem, as well as understanding the effects imposed by this cause.

This work will be conducted as a survey, using a questionnaire as a data collection tool to obtain conclusions about the sample [43]. Through a case study, this study points to real results. According to Yin [44], the case study research method is a type of research that aims to empirically investigate a current event within lived reality, especially when the limiting horizons of the phenomenon are not defined in a clear way.

3.2. Questionnaire Adopted for Collecting Company Data

The aim of this research is to analyze the behavior of the leader by applying the Johari Window tool from the perspective of his subordinates in a food company. To achieve the proposed objective, this research applies Johari’s Window to the leader and his subordinates to help the leader see how he is perceived by his subordinates. Through this, it is possible to understand the relationship between managers and employees to better achieve a healthy environment.

The tool used to create the following questionnaire was the Johari window. In this application, leaders will need to give a score on a scale of 0 to 5 between alternatives A and B. In other words, the sum of the values assigned between A and B must necessarily be 5. The choices should be made according to

Table 1. Tabulation of choices from the Johari window questionnaire.

Point	Description
0	It does not correspond in any way
1	There is a resemblance
2	Slightly closer to typical behavior
3	Close to typical behavior
4	Very close to typical behavior
5	Describes exactly the behavior

below.

In this questionnaire, subordinates were asked how they think their leader behaves in each situation. Leaders should respond by acting as they would in the same situation. The questionnaire used to collect feedback contained 20 questions. Each question refers to a specific situation in which a sector manager finds himself or herself.

Table 2. Table of the Johari window questionnaire.

Receive Feedback		Give Feedback
2.B		1.A
3.A		4.B
5.A		6.B
7.A		9.B
8.B		11.B
10.B		13.A
12.B		15.A
14.B		17.B
16.B		18.B
20.A		19.B

shows how scores were obtained.

To achieve the objectives of this study, the feasibility of administering the questionnaires was first verified by the person in charge of the sector. Only one manager and 10 subordinates were selected for the survey.

The purpose of applying this tool is to understand the working and interpersonal relationships between leaders and those they lead to achieve a healthy environment and a more harmonious achievement of the organization’s pre-established objectives.

After administering the questionnaire, the scores received should be listed, as in Table 2. In addition, the related points should be finalized, as well as how the feedback was accepted and the willingness to open up. The coordinates that have been created will give the place (quadrant) in which the leader finds himself, in the view of the subordinates and in the opinion of the leader, between the areas of Johari’s Window that have been mentioned in Figure 1.

4. Case Study

The data collection stage was carried out by applying questionnaires to the employees of the packaging sector of a small industrialized sausage factory as well as to the manager responsible for the area. It is important to mention that there is a management mechanism in the organization that consists of changing managers every six months, and depending on their sector performance, this rotation can be extended to annual or biannual.

4.1. Company Description

The organization described in this paper is in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Established in the state 15 years ago, the company is involved in the food industry and is one of the main producers of processed animal-origin food worldwide. The company is a benchmark for its robust and complex distribution centers, logistics, and manufacturing units with global operations.

This unit, where the research was conducted, is made up of four small factories which together have a wide variety of SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), all of which are mass-produced. The company has a huge team of employees, ranging from 1.000 to 1500, who every day are responsible for bringing thousands of tons of processed food to the tables of Brazilians and people in more than 120 countries.

4.2. Applying the Johari Window from the Perspective of Each Leader

Based on the questionnaires applied to the managers, and in the design of this research methodology, it is possible to see some differences in relation to the opinion given by the sector manager. Possibly, these differences are due to the length of time the manager has been working in the sector, although the manager has been working in the organization for more than 13 years. With the company’s management system, the results are a consequence of the way in which the organization’s management deals with the management of managers.

Every two years at most, a manager will move on to supervise another of the small factories, leaving room for another to take over managing the team that the other left behind. When analyzing the data obtained from the managers, it was observed that out of a total of ten employees, six had different opinions from the sector manager’s view, concentrated in the quadrant where the “Blind” area predominates, as illustrated in Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 and Figure 7.

As has been elucidated, most of the leadership team’s responses were concentrated on the “blind” area of Johari’s window, which means that there is not a very frequent exchange of feedback between manager and team member. According to studies carried out by Hersey and Blanchard [17], this can happen when there are situations in which there are behaviors that others can see, but which are unknown to the leader.

According to the graphs, there is a visible difference between giving and receiving feedback. It is easier to give feedback than to receive it. Looking at it from another perspective, a minority of employees, with a lower concentration, had a different opinion compared to the majority of those approached. The three mentioned below felt that the leader exchanged feedback more frequently. For this reason, their responses were concentrated in the more “public” area of the Johari Window. These behaviors can be seen in Figure 8, Figure 9 and Figure 10.

It can be seen from the graphs illustrated that there is a greater willingness to exchange feedback between manager and subordinate. This may be due to the time factor, as these employees have worked longer than the others and have worked longer in the organization. Based on this variable, it can be said that these employees know the manager better than the others.

According to studies by Hersey and Blanchard [17], the “public” area is characterized by being known by the leader as well as by the people around them. One of the managers questioned had a different perception to the other interviewees, focusing on the “unknown” area. The graph can be seen in Figure 11, which is illustrated below.

Characteristic behaviors of this nature are possible when neither the leader nor the people being led are aware of this awakened behavior. Characteristic aspects like this can occur during periods of work experience for those being led. According to Hersey and Blanchard [17], this type of behavior can be likened to an iceberg: the small part which is visible is part of the leader’s personality, but most of it is underwater.

This can happen due to an unwillingness to know oneself. Later, in Figure 12, it is possible to identify how each leader looked in Johari’s Window, each being represented by a color.

This way of representing things, with color-coding and all responses gathered in one window, makes it easier to perceive the opinion of each leader, thus facilitating the reader’s understanding. After applying and analyzing the questionnaires to the managers, we applied them in a similar way to the area manager.

The opinions expressed by the area manager were analyzed in terms of how he would express them in certain situations. Once these data had been obtained, they were analyzed, and interesting results were obtained. Figure 13 shows the positions of these behaviors expressed by the manager.

Analyzing the graph referring to the manager’s behavior when faced with some of the situations described in the questionnaire, there is influence in two quadrants of Johari’s Window. By obtaining these results, it can be said that the area manager may appear more present when receiving feedback from his or her subordinates but may not be as open to this receptivity.

4.3. Discussion

For a team to be efficient and for the organizational environment to have a friendly climate, there needs to be a good relationship between leader and led. According to Albuquerque et al. [11], in many organizations the employee is there out of obligation and is not particularly visible, and this will probably result in a weakening of the relationship between leader and led.

Generally, managers focus so much on productivity that they forget the importance of communicating with their team. According to Rocha and Luz [45], communication between leader and employee is essential for an organization to remain competitive in the market.

This study found that, through the applications and analysis of the data obtained, a large concentration of employees believes that the manager of the sector where the questionnaires were applied is in the “Blind” area of Johari’s Window. Around 60% of employees had this perception.

According to Hersey and Blanchard [17], there are two ways of influencing how the Johari Window will appear. The first is known as feedback. This is the way in which an organization’s employees are ready and willing to talk to their leader about the impressions their leader is giving them. Figure 14 shows the impact that feedback can have on Johari’s Window.

It is possible to see the positive impact that feedback has on the way in which managers are more receptive to their subordinates. This leads to an increase in the “Public” area of the Window, with an increase in this “Public” area consequently leading to a decrease in the other areas of the Window.

According to Saputra [46], communication is an extremely important point in the management of an organization. If it is practiced correctly, frequently and cohesively, managers can follow paths that lead them to the right decision [16,45].

According to Hersey and Blanchard [17], another phenomenon besides feedback that also affects the way the Johari window is represented is communication. It will take shape to the extent that managers are willing to share information that concerns them personally with their subordinates.

Feedback is an important part of the relationship between leader and followers, and if carried out frequently, it can promote personal development and reinforce employee performance which will lead to the success and growth of the corporation [8,11,29,37].

Figure 15 below illustrates the behavior of Johari’s Window when communication and feedback are put into practice together.

The authors also state that the more the “Public” area develops, the more the “Secret” area is compromised, and there is also a huge probability that what was previously “unknown” to others will appear in the “Public” area.

This means that the more the manager provides feedback to his team and the more his team responds to this feedback and returns it to the manager, and when communication starts to take place more frequently within the organization, the “Secret”, “Blind” and “Unknown” areas of Johari’s Window will be compromised and will shrink over time because the quadrant of the “Public” area will tend to increase more and more if these activities are put into practice.

4.4. Recommendations to the Area Manager and the Organization

According to Albuquerque [11], as research has developed, there has been a lack of an important situational model in leadership. Situational management is based on the internal relationship between the amount of guidance and direction the manager has to offer, the amount of socio-emotional support given by the manager and the level of readiness of subordinates to perform a specific activity, function or objective. It was a concept developed to help people try to manage, regardless of their role, to be more efficient in their day-to-day activities with others [17].

As a means of improvement, this study aims to establish a more efficient feedback relationship between the manager and the employees in the sector of the company studied. When the manager shows the employee his or her way of working, thinking and acting in the face of the situations faced daily, or when the manager shows that he or she is receptive to feedback from his or her employees, the environment becomes friendlier and lighter for both sides.

In a way, it is worrying what the tool revealed when it came to the information provided by employees in relation to the manager. More than half of the employees who answered the questionnaire know their manager and do not feel comfortable giving this feedback to the manager, which could be due to fear of being reprimanded or emotional factors such as shyness or shame.

According to Hersey and Blanchard [17], many managers even hold back and end up repressing feedback from their employees, failing to ask about the feelings and perceptions of their subordinates. It is important to remember that there is a system of rotating managers through the different sectors of the organization.

This management system is probably aimed at learning how to manage each sector of the company, and through this the manager acquires more and more experience. The problem is that the employees may not get to know the manager well because of the time they spend in control of the sector’s process.

Each situation is different, and there are mechanisms that can alleviate this type of situation. For example, the application of satisfaction surveys regarding internal management, with the aim of helping the organization’s leadership to break down this barrier and ensure that employees and leaders have greater communication, can bring better psychological well-being to the work environment.

5. Final Considerations

The research sought to show, from two perspectives, how a manager would act in the 20 situations described in the questionnaire and, on the other hand, how the employees think their manager would act in the same situations. This research was carried out in the meat product packaging sector of an organization located in the Zona da Mata region of Pernambuco.

There are some interesting points to mention: the answers obtained in the first stage of the questionnaire, where personal information about each manager was provided, show that some managers have been working in the organization where the research was carried out for less than two years, which had a strong impact on the results of the Johari Window.

We also saw that some of them had been working for the organization for a long time, with between eight and twelve years of experience in the company, having more direct or indirect knowledge of the leader than the others who were newer to the sector.

Another point was the concern of the managers in answering the questionnaires, since they had concerns about the possibility of their answers being leaked to the area manager, but they were assured that this would not happen.

With regard to the general and specific objectives of the research, it can be said that they were achieved, since the profile of the leader was found, as well as how the leader behaves when giving feedback and how receptive he is. Improvements were proposed to the organization’s management system so that this coexistence in the organizational environment becomes more harmonious and profitable for both parties.

As an improvement to the research carried out, it could be done with more managers so that the results are more diluted and more data is extracted from managers, which could make the research even richer in information.

Through the research carried out in the literature, it was found that the tool used in this study is extremely rich in information, information that can lead managers towards success in the organizational sphere, since the more receptive managers are to feedback and communication from their employees, the more their employees will get to know them, making the public area of the Johari Window dominant over all the others.

The main limitation of this study is that the questionnaire was administered only over a certain period. As a result, the organization cannot apply new questionnaires to analyze the behavior of leaders and subordinates after applying the Johari Window and the recommendations suggested in the feedback process.