Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust

198 Int. J. Complexity in Leadership and Management, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2016 Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust Tineke Wulffers Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, Faculty of Management, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 84423, Greenside, 2034, South Africa Email: [email protected] Abstract: Authentic leadership (AL), identified not only as the root construct of positive forms of leadership, but also equated to the highest level of leadership effectiveness through the development of inter-relational trust (IT), usually takes a life-time to develop. In response to the call for research into high quality leadership programmes to fast-track the development of AL, this article outlines an AL programme and determines the distal programme effect of AL development on IT. This practitioner research adopted a qualitative approach. A ten member leadership team participated in the AL programme, after which data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. The findings illustrate the positive programme effect on enhancing IT through the development of AL, and the symbiotic relationship between AL and IT. Organisations need positive leadership now, and cannot wait for a life-time for this leadership to develop. Yet it is not easy to develop such leadership without an appropriate AL programme. This contribution can assist those responsible for organisational leadership development by offering guidelines on how to fast-track the development of AL, IT and leadership effectiveness by means of a tested AL programme. Keywords: authentic programme; trust. leadership development; authentic leadership Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Wulffers, T. (2016) ‘Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust’, Int. J. Complexity in Leadership and Management, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp.198–217. Biographical notes: Tineke Wulffers divides her time between her practitioner and academic work. She is the Director of the Moya Institute of Authentic Leadership Effectiveness. At times, her leadership clients tell her that the organisational world can ‘squeeze the self out of the self’. In response, her passion is to facilitate the development of individual and team authentic leadership effectiveness. Her work allows leaders to enhance their leadership authenticity, inter-relational trust, and individual and team leadership effectiveness. She is affiliated with both the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) and Wits Business School (WBS) in South Africa. For more information, visit: http://www.moyatf.co.za. Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust 1 199 Introduction True leadership has always been more difficult to maintain in challenging times, but the unique stressors facing organisations throughout the world today call for renewed attention to what constitutes genuine leadership. There is a need for leaders who lead with purpose, values, and integrity; who build enduring organisations, motivate their staff to provide superior customer service, and who create long-term value for shareholders (Avolio et al., 2005). To fuse high performance with high integrity, and to re-instate trust in the free enterprise system, requires true or veritable leadership (George et al., 2007). Organisations require leaders who know who they are and who produce consistent and predictable leadership behaviour, thereby fostering higher levels of attributed integrity, trust, and positive affect responses among followers (Chan et al., 2005). This is what is meant by authentic leadership (AL) (Avolio et al., 2005). Whilst much has been written to describe AL and its considerable positive impact, there has been insufficient research on the development of such leadership. However, Chan (2005) points out that AL usually takes a life-time to develop, and concurs with Eigel and Kuhnert (2005) that more programme evaluation research needs to be done on the programmes that could develop AL. This article forms part of a larger empirical study in which the direct effect of the programme on AL and the further effect on inter-relational trust (IT), and on individual and team leadership effectiveness were explored (Wulffers, 2014). In the larger study, the contribution of each of nine programme components and three process components to the programme outcomes were also evaluated, and a programme theory was outlined. This article focuses specifically on the effect of developing AL on IT in a leadership programme context, and indicates how an appropriate programme could considerably fast-track the development of such leadership. 1.1 Background to the study As frequently highlighted in the press and literature, whenever problems surface in organisations such as Enron, Tyco and Anderson (Hassan and Ahmed, 2011), the extent of the leadership crisis becomes apparent, creating a widespread erosion of trust in business leaders. More recently, reputable international organisations such as Volkswagen (Hotten, 2015) who have recently admitted to cheating in emissions tests in their diesel cars in the USA, and Barclays (Stapleton, 2015) in the Libor rigging scandal received considerable press exposure due to their extreme unethical behaviour. However, these examples are not limited only to profit organisations; they extend to politics as well. For some time now, the president of South Africa has been under the spotlight over his excessive use of public funds for private gain (de Vos, 2014). In all these examples, there is a question mark regarding the quality of the leaders that others need to follow. What the world is searching for now is a way of leading that is based on character and substance rather than style of leadership, and integrity rather than image or position, in order to equip leaders to rebuild trust, and to create the most compelling future for their organisational stakeholders (George and Sims, 2007; Scharmer, 2007). AL found to be the root construct of positive forms of leadership (Avolio and Gardner, 2005), and also equated to the highest form of effective leadership (Eigel and Kuhnert, 2005) is being considered as an answer to that call. 200 T. Wulffers 1.2 Trends from research literature AL theory and practice received increased attention after the Gallup Leadership Institute (GLI) summit held in 2005 where numerous prominent researchers and authors contributed to aspects of leadership authenticity (Avolio et al., 2005). Whilst AL is a logical extension of the authentic self, it can also be regarded as the root construct of positive forms of leadership (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). A leader who is authentic, therefore, can achieve more than one who is not, and the extent to which the leader is authentic as a person directly affects the efficacy of his/her leadership of followers (Chan et al., 2005). For instance, authentic leaders are leaders who know who they are, and what they believe in; who display transparency and consistency between their values, ethical reasoning and actions; who focus on developing positive emotional states such as confidence, optimism, hope, and resilience within themselves; and are widely known and respected for their integrity (Avolio et al., 2005). As a result, authentic leaders are seen by their followers as true and natural leaders who have integrity and are ethical and trustworthy (Chan et al., 2005). These authors also claim that authentic leaders become empowering role-models to followers, as they lead in a manner that others recognise as authentic. Because they are more transparent, more open, and self-disclose more, they evoke higher levels of follower trust. Followers then feel more comfortable to be authentic as well, embracing and enacting the positive values of authenticity. This has important implications for resultant outcomes and performance, suggesting that authenticity is a leadership multiplier in terms of its effectiveness. As an authentic leader’s ethical behaviour is infused into the organisational norms and relationships, the IT between the leader and followers increases (Chan et al., 2005; Clapp-Smith et al., 2009). The resultant trust has proven to be an important component in predicting various attitudinal, behavioural and performance outcomes, such as job satisfaction, organisational involvement and commitment. Everything starts with self, including the development of trust. It is near impossible to trust unknown entities, and often the most unknown entity is the self. Therefore, before one can trust others, or be worthy of trust from others, one needs to trust oneself, and that becomes possible only once one has a deep understanding of the self, and a deep commitment towards developing towards one’s highest authentic self (Wulffers, 2014). The metric of time for developing such leadership is, however, typically very long, and it usually takes time for the characteristics of AL to emerge (Chan, 2005). Therefore, researchers are encouraged to engage in high-quality research studies on leadership programmes that could possibly fast-track the development of leadership authenticity (Reichard and Avolio, 2005). 1.3 Research purpose and objectives In response to the call for further research on high quality leadership programmes (Avolio et al., 2009; Reichard and Avolio, 2005), this article focuses on the programme effect of the development of AL on IT. The research purpose is to determine the distal effect of an AL programme on IT within a leadership team, and is supported by the following research objectives. 1 to outline the design of the AL programme 2 to evaluate the distal programme effect on IT. Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust 201 1.4 Contribution to the field The world is searching now for a way of leading that is based on character, substance, and integrity in order to rebuild the trust that is continually being lost due to unethical behaviour in the organisations (George and Sims, 2007; Scharmer, 2007). This practitioner research responds to the call for high quality research studies that could fast-track the development of leadership authenticity, regarded not only as the root of positive forms of leadership but equated also to the highest form of effective leadership. Furthermore, it tests the effect of the development of such leadership on IT, an antecedent to individual and collective leadership effectiveness. 1.5 What will follow The next section reviews relevant literature on AL and its impact on IT and leadership effectiveness. The selected qualitative research design is then presented. In response to the research objectives, a brief outline is offered of the AL programme under study, followed by a discussion on the key findings of the evaluation of distal outcomes. Conclusions drawn and implications for practice are outlined, followed by possible limitations, and recommendations for further research. The article concludes with the implications for practice in the field of development of highly effective leadership and IT within organisations. 2 Current knowledge This review commences with the theoretical perspectives on what leadership authenticity is. Once leadership authenticity has been defined, the focus moves to the impact of leadership authenticity on IT, and on individual and team leadership effectiveness. In the context of this study, it is important to indicate that trust is a mediating link between developing AL and enhancing individual and team leadership effectiveness. This review concludes with outlining some considerations for the development of AL. 2.1 AL defined and its impact on IT and leadership effectiveness To a great extent, this research is aligned with the theoretical framework for veritable AL, proposed by Chan et al. (2005) who both supported and extended the thoughts posed by Sartre’s authenticity theory — to be true to ourselves, and extending this to leadership authenticity. Chan et al. (2005) divided their research on AL development and the emergence of AL behaviour into: 1 the intrapersonal processes 2 follow by the effect of that on self, others 3 outcomes. Although they did not elaborate on the nature of the leadership programme, they indicated that the process should ideally start with a leadership programme. They stated that leadership authenticity development starts with self. As every leader interacts with 202 T. Wulffers others, also called authentic followers, those observe the leader’s behaviour and try to ascertain whether that behaviour is authentic. The degree of perceived authenticity then impacts on the quality of the leader-follower relationships, evident in the increase in trust, transparency, predictability, and integrity. This, in turn, results in veritable leadership effects on the followers, as the leader receives diagnostic feedback through the follower feedback loop and various forms of performance and contextual feedback. This helps to self-verify authenticity and impact, and finally, assists in the formation and reinforcement of an authentic organisational culture. Influenced by the research done by Kernis (2003), who proposed four basic dimension of AL, those being awareness, unbiased (balanced) processing, relational (transparency), and action (behaviour), Chan et al. (2005), supported by Hannah et al. (2005), agreed that whilst self-awareness and self-regulation are core components of leadership authenticity, these need to include further desirable qualities. These include qualities such as moral/ethical standards, positive psychological capital (PPC), and a focus on development. Having this understanding of what is morally good, displaying moral courage, and holding oneself accountable for staying aligned with this understanding ultimately leads to psychological ownership (May et al., 2003; Luthans and Avolio, 2009), which reflects not only in the leader’s behaviour, but also in that of the followers. In short, authentic leaders are moral agents who take ownership of, and responsibility for the end results of their moral actions and the actions of their followers. Whilst the psychological states of confidence, hope, optimism, and resilience are important, these are not sufficient to reflect and sustain leadership authenticity; further psychological states such as (self-) accountability/ownership, (self-) belief, (self-) commitment, consistency, courage, (self-) honesty, trust in self and others, truthfulness, and respect all contribute to leadership authenticity (Wulffers, 2014). It is the reflection of these aspects in leadership behaviour that, in the wake of the reported ethical dilemmas, will allow the restoration of the public’s trust in leadership (Diddams and Chang, 2012; Tobias and Taylor, 2012; Avolio and Gardner, 2005; May et al., 2003; Luthans and Avolio, 2009; Gosling and Huang, 2010), as these aspects allow leaders to be more transparent. AL is a significant predictor of optimism and trust in the organisation, and that optimism and trust mediates the relationship between AL and work engagement (Stander et al., 2015). Leadership authenticity, linked to PPC (which includes optimism), has a direct impact on leadership effectiveness, trust, and follower/team effectiveness (Luthans and Youssef, 2004; Walumbwa et al., 2011). PPC become an internal resource that allows challenging events to trigger heightened self-awareness and self-regulatory behaviours as part of the process of positive self-development (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). Authentic leaders, described as moral/ethical, future-oriented individuals, also make the development of others a priority. By being true to their own values, and acting in ways that are consistent with those values, authentic leaders develop their followers into leaders as well (Fry and Whittington, 2005). Authentic leaders operate from a set of values that focuses their behaviour, on doing what they perceive to be right for those whom they lead. Because they are value-centred, these leaders seek to reduce any existing gaps between their espoused and their enacted values (Walumbwa et al., 2008; Avolio and Gardner, 2005). Authentic leaders are only human, and therefore need to display the psychological state of vulnerability in non-defensive recognition of their own weaknesses as well as Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust 203 their strengths (Diddams and Chang, 2012). This ability in itself then becomes strength, allowing for further development (Eigel and Kuhnert, 2005). Authentic leaders need to be aware of their vulnerabilities, and be transparent enough to allow discussion of these areas with their followers. Not only does this allow for further self-development, it also allows followers to identify more readily with leaders (Ladkin and Taylor, 2010), resulting in more positive and influential relationships between leaders and followers. However, Leroy and Sels (2008) cautioned us by introducing the concept of balanced vulnerability, suggesting that vulnerability should be appropriate in the context in which it is displayed. Balanced vulnerability allows authentic leaders to be the ‘first mover’ (Fry and Whittington, 2005) or to go first (Masarech, 2001), whether in committing to an action or recognising areas in which they need further development. This is useful when leading teams (Lencioni, 2005) and taking the lead even when there is great personal risk in doing so. By going first, leaders model a hopeful confidence in the future. Leadership authenticity is required to build a solid foundation of the trust (Hannah et al., 2005; Lencioni, 2002; Wulffers, 2014) for any effective leadership team and organisation. A team is never created merely for the sake of being a team, and is usually required to reach certain goals (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993). The foundation of any effective team therefore is that each member is worthy of trust; not only lateral trust (between leadership team members), but also vertical trust (between levels above and below current leadership level) (Hassan and Ahmed, 2011). Team efficiency by means of authentic teaming becomes possible when authentic leaders provide support for the self-determination of the members in the team. Rather than coerce members, these leaders use their values, beliefs and behaviours to model the development of others through choices that benefit the greater good of the team and outcomes. By further promoting relational transparency and balanced processing of information amongst team members, a rapid and more accurate transfer of information occurs amongst team members, resulting in the development of trusting relationships, which then further impacts positively on individual and team performance. Therefore, individual leadership authenticity is an antecedent to trust, team authenticity and team effectiveness (Walumbwa et al., 2011; Hannah et al., 2011). In a team, AL allows for a shared leadership approach where all team members including the leader share responsibility, and there is a strong reliance on shared mental models, knowledge, and cognition within the team (Yammarino et al., 2008). Leadership roles and responsibilities are shared and distributed throughout the team, depending on contextual requirements at any time, fostering faster agreements on problem definitions and strategic decisions, resulting in enhanced team effectiveness and efficiency. This becomes possible when team members develop a collective belief structure and value system that is adhered to by all (Wulffers, 2014). Intrapersonal AL therefore needs to be in place before a leadership team can hope to lead effective reporting teams that deliver the required results, as the leader needs to be the change he or she wishes to see within the world (Gandhi, 2012), in this case, within the team and organisation (Wulffers, 2014). For the team to become authentic and effective, its leader first has to become an authentic and effective leader, allowing for trust to become the foundation upon which an effective team can develop. The results from the field study conducted by Hannah et al. (2011) to assess the effect of team leader authenticity on team authenticity and outcomes, revealed a positive link between team 204 T. Wulffers leader authenticity and team member authenticity, and between team member authenticity and teamwork behaviour and productivity. 2.2 Considerations towards development of AL Whilst authenticity is posited as the root construct of positive leadership (Avolio and Gardner, 2005), it is also equated to the highest level of leadership development levels, which aligns to the most effective forms of leadership (Eigel and Kuhnert, 2005). The level of authenticity within any leader varies along a continuum, from complete inauthenticity to full authenticity (Chan et al., 2005). Eigel and Kuhnert (2005) state that many distinctive features of authenticity, such as self-awareness, self-esteem, trustworthiness, integrity, respect for others and other noble characteristics are all outcomes of a developmental journey. It is therefore useful to understand the various developmental levels of maturity that shape the moral and mental capacities of any leader. The underlying rationale for the leadership development theory posited by Eigel and Kuhnert (2005) is that leaders grow through an increasingly better understanding of who they are and how others see them, allowing them to grow from lower to higher leader development levels (LDLs). These authors advanced a theory of the whole person development that leads to increased AL. They continued by stating that individuals develop over the course of their lives, and it is for this reason that there are measurable differences as individuals find themselves at different LDLs. This accounts for the differences between less and more effective leadership. However, organisations do not have a life time to wait for the development of AL, and therefore the call for further research on high quality programmes that will considerably shorten the development of AL (Reichard and Avolio, 2005; Avolio et al., 2009; Chan, 2005; Cooper et al., 2005). The research of development of AL in a training context by Baron and Parent (2015) revealed a process that started with an exploration phase, in which participants identified their leadership issues and increased their self-awareness. They then identified new behaviours likely to address those issues, and tested those behaviours to assess their effect. This was followed by an integration phase in which the participants reflected on the beneficial effects of those new behaviours and were able to adopt them within their organisations. Although Baron and Parent (2015) referred to a training context, their study indicated development techniques that could be regarded as coaching techniques. Being able to lead self and others with awareness and authenticity often requires a journey of transformation to explore the internal identity that drives the leader, and where all of life’s experiences need to be integrated into a meaningful context (Cashman, 2008; Shamir and Eilam, 2005). The development of such awareness requires exploration of what is happening below the invisible emotional soil-line, a metaphor which refers to those human aspects within one’s self-schema, such as one’s beliefs, psychological states, values, purpose/vision/legacy and self-identity, that are invisible to others, yet inform one’s behaviour and performance above the soil-line that are noticeable by others (Wulffers, 2014). The metaphor of soil is used as soil can be tended to become more fertile and effective for its purpose of use. New self-awareness does not automatically lead to change. It needs to be supported by self-regulation of the aspects within a self-schema (Chan et al., 2005). This is often a very challenging journey, near impossible to undertake on one’s own. Existing ways are Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust 205 often habitual, requiring a partnership with an experienced person to facilitate the journey towards change from limiting to empowering habits. It requires the skills of someone who will listen in a way that makes the other feel heard, and ask those questions that ignite the minds and uncover important aspects that are being overlooked; who will challenge the leader to move outside the comfort zone, whilst offering supporting whilst doing so (Wulffers, 2009). A leadership coach, for instance, could play this role, as highlighted by Friedman (2006), who suggested that discussion with coaches can help leaders to increase their self-awareness about what is important, and identify the gaps they need to attend to, in order to achieve their desired outcomes. Following is an overview of the research design. 3 Research design The purpose of this research is to determine the distal effect of an AL programme on IT within a leadership team by firstly outlining the design of the AL programme that they participated in, and secondly evaluating the distal programme effect on IT. The following discussion outlines the research approach, strategy, and method. 3.1 Research approach The researcher selected a pragmatist approach (Cresswell, 2009), which can be described as a world-view that arises out of actions, situations, and consequences, rather than antecedent conditions. It concerns applications – what works and what does not – and solutions to problems (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2004). 3.2 Research strategy The researcher’s ontological perspective, in line with postulates by Teddlie and Tashakkori (2004), is that there is no such thing as absolute truth. This translated into an epistemology of a qualitative approach that allowed for mining of deeper meanings during the participant interviews. 3.3 Research method 3.3.1 Research setting The study took place at an international beverage organisation. The researcher was first approached by the human resource manager and introduced to the general manager, who had communicated to her in writing his belief that “… an intervention is needed to extract the potential from this team and get them to lead the brewery to the performance that is required”. It was agreed that the programme that formed part of this study was appropriate for the needs of the leadership team. 3.3.2 Participants and sampling The participant sample size of ten was an appropriate size for a leadership team intervention. The ten member executive leadership team, comprising a natural group, 206 T. Wulffers conveniently and purposefully selected, participated in the programme under study, and the individual participants are referred to in this article as P1–P10. 3.3.3 Data collection methods Once the programme was completed, QL data were gathered from the participants via semi-structured interviews, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the programme effect of the development of AL on IT, as experienced by the participants. 3.3.4 Data collection instruments Post-programme semi-structured interview: a post-programme semi-structured interview allowed the researcher to extract from each participant their narratives, insights and themes of self-reflection on how their programme participation had contributed to development of their AL and IT. This interview was piloted in order to test and refine the questions and establish the time required for the interview. The questions that pertained to this study were as follows: 1 In your opinion, how did this leadership authenticity programme contribute to your development of: a your trust in self b your IT with others? 2 In your understanding now, what, if any, is the link between AL and IT? 3.3.5 Data analysis Qualitative analysis: the qualitative data yielded rich and meaningful findings. Using thematic analysis, the researcher followed the six-phase guide offered by Braun and Clarke (2006), supplemented by additional recommendations on qualitative analysis by authors such as Bloomberg and Volpe (2012). The phases followed included familiarising with date, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing those themes, defining and naming themes, before producing the report. Atlas.ti®, a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) program, was used to assist in administrative processes such as making field notes and creating codes and linking those to data segments, theory-building and preparing interim and final reports (Friese, 2012). In order for qualitative research to be more objective and therefore more trustworthy (Lincoln and Guba, 1985), the researcher took the necessary measures in the larger study to ensure that the findings were credible, transferable, dependable and confirmable (Wulffers, 2014). These included member checks, and a research audit report that outlined processes that were followed throughout. 3.3.6 Ethical considerations – general and position as practitioner-researcher Ethical clearance was obtained from the University of Johannesburg. A participant informed consent form was prepared for each potential research participant to read and sign at the outset of the study. Practitioner research can be defined as “research carried out by practitioners for the purpose of advancing their own practice” (McLeod, 1999). This was the case for this research, and the most important factor to guard against bias in Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust 207 such research, is practitioner and researcher reflexivity (Garner and Garnett, 2007; Edmonds and Candy, 2010; Fox et al., 2007). To such end, the researcher kept a reflective journal of each participant’s development, which yielded further practitioner reflections and insights after each session. 4 Discussion of key findings The research purpose focused on determining the distal effect of an AL programme on IT within a leadership team, supported by two research objectives, which were firstly to outline the design of the AL programme, and secondly to evaluate the distal programme effect on IT. The programme under study aligns with the three AL sub-processes outlined by Chan et al. (2005). In this research these are called AL themes, those being AL-theme: 1 awareness of one’s self-schema or worldview 2 commitment to regulate one’s self-schema (below the soil-line) to that awareness 3 reflection of self-regulation in behaviour. These will be referred as such throughout the discussion of the second objective. 4.1 The AL programme The discussion commences with the conceptual framework of AL (see Figure 1), which underpins the programme as outlined in more details by Wulffers (2014), before providing an overview of the programme itself. Figure 1 The pyramid of AL (see online version for colours) Theoretical perspectives The Pyramid of Positive Leadership Need people leadership skills in order to inspire, empower and influence others to deliver effectively! Professional Leadership Often promoted into position due to technical or business acumen! Now need to deliver through others! (Organisation) Interpersonal Leadership (Leading Others) Cannot lead others before one can lead self effectively – this is where most work needs to happen! Personal Leadership (Leading Self) As illustrated in Figure 1, the actualisation of AL in organisations requires the underpinnings of interpersonal and, more importantly, personal leadership (Eigel and Kuhnert, 2005). It is important to note that the achieving positive leadership needs to start 208 T. Wulffers with mastering self- or personal leadership, before focusing on being able to lead others and, ultimately, the organisation or society, as the complexity in leading increases at each level (Barret, 2010). As noted by Barret (2010), it is not possible to successfully lead others, for instance, if self- or personal leadership has not yet been mastered. Thus in developing AL the process is sequential, building on each of the preceding steps. The main thinking elements that underpin this programme begin with the future environment and the end in mind, and work backwards from there to trace possible paths to new behaviours and outcomes. This can be facilitated by engaging in the three AL sub-processes outlined by Chan et al. (2005), those being: 1 becoming aware of one’s self-schema or worldview 2 commitment to that awareness (self-regulation) 3 reflection of self-regulation of authentic self in behaviour. In this programme a coaching style was particularly fitting as it allowed participants to develop a deeper self-awareness of their current self-schemas comprising their purpose/vision/legacy, internal identity, values, beliefs about self and others, and their psychological states, and how these impacted on their behaviour. It further allowed them to commit to further development on all of these aspects towards creating a more congruent self-schema toward their possible self, which they endeavoured to reflect in their behaviour at all times. The overall AL programme started with six individual coaching sessions, approximately two weeks apart, which focused specifically on the development of individual AL, followed by three team sessions one month apart, to enhance IT, individual and team leadership effectiveness. The programme commenced with individual session 1, during which increased awareness of perceptions of participants’ inner and outer landscapes, and how these perceptions might work for or against them, were encouraged. The second session then allowed them to set the intra-personal, interpersonal and professional leadership outcomes, with accompanying behavioural evidence of successful achievements of those. Assuming that each person is a product of his/her life history, in the third session they explored their life chapters, to obtain a better understanding of various aspects of their self-schemas that explained who they currently were. In the fourth session, they used these themes to build a picture of the current self, and to determine the strength of the golden thread running through the various aspects. In session 5, they could use the same process to refine that picture towards a next level of a more congruent possible self. All aspects derived from session 1 onwards are then populated in a systemic AL framework, completing the individual journey with a midway review of outcomes achieved thus far, in session 6. The team sessions allowed for the development of interpersonal and organisational leadership. The first of the three team sessions usually takes place towards the end of the individual sessions, once self-leadership had been developed. The rationale for this was that, by this time each participant should be well on their way towards developing leadership authenticity. Any fear and trepidation, combined with inappropriate invulnerability, which often accompanies any team with challenging team dynamics in anticipation of such a team session, would by this time have been replaced with cautious optimism, and balanced vulnerability. It was during team session 1 that the focus was on building IT, followed by introducing coaching conversations, to allow the team to embrace healthy conflict. This Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust 209 session built further on individual work that was done on life stories, as leaders shared their most empowering and limiting themes and stories with at least one other leader. Team session 2 moved the team towards enhancing their professional leadership, leading the team members towards a whole that was bigger than the sum of its parts. This team coaching session focused on embracing healthy conflict, committing to action, and enhancing individual and mutual accountability by building a team effectiveness charter. Team session 3 built further on authentic team effectiveness by focusing on the progress in peer-to-peer accountability, focusing on achieving team results, and adherence to the authentic team effectiveness charter. This concludes the outline of the individual and team AL programme. 4.2 Distal effect of an AL programme on IT In terms of the distal programme effect on IT, findings indicate that there was a noticeable enhancement in IT during the programme, which developed as a result of further development of personal and interpersonal AL. Whereas the findings under personal leadership supported the first two AL-themes (awareness and self-regulation), under interpersonal leadership, the focus was more on AL-theme 3, the behaviour itself. An unexpected finding was that there was a symbiotic link between enhancing AL and IT. Following is a discussion of these findings. 4.2.1 Personal AL development and building trust The findings supporting the effect of personal AL development on intra- and interpersonal trust comprised the first two AL themes, namely: 1 an increased awareness of the self-schema 2 a commitment to increased regulation towards a more congruent and effective selfschema, as discussed below. AL theme 1 Increased awareness of self-schema. In terms of the effect of development of personal AL on IT, when asked about developing intra- and interpersonal trust, one of the participants explained that, if you do not have trust in self, it affects other people’s ability to trust you, illustrated by the following. P2: Well I think if you don’t have trust in yourself it affects other people’s ability to trust you. Participants stated the importance of continuous introspection and an intra-personal feedback loop, as that helped them to better understand their values, strengths, and weaknesses. Not only did it allow them to be proud of what they had already achieved, they could then address emerging gaps that needed attention, expressed as follows. P8: I suppose the issues you understand by doing the introspection, by getting to understand yourself and … what you’re doing to cause mistrust or distrust and you then try and eliminate those… There are other examples like that where … you understand your gaps, you fix your gaps and that creates the trust within the team. It was for this reason that they believed that it was imperative for the programme to start off with individual sessions, as it allowed them to understand themselves and how they 210 T. Wulffers had contributed to any destructive dynamics previously experienced in the team. They could look at themselves and become honest enough to allow feedback from others to reflect upon, which concurred with Chan et al. (2005)’s requirements for the emergence of AL, as P2 explained. P2: … the individual sessions allowed everyone to understand themselves and how they were contributing to any dynamics that might’ve existed previously in the team. AL theme 2 Increased commitment to self-schema (self-regulation). Once they had developed an increased awareness of their self-schema, participants found that this could lead to increased psychological state management, also called psychological ownership (Luthans and Avolio, 2009; May et al., 2003). They had developed more self-awareness of the triggers that elicited unhelpful responses, and developed self-confidence in managing their responses during disagreements on contentious issues. They felt that they now experienced an ‘understandable’ trust, rather than an arrogant trust; it was a more genuine trust, a more authentic trust in self, based on a better understanding of self, illustrated by the following. P8: I know where my buttons are, so that if people get close to that I know that I need to be careful in terms of how I react to that. So I suppose it just gave that knowledge and understanding, just made me trust myself and my behaviour a lot better. They were also more prepared to be vulnerable, allowing others to give them constructive feedback, and as such, they could become role models for others to follow. This vulnerability allowed for more honesty and relational transparency, as they displayed a willingness to show their weaknesses and to work on those, allowing trust to grow amongst participants which concurred with research by Weischer et al. (2013) and Hughes (2005). Following was P4’s experience. P4: … it was appropriate to be vulnerable in terms of the feedback that was given to me. But in doing so, set an example for the team to say: if the leader of the team can take criticism, then I think everybody needs to be able to take the criticism. Another psychological state that, especially the leader, but also others, had to develop was moral courage. It was important that the leader stopped micro-managing and starting trusting that his team knew what they were doing, illustrated as follows. P8: … that was probably the most demonstration of courage because it really, really goes into the heart of what we’ve always been as a company, how we operate, how we, I suppose to some extent, micro manage our people by measuring everything that moves in the brewery. It’s just the nature of the business; we’re over controlling in everything. So to let go of that, it takes a helluva lot of courage. In terms of behaving ethically, participants needed to stay true to their core values and beliefs, and they found the moral courage to hold themselves and others accountable, even if those others were their seniors, which confirms research by May et al. (2003), Luthans and Avolio (2009) on the importance of moral courage in AL, and is illustrated by the experience of P3. P3: … it was against my principles, my values, against our company’s values, against everything. So in fact with all of that as a guideline, it was relatively Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust 211 easy to do (speak up against it). I thought: here’s a person in authority who’s letting the entire business down, so that made it a lot easier for me to do than maybe a marginal thing where I’ll say ‘so what if I let it go’ type of thing. Finally, they learnt to take better care of how they could develop, which reflects positive organisational behaviour (Luthans and Youssef, 2004). P10 shared explained this as follows. P10: I think it’s looking after who I am and … concentrating on the things that I know that I value… I think the trust in myself is to say now that you’ve done certain things you can see the benefit of that, and it’s like a cycle you go through in terms of … kind-of looking after yourself, getting to the potential, showing that drive, … These findings illustrates the effect that the development of personal AL on IT. 4.2.2 Interpersonal AL development and building trust The findings indicated that the effect of interpersonal AL development on intra- and interpersonal trust required only the third AL theme, namely to reflect the increased selfregulation in behaviour, for others to notice. AL-IT theme 3 Increased reflection of self-regulation in participants’ behaviour. Participants referred to the importance of interpersonal awareness/knowledge, interpersonal trust, transparency and openness, an interpersonal feedback loop, relationship-building, a safe space to allow appropriate vulnerability toward building trust, and moving forward as a collective. P4 also commented that one cannot pretend to be authentic, as people easily see through it. If people do not feel that you are authentic, you will not have their trust, and you will not be able to lead them (Peus et al., 2012), illustrated as follows. P4: … you cannot be an effective leader if you don’t have trust with people. If people don’t trust you, you can’t lead them, it’s not possible. If people don’t feel you’re being authentic, if they feel that you’re leading them on something that you don’t believe in or you’re not authentic about, then you certainly cannot lead people like that… It’s not something you can pretend to be. People see through it very easily. People will only buy into something that they genuinely believe you believe in and they see you believe in it. Where there was a lack of interpersonal trust before, some individuals made the effort to better understand the reality of others. They spent more time with those individuals, and improved their interpersonal communication; and in line with findings by Hassan and Ahmed (2011), trust and relationship-building improved to such an extent that safe spaces were now being created to allow others to be appropriately vulnerable. Interpersonal transparency and openness in general communication, and especially in terms of ethical considerations in decision making, is also an antecedent of trust building (Weischer et al., 2013). This openness extends further, to allowing balanced vulnerability in terms of receiving and considering reasonable interpersonal feedback, as this enables authentic change (Hughes, 2005; Chan et al., 2005). P1 had the following to say. P1: … we’ve learnt just be open with each other… So I think it’s created huge trust. 212 T. Wulffers Crucial conversations could start to take place between participants, allowing for further trust-building, and this became an iterative process, in line with the model of AL emergence by Chan et al. (2005). There was a sense that the development of leadership authenticity and IT allowed the team to move forward as a collective, illustrated by the following. P3: Well it’s basically moving the business forward as a collective. Due to the previous lack of trust, some participants were still somewhat wary of their colleagues. Not buying into the need for self-change, P9 for instance, initially did not truly engage in the individual self-development sessions. At best, he could be described as an authentic follower, as he did start to engage during the team sessions, after he had noticed the change in others. He was not trusted by many of his peers or his senior, and described as ‘falsely authentic’, pretending to drive business goals whilst he was still driving his own key performance indicators (KPI’s). His behaviour could be described as impression management (Avolio and Gardner, 2005; Chan et al., 2005; Franzese, 2007; Walumbwa et al., 2008), experienced as follows by P7. P7: But if you’re falsely authentic, if you pretend to be authentic you will not drive the business goals, you’ll still drive your own KPIs. P9 is a true example of being false. I think sometimes it just shows that he’s not authentic but at times he tries and he says the right things and you can see through him because he’s behaviour doesn’t change. Trust in others does not automatically appear; it has to develop over time (Peus et al., 2012; Hughes, 2005), and participants sought more consistency in the behaviour of their peers. This indicated that one could simultaneously be an authentic leader and an authentic follower, or one could be like P5, who seemed not yet ready to buy into either. P5: Again I think in terms of the situation at the brewery it’s been a rollercoaster. So there was built trust, broken trust, built trust, broken trust… These findings indicated that for most, but not all, the programme participation allowed for development of AL, which had a positive effect on the development of trust. 4.2.3 Symbiotic link between AL and IT Participant suggested that at times conditional trust needed to be in place for AL to be further enhanced, which then further enhanced trust, illustrated by the following. P6: (researcher) But what comes first because you’re now putting trust first? P6: I wouldn’t say necessary that comes first but we first dealt with the self and yourself and being authentic, sorting yourself out and then in terms of interacting with others, that trust had to be built. P7: So you’ve got to trust the process, you’ve got to trust that this [authentic leadership] will come. P10: I think there’s a very strong link (between leadership authenticity and trust) simply because you need to be able to display who you are to other people because if they don’t know you, if they don’t know what you’re about, they’re very unlikely to trust you. The findings illustrate that the programme effect on the development of AL enhanced intra-personal and interpersonal trust within the participating leadership team. Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust 5 213 Conclusions and implications for practice The discussion of the findings outlined a leadership programme suitable for the development of AL. It recognised that the development of AL needed to start with the development of personal AL leadership before interpersonal or professional AL could be developed, and that AL development was best achieved with a coaching style underpinning the programme, as that allowed participants to develop a deeper understanding of their current self-schemas, and how these need to be self-regulated to allow participants to reflect more congruent AL behaviour that further enhanced trust. The findings further illustrated that the development of AL enhanced IT, and that a symbiotic relationship existed between these two constructs; that development of both occurred in parallel, as illustrated in Figure 2. Leadership authenticity results in increased trust, and when people trust another, it allows greater authenticity. However, change needed to start with self; participants needed to increase awareness of what worked and did not work in their self-schemas, and commit to creating more congruency within their self-schemas. As they then reflected this increased congruency within themselves and their leadership positions, these resulted in an increase in their personal and interpersonal AL. A parallel process that ensued was the increased trust not only in self, but also in one another. This was not an easy journey to undertake on their own, and these findings have illustrated that an appropriate AL programme can facilitate such a journey. Figure 2 Programme impact on development of trust (see online version for colours) 5.1 Potential limitations and recommendations for further research A potential limitation in this research was that it was limited to one executive leadership team who participated in this programme. Further research could be conducted with different leadership teams, and on the sustainability of results obtained during the participation in an AL programme. 214 T. Wulffers 5.2 Implications for practice In response for the call for more positive leadership, this article illustrated that AL, regarded not only as the root construct of positive leadership but also equated to the highest forms of effective leadership, can be developed by means of an appropriate leadership programme; furthermore, that it does enhance intra- and interpersonal trust, which in itself, is the foundation required for individual and collective leadership effectiveness. Organisations need AL now, and cannot wait for a life-time for this leadership to development yet it is not easy to develop such leadership without facilitation of an appropriate AL programme. 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