Developing responsible, self-aware management: An authentic leadership development program case study

Abstract

Given the ongoing call for responsible management and leadership, it is incumbent for development programs to provide students with the knowledge and skills to lead organizations that are effective, ethical, and meet the United Nation's sustainable development goals. One such way is to develop authentic leaders. The purpose of the current mixed method case study was to understand how students in an authentic leadership development program offered at a United States university improved self-awareness and how this change informed their leadership behaviour. The current study contributes to the understanding of the development of responsible management and leadership by describing the pedological approaches the participants found effective in developing heightened self-awareness. Students were able to improve self-awareness using a combination of didactic and experiential learning through the development of a trusted community of diverse leaders. They viewed self-reflection experiences as a way to gain self-awareness of who they are as leaders and be more present in their leadership. In this self-reflection, students reported gaining a greater sense of self (self-concept clarity), which gave them more confidence in their leadership. Heightened self-awareness facilitated behavioural changes in relational transparency and moral and ethical decision making, but not balanced processing.