Title: Programme effect of authentic leadership development on trust

Authors: Tineke Wulffers

Addresses: Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, Faculty of Management, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 84423, Greenside, 2034, South Africa

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 leadership development; authentic leadership programmes; trust; leadership effectiveness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCLM.2016.080316

International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management, 2016 Vol.3 No.3, pp.198 - 217

Received: 01 Jul 2015
Accepted: 18 Jan 2016
Published online: 14 Nov 2016 *

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