Case Overview?- Provide an overview of the case details in 400 words or less. Research Design?- What are 2-4 features of t

1

THE LEADERSHIP SELF-AWARENESS PROCESS: A NARRATIVE STUDY EXPLORING

HOW EXPERIENCED LEADERS USE SELF-AWARENESS AND DECEPTION TO ALIGN

THEIR BEHAVIOR TO THEIR GOALS

A thesis presented

by

Patricia Feig Steiner

to

The School of Education

In partial fulfillment of the Requirements of the degree of

Doctor of Education

in the field of

Education

College of Professional Studies

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts

October, 2015

All rights reserved

INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.

In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,

a note will indicate the deletion.

All rights reserved.

This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.

ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway

P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 – 1346

ProQuest 10090209

Published by ProQuest LLC (2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author.

ProQuest Number: 10090209

2

Dedication

This work is dedicated to Harriet Caruso who was always there for me. Harriet leads an amazing

life of service to children and gives to others more than anyone else I know. I was fortunate to

be one of them. Thank you Harriet: for all your help and guidance. Thank you for being an

amazing friend, role model, and confident. I could not have done this without you.

3

Acknowledgement

It took a group of wonderful people to make this project possible. I want to thank

Northeastern University for accepting me as a student and Dr. Bryan Patterson and Dr. Margaret

Gorman for standing in during this process and allowing me to complete my doctorate. I also

want to thank Terry Copeland for being my third reader and providing many years of tremendous

insight on life and leadership. I could not have done this without Elizabeth Mahler. I don’t

know how many times I read her dissertation. She was an inspiration and a mentor without

whom I would have made it through this process. A big thank you goes to John Webster who

was there for me when I needed him, advised me from the beginning, and contributed his

wisdom to this experience to this process. Thank you Linda Artac for showing up at the end and

helping me transition back into real life.

Special thanks go to the participants of this study. They are 23 of the most wonderful

people on the planet. Thank you for being open and allowing me to share your stories. A special

thanks goes to Peter Feig and John Harney of The New England Board of Higher Education who

helped me get some of this work published. Thank you Tonia Teresh for being a wonderful

partner during all the study involved in this project and to Jeff Spittle for reviewing my work. A

big thank you goes to Mike Sachleben who read every page of this dissertation more than once

and provided hundreds of comments. Mike’s passion for this project made a difference in how

this document was written. He provided clarity and consistency and gave me confidence that my

message was important. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to Masha for putting up with me day

in and day out. She was my constant friend and companion without whom I would have been

lost.

4

Abstract

This was a narrative study that explored how experienced leaders from Western cultures made

sense of their personal journey towards achieving an alignment of their values, morals, and inner

most intent, with the actions they took when running their professional organizations. This study

examined the socially constructed reality of experienced leaders and what and how they

internalized feedback so that they came to believe that their inner selves aligned or did not align

with their actions. Many authors consider self-awareness to be the most important trait in

authentic leadership and yet there is very little documentation of self-awareness behavior in the

literature and even less advice on how to use the skill to achieve alignment values, morals, and

inner most resolve. Through the voices of these leaders, it was possible to explore the thought

processes that they used for making decisions, performance, and the reflective journey being

taken while dealing with their challenges of self-awareness and perceived authenticity. Leaders

who were struggling with self-awareness could unknowingly risk the goals of their organization

and its followers by resorting to deceptive practices. The results of this study served to provide

leaders, scholars, and leadership coaches much needed narrative examples of self-aware behavior

as well as ignorance of that behavior that often results in deception. These narratives could be

used to teach and explain self-awareness, deception, inauthentic, and authentic behavior. Further

conclusions from this study included examples of self-awareness, deceptive thinking, and

findings on when, how, and why sense making occurred in different organizational contexts.

Keywords: Self-awareness, Authenticity, Feedback, Deception, Leadership

5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8

Problem of Practice …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10

Purpose of the Study …………………………………………………………………………………………… 11

Research questions ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 12

Significance for Research and Practice ………………………………………………………………….. 12

Relevance ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13

Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 14

Justification for selection of authenticity theoretical framework ………………………………. 17

Research Design…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 18

Rationale …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18

Positionality ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 20

Limitations ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 21

Definition of terms ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 22

Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25

2. Review of the Literature …………………………………………………………………………… 27

Leadership and Connections between Constructs……………………………………………………. 28

History and Seminal Works …………………………………………………………………………………. 37

Self-Awareness ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 38

Objective self-awareness …………………………………………………………………………………….. 48

Feedback …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 49

Deception ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 51

Authentic Leadership ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 56

The Literature on the Narrative Paradigm ……………………………………………………………… 58

Recommendations from the Literature on Being Self-aware & Achieving Authenticity . 61

What we do not realize ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 64

Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 65

3. Research Design ………………………………………………………………………………………. 67

Overview …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 67

Research Questions …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 67

The Qualitative Design ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 69

Strategy of Inquiry through Narrative Research ……………………………………………………… 70

Design Overview ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 73

Procedures …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 76

The Roberts (2014) Intake Instrument …………………………………………………………………… 77

The Intake Process ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 81

Data collection …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 82

One-on-one semi-structured interviews …………………………………………………………………. 82

6

Data Analysis …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 83

Ethical Considerations ………………………………………………………………………………………… 87

Data verification and trustworthiness of study ……………………………………………………….. 88

Potential Research Bias……………………………………………………………………………………….. 89

Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 90

4. Data Collection and Analysis ……………………………………………………………………. 91

Overview …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 91

Common Themes ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 91

Subthemes ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 108

Summary of theme analysis ……………………………………………………………………………….. 113

Are you there? Are you aware? …………………………………………………………………………. 114

Amy: I’m an actor ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 115

Kyle: Authentic and not self-aware …………………………………………………………………….. 120

Ted: The long fuse: Deception, self-awareness, and subconscious behavior ……………. 130

Hope: Self-aware about being inauthentic ……………………………………………………………. 136

Max: Self-aware and inauthentic ……………………………………………………………………….. 142

Fred: Aware of being subconscious ……………………………………………………………………. 148

Mary: Self Aware and authentic …………………………………………………………………………. 153

Don: Purposeful authenticity to the core ……………………………………………………………… 161

5. Discussion, Recommendations, and Conclusion ………………………………………. 169

Overview …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 169

Discussion of Findings ………………………………………………………………………………………. 170

Implications for theory and practice ……………………………………………………………………. 179

Suggestions for developing self-awareness ………………………………………………………….. 183

Recommendations for future research …………………………………………………………………. 184

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 186

Epilogue ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 188

References ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 191

Appendix A. National Institutes of Health Certificate of Completion ………………… 203

Appendix B. Assurance Form ………………………………………………………………………….. 204

Appendix C. Recruitment Email ……………………………………………………………………… 205

Appendix D. Signed Consent Form (2 pages) ……………………………………………………. 206

Appendix E. Unsigned Consent Form ………………………………………………………………. 208

Appendix F. REAL: The role-specific evaluation of authenticity in leaders………. 209

7

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Circle of Self-Awareness……………………………….……………………………..14

Figure 2. Authenticity Feedback Cycle…………………………………………………………..16

Figure 3. Model of the Effects of Feedback on Recipients…………………..…….……………24

Figure 4. A Framework for Emotional Competencies……………………..……….……………40

Figure 5. Model for Feedback Processing……………………………………..………………..49

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Elements of Authenticity-Matrix by Seminal Author……………………………… …35

Table 2. Detailed Components of Authenticity-Matrix by Seminal Author……………….…….36

Table 3. Relationship Semi-Structured Interview Questions & Authenticity Literature………..73

Table 4. Summary of Participant Demographics……………………………………………….75

Table 5. Authenticity Construct Components and Item Content……………………..………….78

Table 6. Codes Used for Research Analysis………………………………………………….…83

Table 7. Subthemes and Corresponding Participants………………………………………….108

8

Doctoral Dissertation

The Leadership Self-awareness Process: A Narrative Study Exploring How Experienced

Leaders Use Self-awareness and Deception to Align Their Behavior to Their Goals

1. Introduction

Self-awareness and authenticity were considered among the most important traits in

leadership development by many authors (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2001; Ashley & Reiter,

2012; Snowden, 2002). The absence of documentation on self-aware behavior and authentic

leadership conduct in the literature is a mystery. Throughout the literature, there was even less

information and advice on how to use self-awareness skills to achieve alignment of values,

morals, and inner most resolve that frame authentic leadership (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, &

Podsakoff, 2011).

The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand aspects of self-awareness

and authentic behavior in leaders in order to partially fill the gap of missing information in the

literature, and to document this behavior for use in leadership training. The knowledge

generated from this study was also created to inform leadership practice. If self-awareness and

authenticity were important to leadership, examples of these behaviors were needed so that

leaders could develop the skills associated with these behaviors (McMasters, 1999; Roberts,

2014).

Through the use of the narrative paradigm, this study documented and analyzed the

internal reality constructed by eight experienced leaders and how their roles were impacted by

being self-aware. The leaders selected for this study were experienced individuals on whom

organizations, employees, clients, and customers solely depended to make the life-critical and

organization-critical decisions necessary to meet or exceed stated and implied needs, to be

successful, and sustain existence. It had been theorized that experienced leaders used self-

9

awareness to make sense of their environments and learn from their circumstances which were

usually chaotic, required role flexibility, and complex social, psychological, and physiological

functioning (Axelrod, 2012; Gardner, Cogliser, Davis, &Dickens, 2011; Goleman, Boyatzis, &

McKee, 2001; Prati, Douglas, & Ferris, 2003; Nesbit, 2012; Roberts, 2014; Sparrowe, 2005).

Through the voices of these leaders, it was possible to explore the thought processes that they

used for decision making, performance, and the reflective journey they took while dealing with

their challenges.

The participants were experienced leaders from around the United States, working in

various fields, (technology, education, law, commerce, consulting, and finance) who had at least

10 years of experience in their leadership roles. They were selected based on an authenticity

intake form that originated with The Role Specific Evaluation of Authenticity in Leaders,

Roberts, (2014)). These experienced leaders took part in informal, semi-structured interviews

based on a predetermined list of questions and topics created by the research team. This format

allowed the researcher to follow topical trajectories in the conversation in a way that was flexible

and comfortable for the participants.

The narrative method was used in this study to examine leadership self-awareness and

authentic behavior and also to inform the data collection process. The use of the narrative

method was seen as a more effective way to describe elusive interview results involving

subjective, disjointed content (Caldwell, 2009) than a list or chronicle of proceedings (Bozatzis

& Dragonas, 2014; Sikes & Gale, 2006). Data were assembled through transcription of

conversations from the interview process. Results included examples of leadership self-

awareness, feedback sent and received, and examples of authentic behaviors. In addition, the

study unveiled all aspects of deceptive behaviors, from the findings on when, how, and why

10

deception occurs, to possible recommendations for using self-awareness as a solution for

reducing deceptive thinking and practice.

Problem of Practice

Without self-awareness skills, a leader’s thinking could be distorted by deception

(Atwater &Yammarino, 1992; Leary & Tangney, 2003; Rose, Rouhani, & Fischer, 2013). The

often complex and chaotic environment that surrounded a leader (Axelrod, 2012; Gardner,

Cogliser, Davis, &Dickens, 2011; Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2001; Prati, Douglas, & Ferris,

2003; Nesbit, 2012; Roberts, 2014; Sparrowe, 2005) could cause self-awareness to be

underutilized, ignored, or abandoned. This could result in cognitive self-awareness dysfunction

(Boyatzis, 2007) causing a leader to react in bouts of deception that could manifest as

discrepancies between the way in which leaders knew they should behave and the ways in which

they actually did behave (Festinger, 1957). Additionally, self-awareness dysfunction could result

in feedback avoidance (Moss and Sanchez, 2004) which often had a negative effect in the way a

leader gathered evidence, reached conclusions, and collaborated with followers (Kunda, 1990).

The skill of sending and receiving feedback was seen by many authors as an essential leadership

capability that was directly attributed to leadership self-awareness, authenticity, and

effectiveness (Ashley & Reiter-Palmon, 2012; Axelrod, 2012; Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee,

2001; Snowden, 2002).

The lack of availability of effective leadership training to support leaders in developing

and using self-awareness skills was a critical issue. Leadership theorists and executive coaches

who promoted the importance of authenticity and self-awareness for maximizing the positive

capacity of leaders needed more information in order to provide training and coaching

(Kombarakaran, Baker, Yang, & Fernandes. 2008; Gregory, Beck, & Carr, 2011). There were

11

insufficient examples of self-aware and deceptive practices in the literature. As a result of this

deficit, practical advice on best practices and how to effectively use the skill of self-awareness to

achieve desired goals was also limited.

This study sought to fill gaps in the literature by providing rich, descriptive examples in

the form of narrative vignettes of experienced leaders who expressed their awareness of

themselves and their resulting authentic and deceptive actions.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this doctoral thesis was to uncover how experienced leaders described

their self-awareness process as they sought to enhance their authentic leadership. Authenticity

and self-awareness were considered the most important traits in leadership (Goleman, Boyatzis

& McKee, 2001; Ashley & Reiter, 2012; Snowden, 2002) and yet there was very little

documentation of self-aware or authentic behavior in the literature and even less advice on how

to use these traits to achieve alignment values, morals, and inner most resolve.

Interviews were conducted to provide examples of self-awareness and resulting authentic

behavior. Examples of deception that could occur when self-awareness was marginalized or

discarded were also included. The interviews conducted in this study were created to provide

leaders and leadership coaches with rich, descriptive examples of self-awareness and authentic

behavior through the voices of experienced leaders who were executing in complex leadership

environments. These experienced leaders also revealed some of the barriers to authentic

behavior created by internal and external circumstances that challenged authentic behavior and

often manifested as deceptive practice (Caldwell, 2009; Steiner, 2014).

12

The findings in this study provided suggestions and techniques that supported the

development of self-awareness and authenticity that could be used by leaders and leadership

coaches to increase self-awareness and authenticity and reduce occurrences of deception.

Research questions

This study focused on documenting specific examples of the self-awareness process.

Also documented was the feedback that permeated self-awareness processing that resulted in

authentic behavior in experienced leaders undertaking stressful, complex, or chaotic situations

that challenge authentic behavior.

The research questions were:

1. How did experienced leaders use self-awareness to make sense of their actions and

practices in complex and chaotic environments?

2. How could authenticity theory be used to conceptualize authenticity, particularly in

regard to identifying and understanding critical interpersonal processes such as self-

awareness and feedback?

Significance for Research and Practice

Research showed that self-awareness and authenticity were important precursors to

successful leadership (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2001; Ashley & Reiter, 2012; Snowden,

2002). By examining experienced leaders in their various working environments and looking

specifically at a leader’s self-awareness skills which may have resulted in authentic behavior, an

enhanced understanding of leadership performance could be gained as well as a better grasp of

how self-awareness and authenticity could improve leadership. Understanding how experienced

leaders knew what they knew (experimental knowledge or developed wisdom), and how

13

experienced leaders could be taught to be self-aware in a way that led to authentic behavior,

could result in improved leadership training and effectiveness.

Raising awareness to the critical aspects of self-awareness and authenticity and the part

that self-awareness and authentic behavior played in leadership was not only important to leaders

but to those whom they led and anyone else who sought to align themselves with their personal

truth. If leadership could be improved by understanding these traits and the part that they play,

then this study would play an important role (McMasters, 1999). This study would be significant

if it led to a better understanding of deceptive practices that blocked critical feedback, and

obstructed decision making. Deception has been known to cause distortion of reality, impaired

relationships, and compromised decision making (Caldwell, 2009; Rose, Rouhani, & Fischer,

2013; Steiner, 2014). It followed that action should be taken to reduce or eliminate deceptive

behavior when and where possible so that authenticity could be achieved.

Self-awareness and authenticity were important in roles other than leadership. It was

possible that knowledge about leader self-awareness, authenticity, and feedback could be

transferred to other contexts that involved leading and learning such as schools, programs, and

institutions that provided education or training to adults.

Relevance

This study informed leaders and leadership coaches about the benefits of developing self-

awareness skills, and authentic behavior and provided examples of these behaviors. The more

leaders understood the positive impact of self-awareness and authenticity, the more they could

incorporate them into the outcomes of their organizations and the growth of the people with

whom they worked.

14

This study provided examples of the dialogue that took place within the leader,

sometimes self-aware, sometimes aligned with authentic behavior, and sometimes involved in

deceptive practices used to reach an authentic goal.

Theoretical Framework

Self-awareness and how the self-awareness process (Figure 1) led to authentic behavior

and limited occurrence of deceptive behavior was the focus of this study. Using authenticity as a

framework, this study traced the progression of self-aware internal processing of feedback to

actual behavior. The framework used considered the nature of self to identify how these

components work together to result in authentic behavior.

Figure 1. The Circle of Self-Awareness

According to Roberts (2014), authenticity required consistency between primary

experience, symbolized awareness or internal representation of experience, and outward behavior

and communication (Figure 1). This study looked for evidence of this process in action. The

authenticity framework, grounded in person-centered psychology, self-based theories (including

self-awareness), and self-determination theory (SDT) provided a lens for these behavioral areas

which together described a mu

Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers

Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.

Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS

Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?

Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.

We write plagiarism Free Content

Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.

Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.