Leader self-awareness – a key to improve trust? The mediating role of self-other rating discrepancy in the relationship between open-to-learning conversations and relational trust
Abstract
Purpose: This study explored the relationship between workshops in Open-to-
Learning Conversations (OTL) and relational trust, as well as the mediating role
of leader self-awareness, measured by self-other rating discrepancy.
Methodology/ approach/ design: A classic experimental design was applied to
evaluate the effect of a workshop in OTL, evaluated by online surveys. A pre- and
post-test was conducted, including both a treatment group (those who attended the
workshop) and a control group (those who did not attend the workshop). The
study was conducted among 49 school leaders and 73 teachers in Norwegian
schools, over a 4-month time span. Complete connections used for mediation
analysis consisted of 24 school leaders and 49 teachers.
Findings: The results indicate rating discrepancy to be a significant mediator
between OTL and relational trust, but no significant effect of OTL training on
rating discrepancy nor relational trust was found. Possible explanations for this is
discussed.
Originality/ value: Our results indicate that leaders who are self-aware create
stronger trusting bonds with their employees. The results also indicate that the
effect OTL training has on trust, goes through self-awareness. Thus, there are
indications that OTL is a workshop in self-awareness. If so, OTL training is not
school specific, and have the possibility of being used outside the school sector to
foster trust and organizational effectiveness.
Keywords: self-awareness, self-other rating discrepancy, relational trust, Opento-
Leaning Conversations, leadership, learning.
Description
Masteroppgave(MSc) in Master of Science in Leadership and Organizational Psychology - Handelshøyskolen BI, 2017