How leaders communicate their vulnerability: implications for trust building

Abstract

Purpose The notion of vulnerability underlies relationships of trust. Trust between leaders and staff is needed to solve concerns that hinder equity and excellence in teaching and learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how leaders show vulnerability by disclosing own possible contributions to concerns they try to resolve. Design/methodology/approach Data included transcripts of conversations held by 27 educational leaders about a concern with another staff and a questionnaire about the nature, causes and history of the concern. Questionnaire analysis identified if and how leaders described their own possible contribution prior to the conversation. Transcript analysis identified instances of leaders’ contribution disclosure. Findings Results indicate that while two-thirds of leaders identified an own contribution, when prompted prior to the conversation, one-third saw no own contribution. Leaders indicated contributing by not acting on the concern, by acting in ways inappropriate or insufficient to resolve the concern, or by not clearly communicating their concern in the past. Eight of the 27 leaders publicly disclosed their contribution in the actual conversation. In some conversations this disclosure prompted reciprocal disclosure of information about the concern and its causes by the other person, aiding a more effective concern resolution. Originality/value Through examining leaders’ interpersonal behavior in difficult conversations, the importance of leaders’ acknowledgments of own mistakes and communication of their own vulnerability is highlighted. A positive view of vulnerability is argued for, epistemic vulnerability, which manifests itself in the willingness to be honest and open to learning by accepting one’s own fallibility.

Explicating the Role of Trust in Knowledge Sharing: A Structural Equation Model Test

“…Trust in management is one of the main factors influencing employees' decision to share knowledge (Renzl 2008;Pervaiz 2016). Trust is a willingness to be vulnerable (Meyer et al 2017), and it is strongly associated with the belief that other people will not use this situation for their own benefit. Therefore, trust is a result of two contradicting interactions: on the one hand, there is a fear of losing one's own value; on the other hand, there is desire to collaborate.…”

“…Trust can be interpreted as willingness to trust or depend on an individual or group. Moreover, an employee sharing knowledge must have trust that the management will see it and award him/her for it (Serenko et al 2016), may it be an individual or group award which, as a result, would improve group performance (Meyer et al 2017); therefore, trust in management can enhance knowledge sharing. According to Renzl (2008), trust also enables to concentrate personnel on the task to be carried out in order to create the added value for the organization.…”

Balancing trust and control through dialogue meetings in Norwegian school district governance

“…A superintendent that engages in open reflections with school leaders makes the school leaders open up as well. Meyer et al (2017) suggest that "those in power can relieve the tensions created by differential power relationships through specific behavioural practices that signal their trust-building motives" (p. 223). In contrast, when distrust emerge "the goal of communication often becomes the protection of one's interest and the reduction of one's anxiety rather than the accurate transmission of ideas" (Tschannen-Moran 2014, pp.…”

Contribution of integrity and vulnerability to perceived moral character and a leader’s behavioural profile attractiveness

“…Although empirical research on leader vulnerability is scant, available studies on leadership vulnerability and character tend to confirm the importance of vulnerability for integrity and character strength (Demirci, Ekşi, Ekşi & Kaya, 2019;Lopez, 2018). Leader vulnerability has been correlated with positive leadership characteristics such as charisma, emotional connection with followers, building trust and establishing psychological safety (Lopez, 2018;Mane, 2019;Meyer, Le Fevre & Robinson, 2017). Demirci et al (2019) found that several aspects of character strength correlate significantly with vulnerability.…”