The International Journal of Management Education 18 (2020) 100364

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

The International Journal of

Management Education
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijme

Developing authentic leadership as a starting point to responsible

T
management: A Canadian university case study
Anne-Marie Corriveau
Business School, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500 Boulevard de L’Université, Sherbrooke, QC, J1K 2R1, Canada

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: To attain sustainable development goals (SDGs), organizations need authentic leaders. Authentic
Responsible management education leaders are self-aware and are guided by a strong set of ethical values that drive their actions.
Authentic leadership They create a climate of trust that stimulates the personal development of subordinates and
Experiential learning organizational performance. Experiential learning is recognized as a promising strategy for de-
Responsible leaders
veloping the skills required for authentic leadership. This paper describes an original leadership
Sustainable development goals
course in management master's programs at a Canadian university. This course incorporates an
intensive off-campus leadership camp whose main strategy involves collaborative action games.
This article proposes a threefold contribution. First, it provides a detailed description of a proven
educational approach based on experiential learning. Second, it assesses the value of this ap-
proach in developing certain key authentic leadership skills, including self-awareness, which is
identified as an essential characteristic of a responsible manager. Third, it demonstrates that the
intensive leadership camp constitutes an original and relevant pedagogical approach to foster
students' learning of authentic leadership, provided that a rigorous process, including a reflex-
ivity mechanism, is followed.

1. Introduction

Adopted in 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set an ambitious agenda to resolve problems ranging from
extreme poverty to climate change, human rights and corruption (Parkes, Buono, & Howaidy, 2017; Storey, Killian, & O'Regan, 2017;
United Nations, 2015). Businesses are considered key actors in the attainment of these objectives because of their direct impact on all
issues addressed by SDGs, through their operations, investments or business models (Parkes et al., 2017; Storey et al., 2017;
Weybrecht, 2017). They are thus being encouraged to redefine their relations with society in order to play a significant role in
preventing human, financial or ecological crisis (Storey et al., 2017). For the new paradigm to permeate businesses, and eventually
entire sectors of the economy, executives must become agents of change (Borges, Ferreira, Borges de Oliveira, Macini, & Caldana,
2017; Haertle, Parkes, Murray, & Hayes, 2017), leaders with conviction who will serve as “moral compasses” (Moon, Walmsley, &
Apostolopoulos, 2018, p. 172) in organizational transformation. These organizations can eventually become participants fully en-
gaged in this movement.
To contribute to this effort, and thus to achieve the goals set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations,
2015), institutions of higher education have an important role to play in training these executives. Notably, the Principles for
Responsible Management Education (PRME) (PRME, 2007) highlight the need to incorporate the values of social responsibility into
curricula and academic activities (Principle 2: Values). It is thus important that future managers be trained in ethics, sustainability
and CSR-related concepts, although leadership qualities and skills have also been identified as essential (Cottafava, Cavaglià, &

E-mail address: [email protected].

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2020.100364
Received 10 February 2019; Received in revised form 6 January 2020; Accepted 8 January 2020
1472-8117/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A.-M. Corriveau The International Journal of Management Education 18 (2020) 100364

Corazza, 2019; Rubens, Schoenfeld, Schaffer, & Leah, 2018; Storey et al., 2017): leaders need to act with integrity, in accordance with
ethical values (Haertle et al., 2017), and must create a climate of trust with subordinates and stakeholders (Ortiz & Huber-Heim,
2017) that is conducive to the personal development of their collaborators and to organizational performance. Thus, leadership is
inseparable from a firm's capacity to contribute to the attainment of SDGs because not only does it have a direct impact on employees'
attitudes and behaviours, but leadership also enhances the firm's credibility among various stakeholders given the symbolic nature of
the leader who represents the business (Kim, Nurunnabi, Kim, & Kim, 2018). As Moon et al. (2018) affirm: “Tone at the top needs to
be more than rhetoric; today's leaders and managers need to be educated more stringently to ensure that ethical and sustainable
practices are imbued within company cultures and governance systems” (p.172). Therefore, stakeholders in businesses now expect to
see consistency between the discourse, decisions and actions of businesses and the principles and values of integrity and ethics that
their leaders claim to follow (Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008). In other words, the credibility of a business
linked to its sustainability practices is largely judged based on the authenticity of its managers (Kim et al., 2018). The challenge is
therefore to train the next generation of so-called authentic leaders (Parkes et al., 2017; Storey et al., 2017). Given that self-awareness
and solid moral foundations are central to authentic leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Walumbwa et al., 2008), teaching ap-
proaches that promote reflexivity, such as experiential learning, should be favoured (Cooper, Scandura, & Schriesheim, 2005). This
finding echoes PRME Principle 3 (Method), which advocates creating educational frameworks and processes that enable effective
learning of responsible leadership.
Therefore, in an effort to contribute to training responsible leaders and support the implementation of PRME Principles 2 and 3,
this article analyzes a leadership course taken by an average of 200 students a year in two management master's programs at a
Canadian university. The cornerstone of the course is an intensive training camp during which students must tackle various chal-
lenges in the context of collaborative action games. More specifically, this paper explores how experiential learning in a university
context contributes to the development of authentic leadership in future business executives.
This paper begins by defining what authentic leadership is and how it is useful in the training of future managers regarding the
achievement of SDGs. It then describes experiential learning and explains its relevance for learning authentic leadership. The original
approach adopted is specified, along with reflections on successful practices within such a course. Finally, the article discusses the
potential of collaborative action games in developing certain skills associated with authentic leadership, and how this can contribute
to achieving SDGs.

2. Authentic leadership

“When Alcibiades asked Socrates how to become a good leader in the city, a statesman, Socrates replied that one must first know
oneself and take care of oneself.”
(Dagot, 2013, p.34, our translation)
Although the concept of authenticity in leadership practice is not new, it has drawn renewed interest in the early 2000s in
response to various corruption scandals in well-known businesses, coupled with mounting concerns about a range of societal issues
(Iqbal, Farid, Ma, Khattak, & Nurrunnabi, 2018; Walumbwa et al., 2008). Specifically, authentic leadership aims to rebuild stake-
holders' trust in organizations (Baron, 2016) by valorizing a leader “who is self-aware of his strengths and weaknesses, encourages
others’ participation and does not impose his point of view on others, and acts in accordance with personnal values, feelings and
beliefs” (Walumbwa et al., 2008, p. 92). It has been demonstrated that leaders who know themselves well, who have good self-control
and integrate strong social and ethical dimensions in their leadership style (Avolio & Gardner, 2005) contribute to the creation and
maintenance of a sustainability-oriented culture (Iqbal et al., 2018; Kim et al., 2018). Building on the theories of transformational
leadership, servant leadership and ethical leadership, authentic leadership (AL) is distinguished by its emphasis on the qualities
specific to leaders, particularly self-awareness about moral values and the way it guides their daily actions and decisions (Iqbal et al.,
2018). This type of leadership stresses the exemplarity of leaders who serve as models (tone at the top) owing to their values and
personal qualities (Ling, Liu, & Wu, 2016).
Notable in the field of authentic leadership are the works of Walumbwa et al. (2008), who assign four components to authentic
leadership: 1) Self-awareness, which refers to acknowledgement of one's own strengths and limitations, and of the impact of one's
words and actions on others; 2) Relational transparency, which means an individual's ability to express their thoughts and emotions
sincerely; 3) Balanced processing of information, which requires gathering, considering and staying open to opinions that diverge
from one's own during decision-making; and 4) An internalized moral perspective, which entails that one's values act as a filter to
shape decisions and actions.
The first two components pertain to leaders' capacity to know themselves in a fair and realistic manner, to assume their fra-
mework of values, and especially to take decisions and actions consistently with this framework. Some studies (Rubens et al., 2018)
have established a positive correlation between self-awareness and successful leadership practice based on the premise that self-
awareness is instrumental for forging relationships with others. Individuals’ adaptation capacity is largely attributable to this self-
awareness, which acts as a frame of reference when other signals disappear. Further, self-awareness is considered as an indispensable
competency for learning SDGs (Cottafava et al., 2019). Reflexive ability that fosters this self-awareness is indeed a condition for the
affirmation of virtuous organizational values, together with the strength of character necessary for ethical decision-making (Storey
et al., 2017).
The two other components of Walumbwa et al.‘s model (2008) demonstrate how leaders treat others based on their framework of
values (Kim et al., 2018). Whereas the first two dimensions concern principles that guide leaders' actions and thoughts, the last two

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principles refer to the implementation process of leaders' decisions regarding various stakeholders. AL therefore lays the foundations
for a leader to become pivotal to the shift of businesses toward sustainability needed to reach SDGs. Because these components mostly
pertain to the development of social skills, they pose significant pedagogical challenges in a context of formal academic training.

2.1. The challenges of learning authentic leadership

Management schools have been offering leadership courses for decades. However, while traditional classroom courses are useful
for teaching theories and developing a comprehensive understanding of the leadership phenomenon, they have long been criticized
for their ineffectiveness in developing the skills needed to exercise leadership in today's more complex social and political context
(Conger & Benjamin, 1999; Rubens et al., 2018). Specifically, the challenges associated with learning AL have been recognized by
many authors (Baron, 2016; Byrne, Crossan, & Seijts, 2017; Kuechler & Stedham, 2017) because AL requires the development of
personal abilities, attitudes and behaviours (Baron, 2016), for which traditional teaching methods such as classroom-based theory
lectures have limited effectiveness (Conger & Benjamin, 1999). To foster this type of learning, Allen (2018) highlights that it is
essential to combine different paradigms of learning including the cognitive, behaviourist, humanist and constructivist approaches.
Cooper et al. (2005) have also identified what they consider to be the most promising pathways for developing authentic lea-
dership. In their view, such learning essentially relies on an iterative loop of trigger events and subsequent reflections, which enables
a genuine integration of new behaviours and attitudes in the long term. These trigger elements can be critical incidents in people's
lives, or lesser events such as reading a book or taking part in an event created from scratch for educational purposes (Cooper et al.,
2005). Since it is difficult to create events that will have the same meaning for everyone within a given course, it is preferable to focus
on a diversified activity program that will enable the participants to go through a variety of interactional situations that will help
them learn based on the elements that speak to them. This approach, proposed by Cooper et al. (2005), matches Kolb's model (1984),
which is at the core of experiential learning.

3. Experiential learning

Experiential learning is a process enabling participants to make meaning based on a lived experience that allows them to draw
lessons with a view to modifying or adapting the strategies they use in everyday life (Yeo & Marquardt, 2015). It is a reflective process
that focuses on one's own beliefs and work, and that takes place in an environment of both peer support and peer confrontation
(Dilworth & Willis, 2003) that allows for the integration of regular feedback. To bear fruit, the events must allow the individual to live
a concrete experience in a context that will be physically, mentally or emotionally challenging. Such events need not be extreme, but
are intended to disrupt students' routines so that they can examine their conduct from another perspective (Byrne et al., 2017). To be
significant, these moments must be accompanied by reflections on and in action (Argyris & Schön, 1974).
Kolb (1984) has portrayed the experiential learning process as a cycle enabling individuals to transform their tacit knowledge into
explicit knowledge through questioning and reflections. The cycle begins with an experience phase, then an observation and ex-
plicitation phase that bears on what happened during the experience. This is followed by a generalization phase, in which meaning is
created (Byrne et al., 2017) based on the lived experience. Finally, in the transfer stage, the knowledge is applied to a future situation
(Yeo & Marquardt, 2015).
In a recent article, Miller and Maellaro (2016) note that experiential learning does not guarantee that the knowledge acquired by
the students during the process will be subsequently applied. Echoing Argyris and Schön (1974), they emphasize the importance of
incorporating in-depth reflective activities into experiential learning approaches to foster double-loop learning. In this respect they
remark that team reflections prompt students to reflect more deeply and to question themselves, thus heightening the chances of
putting their learning into practice. Learning appears to be reinforced when students cooperate and receive feedback from their peers,
have meaningful contact with their instructor, and are active in the process (Whetten, 2007).
As such, following action with feedback (a debriefing) enables students to step back from what happened, to revisit their own and
their peers’ conduct and attitudes, and to transfer these observations into lessons that they can then use in their work context.
Without this step, the experiential learning process is incomplete (Dennehy, Sims, & Collins, 1998). This feedback must systematically
follow each activity, without which the experiential component will yield nothing more than momentary entertainment.
To summarize, the effectiveness of experiential learning rests on the combination of trigger events and reflective activities.
Research has affirmed that experiential learning in MBA programs helps students hone managerial abilities that will be useful in team
leading in various contexts (Awaysheh & Bonfiglio, 2017), and notably in the development of AL (Baron, 2016). Experiential learning
is therefore a promising approach in the education of future leaders of businesses that are striving to attain SDGs. The leadership
course described in the next session was designed to meet these objectives. Drawing on the principles of Kolb (1984) and Cooper et al.
(2005), the course uses collaborative action games as trigger events, combined with other pedagogical activities intended to support
the reflexivity required for this experiential learning process.

4. The case of the Leadership in action course

A business school at a Canadian university offers a leadership course in the context of an engineering management master's degree
and an MBA. Introduced in the engineering management program in the mid 1990s and then in the MBA program in 2015, the course
is designed for students 30–35 years old on average, who for the most part already have experience managing work teams (5–10
years). Approximately 200 students a year take this course.

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To maximize chances of learning, and ultimately the development of the skills associated with authentic leadership, the course
combines a diversity of learning paradigms, in keeping with the paper by Allen (2018). Table 1 gives an overview of these strategies,
which are subsequently described in detail, one by one, in the following section.

Table 1
Integration of multiple learning paradigms.
Learning paradigms (Allen, 2018) Leadership course activities

Cognitive approach (integration of concepts) In-class theory sessions; readings on leadership concepts and models; feedback after the action games.
Behaviourist approach (skill development) In-class simulations; action games.
Humanist approach (self-knowledge) Investigation of how one is perceived by others; feedback from peers; summary of learning.
Constructivist approach (making meaning) Feedback after action games; leadership model.

Inspired by Allen, 2018.

4.1. In-class sessions

The course begins with three to five traditional sessions in the classroom. The purpose of these sessions is to define leadership and
to present different models so as to enable students to build up a framework of what leadership means, including authentic lea-
dership. This framework provides a common vocabulary for students to express their reflections during assignments and the intensive
leadership camp.

4.2. An intensive leadership camp

This leadership camp is often compared to a human relations laboratory. Far from being a competition to determine the top
leader, the camp aims to provide a context for constructively exploring the exercise of group leadership and influence within a
controlled environment that minimizes professional risk.
Concretely, the leadership camp takes the shape of a two or three-day retreat during which students, divided up into learning
groups of eight to ten along with an instructor, are immersed in various challenging collaborative action games that act as trigger
events. For each activity, the instructor provides the goals and rules to one of the students, who acts as group coordinator. This
student then communicates this information to the team, which is given a set amount of time and specific materials to accomplish the
task at hand. The group is self-managed throughout. The trainer acts as an arbiter on a needs basis, ensures the participants’ safety,
and monitors progress in order to be able to lead the feedback session that will be held subsequently. The activity is filmed to enable
playback of significant sequences during the group feedback session.
The use of games to accomplish goals is intended to quickly plunge participants into action, rather than think about the activity's
implicit goals. The game context means they are swiftly confronted with a task to complete, and the ensuing interactions are natural
and spontaneous. For example, when players are tasked with passing along five balls between them in a specific order, as quickly as
possible, they are immediately plunged into action and forget that they are in a learning context, or even that they are being filmed.
Their attention is completely focused on the task to complete, and the interactions required to do so. This creates the necessary
conditions for a meaningful subsequent feedback session that will provide the students with genuine learning.
Once the game is done, the reflective feedback period begins. Working individually at first, each participant notes down their
observations of the activity they just completed in a notebook. This is followed by a group discussion, in which each participant
shares their observations including key moments, the influence exercised during decision-making, how leadership manifested itself,
etc. During this feedback session, the trainer acts as a learning guide, facilitating the discussion by asking questions, sharing his or her
own observations, or providing personalized feedback to participants. The viewing session is interesting in that it enables students to
observe themselves as they interact with others. When the observational feedback stage is complete, the trainer has the group take a
further distance from the activity to identify what they might learn from the experience in the way of authentic leadership. During
this stage, repeated behaviours, attitudes or ways of handling things are identified, along with pitfalls and setbacks that the group
may have run into. Once this objectivation and conceptualization stage is completed, the group moves on to transfer. The idea is to
see how the elements that were just discussed can be applied to workplace realities, or perhaps leveraged to tackle the next challenge.
This methodology, which is used for each feedback stage, corresponds to the experiential learning cycle as defined by Kolb (1984).
During the intensive camp, each learning group repeats the cycle a number of times. The challenges follow a progression so as to
allow students to continually encounter new issues (whether physical, intellectual or, sometimes, moral) and to consolidate their
learning from the previous activities while exploring the dimensions of authentic leadership. Each cycle thus serves as an opportunity
to discuss leadership and share views, but also to give and receive personalized feedback on behaviours and attitudes observed along
the way.
In terms of the specific activities proposed, the trainers have a bank of action games1 enabling them to adjust to the dynamic that

1
These activities are inspired by team building experiential outdoor programs. Some suggestions can be found in: Snow, H. (1997) Indoor/
Outdoor Team-Building Games for Trainers. New-York: McGraw-Hill; Smolowe, A., Murray, M., Smolowe, J. and Butler, S. (1999). Adventure in

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develops in the group throughout the leadership camp. It is important for all the games to be within the reach of all students. The
mere act of removing students from their classes for the duration of the camp and having them work in the same predetermined team
for two or three days already takes them out of their comfort zone, without mentioning the fatigue and inevitable failures that will
incur additional pressure as the session progresses. This makes it unnecessary to have very physically challenging activities. Fur-
thermore, not all experiences are necessarily a source of learning (Kolb & Kolb, 2005; Yeo & Marquardt, 2015). This consideration is
fundamental to the challenges under the collaborative action game approach. The focus is to create activities that will nurture
genuine learning. Table 2 sums up the five main recommendations set forth by Kolb and Kolb (2005) in this regard. For each
recommendation, the mechanisms established for the leadership course under study are described.

Table 2
Application of Kolb and Kolb's (2005) recommendations in the context of the leadership course.
Kolb and Kolb's recommendations (2005) Application in the leadership course

Create a context that will be conducive to learning: negative emotions such as The games are within the reach of all students, and are non-threatening.
fear and anxiety hamper learning. Physical and psychological safety is ensured by the trainer. Withdrawal
mechanisms are known to the students (for example, participants can
withdraw from an activity if they feel too uncomfortable, following which
they will be assigned another role).
Creating a learning community in which each participant feels respected and From the beginning of the leadership camp, each student shares their
welcome. personal learning goals with the other group members. A group agreement is
drawn up regarding the confidentiality of what happens and is said within
the group. The trainer enforces rules for listening and respect during the
group feedback sessions as well as feedback between peers.
Stimulate conversations that will be conducive to reflection and making The trainer has a list of questions in order to vary the angles during
meaning of the experience in order to draw lessons that may be transferred discussions. The trainer also challenges the students to develop their
to other contexts. reflections more deeply. The students are encouraged to identify similar
situations in business settings in order to extrapolate reflections and learning
to the work context.
Give students room so they can take charge of their own learning process. Students are encouraged to lead their own feedback sessions and are asked
to choose the representatives for each activity. They are also permitted to
choose the direction that discussions take. The students are led to develop a
personal leadership model and to identify their own development goals.
Students are enabled to put what they learn into practice. At the end of a feedback session, students are invited to set a goal for
themselves that will allow them to apply something they learned during the
next activity. Students are asked to produce a summary and to give
themselves leadership development goals for their workplaces.

4.3. Feedback from peers

The last few hours of the leadership camp are spent on a final structured feedback exercise during which each student receives
feedback from their peers in a group setting. The students’ feedback must be concise and address specific items observed over the
course of the leadership camp. The trainer also participates by providing their own feedback.

4.4. Individual and group assignments

According to the principles on experiential learning specified by Kolb (1984), Cooper et al. (2005) and Allen (2018), the as-
signments given over the course of the semester are aimed at making links between the theory, the leadership camp, and each
student's personal reflections.

1. Investigation on how one is perceived by others:

The students are required to hold three interviews with individuals in their workplace (ideally a superior, a coworker and a
subordinate). In the course of the interviews they are expected to gather feedback on their strengths, weaknesses, influential cap-
ability at work, the perceptions of others, etc. Once the interviews are completed, the student must write up a report to present their
findings. This assignment gives students the opportunity to take stock of their own leadership in their professional context so that
they can obtain initial insight into their perceived strengths and weaknesses, as well as the impact they have within their team or
organization.

(footnote continued)
Business. Needham Heights, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing; Cain, J. and Jolliff, B. (1998) Teamwork & Teamplay. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt
Publishing Company.

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2. Summary of learning:

At the end of the leadership camp, the students must write a summary of what they learned from the experience. The summary
contains the lessons learned in connection with the concept of authentic leadership, and names the strengths and weaknesses that
were mentioned during their participation in the leadership camp. Next, the student is asked to write a personal leadership devel-
opment plan.

3. Model of leadership in action:

At the end of the semester, students are expected to produce a leadership model. This is an integration assignment in which
students are required to choose six or seven concepts associated with leadership that seem especially meaningful to them. The
students have to illustrate the links between these concepts and show how the model contributes to developing authentic leadership
that they can apply in their workplaces. This group assignment allows the students to pool and compare their learning and their
respective visions of authentic leadership, so as to further develop their reflections.

5. Impacts of the leadership course: method and results

The objective of this study is to ascertain the impacts of this course on students and to determine if and how it helps them develop
authentic leadership. To this end, an exploratory approach was adopted. The 112 students enrolled in the winter 2019 semester were
invited to complete an online survey in the month after the course ended. The “Authentic Leadership Questionnaire,” developed and
validated by Avolio, Gardner and Walumbwa (Avolio, Gardner, & Walumbwa, 2007; Walumbwa et al., 2008), was used. It has 16
items and includes a five-point Likert scale measuring each of the model's four components, namely self-awareness, relational
transparency, balanced processing of information, and internalized moral perspective. For each item, the students were asked to
specify the extent that the leadership course had contributed to their adopting the behaviour or attitude described in the statement
(1 = not at all; 5 = entirely). In all, 43% (n: 48) of the students filled in the survey. In addition, qualitative course evaluation forms
completed by each student at the end of the course were analyzed (112 forms). The following section presents the combined results of
these quantitative and qualitative data collections.
On the five-point Likert scale used in the questionnaire administered to the leadership course students, the rating 3 indicates that
the pedagogical approach let the students develop each of the components of authentic leadership measured to an average degree. As
Table 3 illustrates, the tests of comparisons of unilateral means2 show that three of the four components were evaluated significantly
above the average level by the students, namely relational transparency, balanced treatment of information, and self-awareness.
Thus, for these three components the leadership course helped the students positively transform some of their behaviours or attitudes.
For the component related to internalized moral perspective, the effect of the course was not higher than “average”.

Table 3
Results of the analysis of replies to the AL Questionnaire.
N Mean Standard deviation P-Value (unilateral)

Self-awareness 48 3.6146 0.87664 .000

Balanced processing of information 48 3.4028 1.02673 .005
Relational transparency 48 3.2500 0.96800 .040
Internalized moral perspective 48 3.0938 1.22759 .300

Table 3 presents the extent of the impact of the course on the development of various components associated with AL in des-
cending order. The ANOVA results (p-value between 0.05 and 0.10) demonstrate that the teaching approach proposed in this lea-
dership course, and described in the article, tends to have the strongest effect on development of self-awareness, followed by balanced
treatment of information, relational transparency and lastly internalized moral perspective.
These results support the data collected through the qualitative course evaluation forms completed by each student at the end of
the course First, the students identify self-awareness as the main component they developed in the course. Indeed, they state that they
were able to learn about their strengths and weaknesses, but also their impact on others, as the following excerpt of student answers
show:
These two days of leadership practice gave me an opportunity to examine my leadership style and to get feedback from my peers on my
strengths and weaknesses.

Naturally, the course does not allow all participants to progress at the same pace or to attain the same degree of awareness, but it
does offer a starting point for participants to work on themselves:

2
H0 µcomponent _ i = 3
H1 µcomponent _ i > 3

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After doing the course, I think I'm able to work on myself enough to become someone who can exercise positive leadership and hold a
position that requires leadership qualities.
Also regarding self-awareness, the course was an opportunity for the students to validate others’ perception of them, and, in some
cases, to receive feedback on points for improvement:
My fellow teammates would like me to be a more visible leader. When I say something, they listen. They would like for me to be
more visible rather than withdrawn.
The balanced processing of information component also stands out, with students mentioning spontaneously: “We influence others,
but we also have to accept to be influenced by others.”. The two other dimensions of authentic leadership, i.e., relational transparency
and internalized moral perspective are rarely mentioned in the assessment questionnaire, which confirm that they are less significant
than the other two.

5.1. Student satisfaction with the course

Beyond the development of authentic leadership skills, the comments collected from the students at the end of each leadership
camp regarding their general satisfaction confirm that the course is highly appreciated and very meaningful to students; overall
satisfaction scores fluctuate between 8.5 and 9.5 out of 10. Strong points mentioned by the participants include the power of feedback
sessions, which enable students to become aware of their own behaviour while also helping to make links with theory. The video
feedback is one of the most strongly appreciated elements.
The small-group workshops at the leadership camp allow for a lot of interaction and progress in our understanding leadership concepts.
The camp's intensity and types of activities are also conducive to students' learning. Whereas one might expect for the games to be
poorly perceived by students in a management master's degree, in fact, many acknowledge that the collaborative action games create
opportunities for significant reflection and transfer:
The games confronted us with complex problem situations that immediately struck us as impossible to resolve on our own. These situations
teased out our instinctive behaviour and forced us to realize that we have to master our own instinctive behaviour as well as that of others.
It's important not to give in to this kind of behaviour but rather to use it and combine it with that of others while adopting a structure to
resolve the situation.
The interest of the collaborative action games is also recognized by the program's coordinators, who have noted impacts in the
development of students' soft skills and in the dynamic that is subsequently created across the program. The groups' small size, the
teachers' competence, and personalized guidance are also frequently identified as facilitators of student learning.
In sum, as one student aptly summarizes, the experiential training approach used in the context of this course allows for the
development of skills that are difficult to learn in a more formal context: “It's not something that can be taught but it can be learned.”

6. The collaborative action game as a trigger to develop AL components

In light of our results, it would appear that the training approach described in this article allows for the development of a degree
of self-awareness, i.e., one of the authentic leadership dimensions according to Walumbwa et al. (2008). This observation is hardly
surprising: most of the activities set up for the course are geared toward enabling students to identify their leadership strengths and
weaknesses and better understand the impact of their behaviours and attitudes on their peers. Hence, the results confirm that students
indeed take personal stock of their ability to influence others. To a lesser extent, balanced processing of information also appears to
be an authentic leadership component developed in the course. The games that the participants engage in during the intensive camp
are done in teams, and discussions and efforts to find collective solutions are part and parcel of their experience, thus requiring them
to listen to ideas that differ from their own and take account of them in their decision-making. In this respect, the collaborative game
feedback and video viewings help students see what happens when they do not take others’ ideas into account. Simply observing this
phenomenon and discussing it as a group highlights the impact of balanced processing of information on the different group
members. Therefore, for these two components of AL the collaborative action games used in this course seem to be effective trigger
events in that they immerse students in sufficiently significant situations to inform the reflexivity process that follows, and thus
prompts them to modify some of their behaviours.
It would have been expected that collaborative action games would enable students to achieve a deeper learning related to
relational transparency, since they provide occasions for clarifying matters or for expressing disagreement or discomfort regarding a
situation experienced by a participant. However, this does not seem to be the case from our data: the limited duration of each activity,
the intensive format of the camp, a sense of propriety, and the fear of altering a comfortable relationship with others are all factors
that may result in this dimension being minimized in the context of such an educational activity. The low results regarding the
internalized moral perspective could be explained not by the method, but probably because of the poor attention it is given in the
feedback session. This would have to be adressed in the next version of the course, so students can develop the four authentic
leadership components during this session.
If this leadership course appears to have enabled the development of certain components associated with authentic leadership, it
is likely because its parameters, described above closely, correspond to the learning avenues identified by Cooper et al. (2005):

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collaborative action games are the trigger events that serve as the raw materials for individual reflection, to help students appropriate
the theoretical content more concretely and make links with practices as future executives. As mentioned earlier, the games are
insufficient in themselves. It is essential to incorporate all the components of a learning cycle such as that of Kolb (1984) into the
educational process to ensure a sufficient level of reflection subsequent to action and to permit the transfer of learning to other real-
life situations. In this context, action games are the pivotal point for all tools offered to help students think about and formulate their
own leadership plan. A rigorous application of the principles underpinning this method leads students to recognize the value of action
games as a learning format.

7. Experiential learning at the service of SDGs

Education about SDGs is not limited to integration of content associated with sustainable development. It also involves cultivation
of soft skills and transversal competencies indispensable for collaboration with multiple stakeholders, instrumental to the attainment
of SDGs (Cottafava et al., 2019). To this end, more conventional cognitive approaches should be combined with physical or emotional
experiences (Ortiz & Huber-Heim, 2017; Rubens et al., 2018). The experiential learning approach by collaborative action games
described in this paper is consistent with this perspective. Although other methods (case studies, simulations, and immersion in
business) can be beneficial, the experiential learning approach offers a complementary and original avenue to allow students to better
understand and develop reflective practice, conditions that managers require if they want their organization to contribute sustainably
to the attainment of SDGs. As Rubens et al. (2018) assert: “Most graduate students, and perhaps many working professionals, often do
not allocate time for needed self-reflection and introspection on their strengths and weaknesses as managers and leaders in orga-
nizations; nor do they devote full consideration of where and how they will achieve their personal and career goals. This lack of self-
reflection among students in graduate programs has been a concern” (p.10). As the results presented above affirm, a well built
experiential learning program that includes significant trigger events and sufficient spaces for reflexivity contributes to self-aware-
ness that fosters individuals’ personal and professional development (Awaysheh & Bonfiglio, 2017). By becoming better people, these
leaders can further the attainment of SDGs.

8. Some challenges to game-based approach

The leadership camp described in this paper is unusual in university settings and therefore poses certain challenges. One of the
main challenges encountered in the context of the course is to bring professionals and program managers to accept that games can be
a serious pedagogical tool that can prompt significant learning that will be transferable to the world of work. Even if the students and
program managers at the university in question attest to the value of collaborative action games in the context of the leadership
course that is offered, the fact is that the approach is not always readily accepted. In a recent study, Kuechler and Stedham (2017)
point out that the integration of a non-traditional practice can generate resistance in students. The game-based approach adopted in
the leadership course frequently raises eyebrows among the uninitiated. Although the course is viewed as significant (and positive) by
most of the students who have taken it, there remains a need to manage potentially negative perceptions of games upstream of the
course. To this end, three complementary strategies have been established: 1—Presenting the foundations of the game-based ap-
proach from the beginning of the course, namely Kolb's model (1984), to illustrate its pedagogical rigour. 2- Swiftly putting students
into action and having them experience a first learning cycle (action, observation, generalization and transfer) for themselves. 3-
Being very rigorous in setting up and maintaining favorable conditions for learning, as illustrated previously in Table 2. If program
managers prove reluctant, inviting them to attend a leadership camp and experience an action game themselves is generally sufficient
to demonstrate the validity of this approach. In our experience, even the most skeptical individuals come around to the power of
game-based learning after having taken part in one or two activities, as reflected by the words of the earlier-cited program director.

9. Conclusion

Achieving SDGs will not be an easy task. It involves changing the mindset of current and future managers such that they adopt a
global and ethical perspective on their decisions and actions. To this end, leaders must question their values, learn to take other
people's views into account in their decisions, be transparent and develop a strong moral ethic. In short, they are expected to become
authentic leaders. Universities can contribute to the development of such leaders, notably by adopting PRME. Accordingly, this article
illustrates how values and skills associated with sustainability can be integrated in university curricula (Principle 2) through an
experiential approach (Principle 3) that uses action games as trigger events throughout the learning process.
The results presented above suggest that the experiential approach deployed in the course described in this article effectively
fosters the development of some components associated with AL, particularly self-awareness. Moreover, the use of collaborative
action games is stimulating for students, who recognize that they play a valuable role in their education. The continuation of this
course and its adoption by different programs, in spite of administrative complications and the additional costs it represents for
students, constitute additional data that confirm the merits and value of this approach.
Future research could compare the impact of other experiential teaching approaches, such as coaching, on the development of
components associated with AL. We hope that the experience described in this article will motivate other instructors to implement
game-based learning in a university context in order to train business leaders who will contribute significantly to the attainment of
SDGs.

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CRediT authorship contribution statement

Anne-Marie Corriveau: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

I have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Alain Héroux, and professors Jean Cadieux and Joanne Roch for their sound advice regarding the
writing of this article.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2020.100364.

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