Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education

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The role of authentic assessment in developing

authentic leadership identity and competencies

Anna Wiewiora & Anetta Kowalkiewicz

To cite this article: Anna Wiewiora & Anetta Kowalkiewicz (2018): The role of authentic
assessment in developing authentic leadership identity and competencies, Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2018.1516730

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1516730

Published online: 08 Oct 2018.

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ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION
https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1516730

The role of authentic assessment in developing authentic

leadership identity and competencies
Anna Wiewioraa and Anetta Kowalkiewiczb
a
School of Management, QUT Busienss School, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane City,
Australia; bDepartment of Education, Brisbane, Australia

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
The need to develop assessment practices that are contextualised, Authentic assessment;
meaningful for students and closely linked to real-world challenges has authentic leadership;
been increasingly recognised in higher education. This is particularly leadership education;
learning from reflection
relevant for leadership development programmes that are assumed to
have a work context embedded in their content and assessment com-
ponents. Assessment practices currently used in higher education focus
mostly on testing academic knowledge, rather than on enhancing lead-
ership competencies. This research used an abductive approach to
investigate how the application of authentic assessment can assist in
developing authentic leadership competencies. Thematic analysis of
written reflections of 24 students revealed that authentic assessment,
accompanied by self-reflection, not only enhanced students’ compre-
hension of theories and improved their leadership skills but, more not-
ably, helped students develop elements of self-concept, which is a key
aspect of authentic leadership. Our findings demonstrate that authentic
assessment combined with a reflective piece can assist students in the
development of their self-understanding and authenticity as leaders.

Introduction
Authentic assessment has gained an increased popularity in higher education for its real-world
focus that allows students to engage with practical problems and challenges. It has become an
attractive alternative to traditional forms of assessment. At least three key factors boosted the
application of authentic assessment in higher education: dissatisfaction with the emphasis on
multiple-choice testing (Palm 2008), growing interest among educators to introduce other forms
of assessment, and desire to equip students with not only an intellectual understanding, but also
application of knowledge to practical situations (Darling-Hammond and Snyder 2000). Traditional
multiple choice tests were criticised for their poor predictors of student performance beyond the
school. In response to that authentic assessment emerged to replicate problems faced in ‘the
real world’ (Swaffield 2011). The authenticity of authentic assessment rests on the nature and
context of the tasks the students are required to perform. Students are assessed based on their
application of knowledge to evaluate and address these real problems (Gulikers, Bastiaens, and
Kirschner 2006; Swaffield 2011). Authentic assessment therefore embraces the interaction
between the context, intellectual understanding of the concept or phenomena and its practical
application.

CONTACT Anna Wiewiora a.wiewiora@qut.edu.au

ß 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 A. WIEWIORA AND A. KOWALKIEWICZ

Research in leadership education asserts a need to shift assessment focus of the education
programmes towards developing leadership competencies and intra-personal skills (Petriglieri
and Petriglieri 2015). Assessment approaches have been predominantly focussed on testing
students’ comprehension of leadership theories and frameworks. These approaches test students
knowing that rather than knowing how, focussing on a pure scientific and theoretical knowledge
(Gulikers, Bastiaens, and Kirschner 2006; Maxwell 2012). These approaches have limited applica-
tion to the real-world situations that students are likely to experience in their professional life,
and the importance of students’ understanding of themselves as leaders is often overlooked.
Assessment practices in higher education do not equip students well for a lifetime of learning
and the challenges they will face in the future (Boud 2000).
Experiential approaches to learning (Kolb 1984; Kolb and Kolb 2005), where students develop
or modify their existing presumptions and knowledge through the process of concrete experi-
ence, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation, have been
considered as more effective and longer-lasting methods of teaching (Tracey and Phillips 2007).
Experiential learning provides exposure to authentic situations in which students can reflect
upon and evaluate real-world scenarios, thus engaging in a more in-depth comprehension and
application of knowledge. Authentic assessment is one that enhances experiential learning by
utilising real-life challenges that students are likely to experience in the workplace (Biggs 1993;
Adie, Hee, and Wharton 2010). Authentic assessment requires students to not only demonstrate
their knowledge and exert analytical skills but, more importantly, it challenges their abilities to
solve complex and often ambiguous problems with direct application to the workplace. This
type of assessment appears to be particularly relevant in leadership development programmes
because of its design with regard to the work context and exposure to both theory and practice
(Klimoski and Amos 2012).
Business schools frequently claim that they are in the ‘business’ of developing future leaders
(Klimoski and Amos 2012). Although many of the existing leadership education programmes
incorporate a range of relevant leadership models and theories, these are often not adequately
designed to help students translate this knowledge into effective workplace behaviours
(Petriglieri and Petriglieri 2015). Research suggests that even MBA programmes might not be
providing sufficient opportunities for students to deal with business challenges and behavioural
demands (Benjamin and O’Reilly 2011), and many business programmes are not doing all they
should to equip students with leadership competencies needed in the workplace (Schyns et al.
2011). In particular, development of the intra-personal competencies related to self-confidence
and self-concept need to be emphasised in leadership development programmes (Klimoski and
Amos 2012; Petriglieri and Petriglieri 2015).
This paper aims to examine the utility of authentic assessment as a means to develop
students’ intra-personal leadership competencies. This research sought to identify key areas
in which authentic assessment may contribute to leadership development. We focussed spe-
cifically on the development of authentic leadership competencies, with emphasis on the
intra-personal leadership aspects of self-development such as understanding one’s self, self-
awareness or leader identity (Wong 2010), rather than on developing certain leadership
behaviours. Recent approaches to leadership education acknowledge that leadership is more
than just a skill or knowledge of how to behave in certain conditions (Day 2000), and it is
more about ‘knowing oneself and being oneself’, where skills and behaviours are secondary.
Using abductive reasoning, areas (themes) initially identified from empirical data were later
linked to key elements from conceptualisations of authentic leadership in existing literature.
We propose that authentic assessment accompanied by students’ self-reflection is an effect-
ive active learning pedagogy for students, which not only helps students understand theo-
ries and concepts, but also enables them to apply these principles to their self-development
as leaders.
 ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION 3

Authentic assessment
Preparing future graduates for work is a big part of the university’s education. The variety in
assessment types is needed to evaluate students’ development of knowledge and skills; however,
many assessment tasks are often isolated from the real-world situations and challenges of the
workplace (Gulikers, Bastiaens, and Kirschner 2006). As a result, students are often not prepared
for the real world after leaving schools and universities and lack competencies needed to per-
form future jobs. Learning theories and academic policies alike recognise the need for assess-
ments to be contextualised and meaningful for students, and emphasise the development of
assessment practices to be linked to real situations. For example, the Australian Qualifications
Framework Council (AQFC) requests that graduates of a bachelor degree be able to demonstrate
‘initiative and judgement in planning, problem solving and decision making in professional
practice’ (AQFC 2013). Scholars argue that assessments incorporating aspects of authentic and
real-world situations make students’ learning more relevant, thus increasing their motivation and
engagement in learning (Cumming and Maxwell 1999; Ashford-Rowe, Herrington, and Brown
2014). These requirements challenge modes of learning delivery and assessment design, and
make a strong call for education to be more authentic and relevant to the workplace.
Authentic assessment can contribute to leadership development by providing opportunities
for students to develop not only their knowledge of theories, but also their leadership skills, self-
concept and identity. Authentic assessment mirrors the real-life challenges and interactions that
students are likely to experience in the workplace (Biggs 1993; Adie, Hee, and Wharton 2010),
often involving a problem-solving approach to address complex, open-ended problems with dir-
ect application to the workplace. This supports the notion of assessment as contributing to the
learning process that can be later translated to the workplace (Gulikers, Bastiaens, and Kirschner
2006). In contrast to assessment models that use tests, quizzes or written pieces to determine
whether or not students have acquired a body of knowledge, the role of authentic assessment is
to engage students in active participation in real-life tasks and give them the opportunity to
develop and apply reflection, resilience and professional judgement in relation to practical prob-
lems. While assessments in higher education typically assess student achievement and know-
ledge goals at a point in time, authentic assessment goes beyond just gaining knowledge – it
contributes to longer-lasting learning and students’ future involvement in similar experiences.
Learning that occurs through such forms of assessment is argued to have a power to transform
students’ sense of self and build their confidence to perform similar activities in practice
(Kearney 2013).
There have been some critics of the authentic assessment approach. Tanner (2001) noted that
authentic assessment is time and cost intensive, often involving complex instructions. Varying
contextual and environmental conditions, in which authentic assessment is set up, has been
argued to make students’ performance less comparable and more difficult to assess (Tanner
2001). Despite those critics, the application of authentic assessment has gained a widespread
acceptance and growing popularity across various subjects and disciplines. Authentic assessment
has been used extensively in physical education, art and music, and more recently it has become
a preferred way of assessing in other, more abstract disciplines including engineering, mathemat-
ics and business (Wiggins 2011).
Authentic assessment appears particularly relevant for leadership education. Using authentic
assessment, students are given the opportunity to play roles and experience challenges similar
to the ones that leaders face in the real world. Students can picture themselves as future leaders,
with decision-making power and responsibilities. Being exposed to real scenarios, students are
more likely to challenge their existing assumptions and revise their self-concept. Authentic
assessment therefore appears to be a promising and powerful tool in establishing students’ iden-
tities as leaders.
4 A. WIEWIORA AND A. KOWALKIEWICZ

Authentic leadership theory

There has been a significant increase in the development of leadership theories in the last
decade, and new approaches have resulted in new organisational interventions (Dinh et al.
2014). Along with well-established theories of leadership, such as contingency theory, shared
leadership or transformational leadership, new concepts have emerged. One of them is authen-
tic leadership theory, which can be linked to the ethical/moral leadership theories group (Dinh
et al. 2014).
Despite almost a decade of research into the authentic leadership concept, a common defin-
ition has not been established. The initial theoretical foundation for authentic leadership was
provided by Avolio et al. (2004, 802), who defined authentic leaders as those ‘who have achieved
high levels of authenticity in that they know who they are, what they believe and value, and
they act upon those values and beliefs while transparently interacting with others’. They drew
from positive organisational behaviour, trust, hope, emotion, identification and identity theories
to describe the processes of influence between authentic leaders and followers. According to
this conceptualisation, leaders need to develop these qualities in order to become authen-
tic leaders.
An alternative view is that of Heidegger (1996) and Wong (2010), who assert that authentic
people assume responsibility for living in a way that is consistent with their true nature and core
values. They strive to become what they were made to be in spite of the anxiety and risks
involved (Wong, 2010). So, authenticity is a learning process people go through, which is some-
times painful and entails risks – particularly when it is contrary to social norms. Being an
‘authentic leader’ means ‘existing authentically’ through the experiences related to the profes-
sional area that involves leadership roles. Analogically, we could, for example, create constructs
of an ‘authentic teacher’, ‘authentic sales representative’ or ‘authentic nurse’. This means
‘authentic’ is not a skill someone can develop, or a type of behaviour someone may attempt to
display; it is the way we live and interpret our experience.
There is growing evidence that an authentic approach to leading is desirable. Authentic lead-
ers have been shown to display higher levels of self-esteem and psychological well-being,
enhanced feelings of friendliness and elevated performance (Kernis 2003; Grandey et al. 2005).
Those leaders are found to operate at higher levels of integrity and are seen as more trustworthy
and reliable (Brown, Trevin ~ o, and Harrison 2005). In contrast, those executives who fail to display
consistency between their words and actions are more likely to lose the trust of their followers
(Simons 2002).
Heidegger (1996) emphasises being oneself existentially is deeper than being oneself behav-
iourally or psychologically. Existential authenticity is experience-oriented, and the existential self
changes from moment to moment. So, a person is not authentic or inauthentic all the time, but
only momentarily in different situations. However, all people have the capacity to change from
being authentic to being inauthentic or vice versa at any moment. This understanding is
reflected in Shamir and Eilam’s study of authentic leadership, seen as acting and justifying lead-
ers’ actions on the basis of the meaning system provided by their life-stories (Shamir and
Eilam 2005).
The core focus of authentic leadership is on verifying one’s way of existing and making it
‘authentic’. So, the emphasis should be more on providing leaders with opportunities for self-
development according to the ‘authentic existence’ notion. This also means the ways of promot-
ing ‘authentic existence’, which are linked to our experiences and how we make meaning from
them. Accordingly, it is sufficient and complete for the core of the authentic leadership construct
to consist of ‘knowing oneself and being oneself’. Adding other traits and skills as desired to this
concept may counteract with the idea of authenticity, which calls for not conforming to external
expectations, but only to our inner-self (Walumbwa et al. 2008).
 ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION 5

Authentic leadership in leadership education

The authentic leadership concept poses new challenges for education and development pro-
grammes. Cooper, Scandura, and Schriesheim (2005) contend that before designing strategies for
authentic leadership development, scholars in this area need to carefully consider how authentic
leadership can be taught. Cooper, Scandura, and Schriesheim (2005) further postulate that
authentic leadership development courses should rather focus on developing self-concept which
is essential for ‘being authentic’, for example, by teaching students how to obtain knowledge
about themselves and increase their awareness of their own identity. So, the focus of authentic
leadership education and development programmes should be more on providing leaders with
opportunities for self-development, rather than on developing certain traits and behaviours.
Petriglieri and Petriglieri (2015) warn that business schools allow a dehumanisation of leader-
ship that manifests in the reduction of leadership to a set of skills and its elevation to a personal
virtue. Courses built on this paradigm focus on teaching aspiring leaders the best, newest, most
appropriate tools and techniques by which to exert influence over others. Even when they advo-
cate for students’ holistic and emotional development, these courses break the work down into
discrete competencies that can be taught and assessed by oneself and others through observa-
tion and questionnaires (Boyatzis, Stubbs, and Taylor 2002). More recent approaches consider
leadership development programmes not as learning processes for leadership competence, but
mainly as ‘relatively intensive regulatory practices designed to target and transform participant
identities through processes that may add to or diminish participants’ sense of self’ (Gagnon and
Collisnon 2014, 663). This elevation of leadership to a virtue is most apparent in models of lead-
ership based on the assumption that its essence is self-expression (George et al. 2007; Kets de
Vries 1994). In this view, leadership is the resolute manifestation of one’s values and the pursuit
of one’s passion. A leader’s authenticity — his or her ability to remain loyal to a true self —
makes them appealing and trustworthy.
The focus of leadership courses within this paradigm is on helping leaders discover their true
self and gather resources that will enable them to stay true to it; assisted soul-searching helps
students discover and reveal the unique leader within (Shamir and Eilam 2005). Self-awareness is
defined as clarity about one’s values and beliefs, fears and aspirations. Such a state of selfless
self-absorption is obtained through hard, often painful, self-examination that transforms perspec-
tive, generates hope and allows the leader to command the trust of others, who are, in turn,
transformed by his or her work (Bennis and Thomas 2002).
In summary, the focus of leadership education and development programmes so far has been
more on developing knowledge and leadership skills (negotiation, communication, influencing
people) than on developing leaders’ self-concept. Considering that leadership is mostly devel-
oped in the work environment, we believe that this process can start much earlier, during uni-
versity education. It can be facilitated by experiential learning approaches (Kolb and Kolb 2005),
where students have the opportunity to actively experience new situations and exercise self-
reflection to better understand themselves and build confidence in their abilities to perform in
the real world. We argue that one way to enhance leadership development programmes in ter-
tiary education is to apply authentic assessment that triggers experiential learning outcomes.

Methodology
The purpose of this study was to examine how authentic assessment can assist students in per-
sonal development and other skills conducive to building leadership competencies. The partici-
pants were students enrolled in a second-year unit in a management degree. Out of 78 students
participating in the unit, 24 agreed to be part of this study (31%).
The unit introduced students to a range of perspectives and frameworks related to organisa-
tional behaviour and organisational theory. In order to develop students’ higher-order learning
6 A. WIEWIORA AND A. KOWALKIEWICZ

skills of application, analysis, evaluation and reflection a new form of authentic assessment was
utilised. This was also encouraged through ‘the university for the real-world’ strategy being one
of the core priorities at the university where the study was conducted. The assessment was
designed to expose students to real-world situations in which they played leadership roles.
According to McDonald (1992), when developing authentic assessment, teachers should first
determine the tasks that students will perform and then develop a curriculum that will enable
students to perform those tasks well. Taking this into account, several changes were imple-
mented to the lecture and tutorial content, including new case study examples, discussion ses-
sions that reinforced the application of theories to real-world situations and problem-solving
activities. These activities involved real-world scenarios to assist students to develop transferrable
skills and abilities that can be directly applied in the workplace, and to assist them to complete
the authentic assessment.
For the authentic assessment, students were asked to prepare a business report based on a
real case scenario outlining challenges faced by a well-known local government institution. This
assessment item was worth 50% of the overall grade, and students were required to:

 demonstrate meaningful application of knowledge and skills to real world challenges;

 describe a theory and apply it to an organisational behaviour in order to provide insightful,
practice-based recommendations;
 develop empirically validated recommendations suggesting course of action;
 reflect upon what they have learnt from applying a theory to a work situation/experience
and how this learning has informed the way students will act in their future workplace
environments.

Students were given a six-page case scenario outlining background of the government institu-
tion, its context, structure, culture and the issues they were facing. Students were also encour-
aged to search beyond the case scenario and find out more about the challenges from existing
articles, reports and the company’s website. The rationale of the authentic assessment was to
expose students to complexities and issues organisations face in practice, and develop their
knowledge and skills in management to prepare them for their future careers. The assessment
focussed on the development of skills necessary for working in business including: analysing and
synthesising key information to unpack and resolve issues, providing practical recommendations,
business writing skills, and the ability to reflect on and evaluate complex business issues.
Based on Hughes (2009)’ framework for authentic assessment, students were assigned the
role of a strategic culture and leadership advisor, and were asked to: (1) diagnose and evaluate
issues outlined in the case study using theories/concepts discussed during classes that semester,
(2) explain why the issues are occurring, and (3) provide insightful recommendations to the
organisation, outlining a suggested course of action. In undertaking the assessment, students
needed to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of theories and frameworks they
had learnt in the unit and their application to real-world challenges.
The assessment also included an additional task in which students were asked to reflect upon
what they had learnt from undertaking the assessment and taking on leadership roles. Reflection
is widely acknowledged in the literature as a means to stimulate deep learning and to enable
the learner to extend their learning experiences beyond the classroom by giving them a mean-
ing and place in the bigger picture (Ashford-Rowe, Herrington, and Brown 2014). Guiding ques-
tions were provided to facilitate students’ reflections: ‘Has understanding of theories and
application to practice uncovered any new insights or knowledge that you may use in your
future professional practice?’, ‘How did the issues portrayed in the case study challenge your per-
ceptions or assumptions about organisational behaviour?’, ‘What have you learnt from the pro-
cess of developing business reports and how can you apply this knowledge in the future
 ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION 7

assessments or future professional practice?’ and ‘How may the learning you have gained from
this assessment impact on your own future professional practice?’
Students’ reflections were de-identified, coded (using NVivo 11) and analysed using an abduc-
tive approach (Dubois and Gadde 2002) aimed at inductively building on existing theories.
Agents of the abductive approach argue that researchers should not be unnecessarily con-
strained by having to adhere to previously developed theory (Dubois and Gadde 2002). The
abductive approach offers a balance between commencing the research with some theoretical
foundation, hence avoiding rediscovering what has already been uncovered, while remaining
open-minded for possible new insights and new discoveries from data.
Following this approach, data analysis was conducted with systematic and continuous inter-
play between existing theory and emerging empirical observations. Researchers began the study
with prior knowledge of the authentic assessment and authentic leadership literature, which
assisted in the initial coding of a sample of reflections. In this stage authors remained open
minded and allowed for new themes and codes to emerge. These initial set of themes was
reviewed to identify key themes for further analysis. Themes that emerged from the data and lit-
erature were then compared and discussed. Corroborating existing literature with data from
reflections led to uncovering new themes and ‘black holes’. This collaborative and iterative pro-
cess helped establish the coding framework, which guided further analysis.

Findings
Three overarching themes emerged as a result of the analysis: (1) self-concept, (2) knowledge
and understanding of management theories, and (3) leadership skills. These themes align with
the three levels of Bloom et al.’s (1956) learning domains: respectively, sensory, cognitive and
affective. The first category— self-concept — was most closely related to the development of
authentic leadership. Subcategories that emerged in this section were largely related to the
development of self, including: emotional development, self-awareness, self-efficacy, self-regula-
tion, balanced-processing and spiritual identity.

Authentic assessment and students’ self-concept

As asserted in the existentialist philosophy, when ‘authentic’ people interpret what they experi-
ence they take the meaning from their own values, feelings, likes and dislikes, and not from the
external environment (e.g. expectations of others) – ‘they strive to become what they were
made to be in spite of the anxiety and risks involved’ (Wong 2010, 3). In their reflections, stu-
dents used many internal references to make sense of their experiences related to leadership.
Their sense-making involved a range of aspects that are part of the authentic leadership con-
struct, such as: (1) emotions, (2) self-awareness, (3) self-efficacy (4) self-regulation, (5) balanced-
processing, and (6) spiritual identity.

Emotions
Emotions are instinctive or intuitive feelings deriving from one’s circumstances, mood or relation-
ships with others, and are an essential affective component of authentic leadership (Klenke
2007). Students’ reflections on their learning experience triggered emotional reactions, including
stress, surprise, disappointment, fear, sense of achievement and pride. These emotions were not
only related to the assessment as such, but also, and more importantly, to their new realisations
of working in business. For example, one student realised that scarce resources and increasingly
growing demands can negatively affect culture and leadership, and have a counterproductive
8 A. WIEWIORA AND A. KOWALKIEWICZ

effect on social good and employee satisfaction. This realisation triggered an emotional reaction
of disbelief and disappointment.

Self-awareness
Self-awareness is one of the basic components of authentic leadership and it is defined as ‘the
extent to which people are aware of various aspects of their identities and the extent to which
their self-perceptions are internally integrated and congruent with the ways others perceive
them’ (Klenke 2007, 77). A leader’s self-awareness reflects his/her values, emotions, identity and
goals (Gardner et al. 2005). Reflections, as a component of authentic assessment, provided stu-
dents with opportunities to verify their perceptions of themselves. Some of these perceptions
concerned their preferred leadership style, and the type of leader the students wanted to
become. This is illustrated in the following comment:
This experience has certainly enlightened me as to the type of manager I hope to be. By valuing the
information, concerns and complaints my employees provide and assisting in improving the workplace and
my employees’ jobs.

Another student, who realised the importance of self-reflection and learning from experi-
ence, stated:
[I]n the future it is fundamental I approach situations with the attitude [that] everyone learns at different
rates and it is vital I provide staff with the extra support and guidance that is needed when needed.

There were also students who realised that they did not have one preferred leadership style,
but rather they accommodated their style to the organisation’s or employees’ needs.
It is apparent that the reflections component helped some students to re-evaluate their past
experiences and situations and learn new insights about themselves. One student commented
on his belief in everyone’s ability to learn and achieve at the same rate as he did:
I failed to realise everyone has their own rate of acquiring new information and the contributing factor that
someone may have the willingness to learn but just need a little more direction and guidance in order to
get to from point a to point b.

One student who worked in the local government institution, which served as a case scenario
for the authentic assessment, drew from her work experiences and stated:
[The assessment] opened up my eyes to a lot of the aspects of the culture at [organisation’s name] that I
had never analysed before … it has also made me question myself and that through some of my actions I
have in a way aided this negativity in culture.

All together these references demonstrate that making students reflect on their learning from
a real-life challenge of authentic assessment helped them increase their self-awareness, which
then helped in shaping their leadership identity.

Self-efficacy
According to Klenke (2007), leader identity consists of leadership self-efficacy, leader reputation
and leader prototypicality. Out of those three elements, leadership self-efficacy was demon-
strated most often in students’ reflections. Leadership self-efficacy refers to the self-perceived
capabilities for the general leadership tasks of directing, setting goals, gaining follower commit-
ment and overcoming obstacles (Klenke 2007, 80). Our analysis revealed that the authentic
assessment enhanced students’ confidence in succeeding in leadership roles in business. Some
of them reported increased understanding of how to be a good leader and advisor, how to
make effective decisions and resolve conflicts. Others indicated that the authentic assessment
helped to boost their confidence in business writing, prompted more reflection on themselves
 ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION 9

and improved understanding of past situations they had encountered in the business
environment.

Self-regulation
Self-regulation reflects the ability to recognise and display one’s internal moral standards and
values, rather than being influenced by group, organisational and societal pressures (Gardner
et al. 2005). Self-regulation can be evidenced by relational transparency, which is a display of
openness, self-disclosure and trust in close relationships (Gardner et al. 2005), and is another key
component of authentic leadership. Reflections allowed students to share their thoughts and
feelings, and verbalise their views and perspectives honestly. When reflecting on their experience
in authentic assessment, students referred to their internal views, values and ethical standards,
showing resistance to external pressure. This is an example demonstrating self-regulation:
After voicing my concerns on the limited hours of work, I received negative comments such as ‘Well, you
took time off work last week for your assignment, why would you want to work now?’ I find comments
such as these made by my employer incredibly inconsiderate and unprofessional, as my employers are
aware that all casuals are university students however, I feel as though I am being continually criticized.

Balanced-processing
Another aspect of authentic leadership displayed in some reflections was balanced-processing.
Balanced-processing refers to the evaluation of information before making a decision, including
encouraging others to question or challenge one’s values (Walumbwa et al. 2008). It refers to
considering multiple, often opposing, viewpoints and perspectives to inform beliefs, decisions
and behaviours. For example, students realised the importance of considering multiple perspec-
tives and sources before jumping to conclusions. They also recognised more the importance of
evaluating a situation from many perspectives and the need to dwell deeper to uncover underly-
ing issues. As evident in the following examples, authentic assessment with reflection task con-
tributed to students’ view of themselves as reflective practitioners.
I found that the issues [portrayed] in the case was challengeable to my perception about organisational
behaviour. The real situation was always more complex than the information I read from the website. And
the process of changing the situation was not [as] easy as what I thought.

I now realise that just because a theory states an appropriate culture type or leadership style does not
mean that it is correct in all settings. Sometimes additional problem solving or knowledge is required to
determine the right result for a particular scenario.

Spiritual identity
Finally, some traits of ‘spiritual identity’ were also identified in students’ reflections. This dimen-
sion of authentic leadership includes three sub-identities: self-disclosure, self-transcendence and
self-sacrifice (Klenke 2007). The notion that students revealed their inner-selves (a key aspect of
self-disclosure affecting one’s self-acceptance) during the reflection exercise is evident in the fol-
lowing excerpts:
There have been times where I have procrastinated over this assignment simply because I didn’t want to
know, or feared that I knew too much and how to remove that emotional aspect from it all.

I did and still struggle with comprehending, staff are patient care providers, what is their perception of the
balance between the provisions of patient care?
10 A. WIEWIORA AND A. KOWALKIEWICZ

Many students disclosed their shortcomings or misunderstandings. Some admitted that prior
to undertaking the assessment and reflecting on their learning they were ‘oblivious to the issues
faced by companies’ and unaware of the interplay of various cultures and cultural values in the
workplace. These honest remarks demonstrated students’ vulnerability and that they became
aware of their limitations during the reflection exercise.
In summary, our analysis suggests that authentic assessment can be an effective tool for
building leadership skills and knowledge, and that the reflection task can help students connect
with their inner self and develop their authentic leadership self-concept.

Knowledge and understanding of organisational behaviour theories

The second category captured evidence of students’ development of knowledge in organisa-
tional behaviour theories, and their learned ability to apply and relate this knowledge to a new
situation. This category is closely related to Bloom et al.’s (1956) cognitive domain, associated
with knowledge, comprehension and processing information in a meaningful way. In this cat-
egory we further identified four subcategories: (1) increased knowledge of organisational behav-
iour, (2) improved understanding of the role of the leader and leadership, (3) learned ability to
verify presumptions, and (4) increased ability to apply organisational behaviour knowledge to
other disciplines.
The majority of students reported that the authentic assessment helped them to gain import-
ant knowledge of organisational behaviour. For example, one student acknowledged that:
Before undertaking this task, I had little knowledge about applying organisational theories to diagnose and
evaluate business issues. However, now I understand that organisational theories can explain underlying
business problems.

More specifically, students revealed an increased understanding of the role of leadership for
organisational effectiveness. This was evident in 12 reflections, and is illustrated in the follow-
ing example:
The issues of [organisation’s name] leadership styles showed me the seriousness of implementing an
erroneous leadership style. Not only does an inappropriate leadership style create internal problems, it also
greatly affects the society, for example, large-scale incidents will occur.

Students also reported their intent to apply this new knowledge in their future practice:
In the future I fully intend to use certain principles such as the situational leadership theory and the
follower readiness approach in my work life career as these theories help you to not only think as an
individual but they allow you to think how it affects the other individuals in the situation.

Data from reflections provided strong evidence that authentic assessment assisted students to
verify their existing presumptions about concepts of leadership and organisational culture. The
majority of reflections reported that, prior to undertaking the task, students held a certain set of
beliefs, but in the process of preparing the assessment they changed their perceptions. This con-
cerned their views of the role of the chief executive officer (CEO) in a large organisation, and the
way in which organisational culture and leaders can influence employees’ values and assump-
tions. The following excerpt demonstrates how authentic assessment challenged, and ultimately
changed, one student’s prior knowledge and assumptions:
I did not [realise] the extent leadership issues impact upon an organization and I was surprised that
company values can be lost without a strong and suitable leadership style.

In addition, students’ reflections provided some evidence of the identified potential applica-
tions of leadership knowledge to other disciplines, such as organisational psychology, legal stud-
ies and accounting. From this, we can conclude that authentic assessment assisted students in
gaining a better understanding of the organisational behaviour literature. Exposure to the real-
 ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION 11

world task helped them realise, and often change, their presumptions about what it takes to
work in business.

Leadership skills
The third category that emerged from data provided evidence of the development of students’
leadership skills and abilities essential for effective leadership practices. This category is closely
related to Bloom et al.’s (1956) affective domain, where learners’ attitudes and feelings are
affected as a result of the learning process. The analysis of students’ reflections distilled five sub-
themes in this category: (1) ability to apply theory to practice, (2) business writing skills, (3) confi-
dence in operating in the business environment, (4) insights on how to be a more effective
leader, and (5) problem-solving skills.

Ability to apply theory to practice

One of the most appealing features of authentic assessment is that it exposes students to prac-
tical situations they are likely to experience in the real world. Our data confirmed that authentic
assessment and subsequent reflection helped students to learn how to apply organisational
behaviour theories and frameworks to practice. Students reported on how the use of organisa-
tional behaviour theories helped them to better understand the organisation they were research-
ing, but also make better sense of their current workplaces, as illustrated in the
following remarks:
In my workplaces, I have had both excellent and poor managers. The identifying features of the highly
proficient managers included: supporting employees, encouraging training and career development and
healthy encouragement of autonomy. In the terms of the path goal theory, they balanced their
leadership style depending on what was required. Whereas, I found that the poor managers either
focused too much on a directive approach and micro-managed everything giving me no autonomy or
encouragement.

[I]f I decide to pursue a career in human resources, I would have a solid understanding of culture and
leadership and be able to make informed decisions to assist in guiding an organization through
culture change.

Business writing skills

Reflections demonstrated that undertaking authentic assessment of writing a business report
helped students to improve their business writing skills, which is an essential skill for managers.
This was evident in 14 reflections, where students reported that this assignment helped them to
improve their research skills and ultimately advance their business writing skills. One student
revealed that ‘through this evaluation I learnt how [much] effort it takes to find research that
was appropriate for the report’s context. I learnt to narrow my searches in order to find exactly
what I was looking for’. Another student revealed:
This assignment has given me first-hand, practical experience in writing business reports (which I have
never done before). Learning to write assignments other than essays is difficult because as a psychology
student, essay writing is drilled into us. It was a challenge for me to think about myself in a corporate
position, writing a report to colleagues.

I have noticed great improvement in the way I research and know this skill will serve me well throughout
the rest of my studies and into my professional life. I now appreciate the value in taking the time to
properly inform my writing.
12 A. WIEWIORA AND A. KOWALKIEWICZ

The authentic assessment assisted students in developing their ability of finding relevant and
quality sources, as well as structuring reports for the business audience. Students found this skill
to be useful in their future assessments and work.

Confidence in operating in the business environment

Further, students’ reflections demonstrated that undertaking authentic assessment helped them
to make better sense of how organisations operate, which in turn increased their level of confi-
dence to manage business operations. The authentic assessment and reflective task helped stu-
dents to deepen their understanding of various organisational aspects, by clarifying the role of
the CEO and human resources department, realising the importance of culture, and understand-
ing organisational behaviour in general. This understanding is reflected in the following excerpts:
If I work as an advisor or take on a leader position, I would base [it] on people’s readiness and the
situations to choose the most appropriate leadership style to implement. I believe this would prevent many
negative consequences and foster the effectiveness of teamwork.

This assignment helped provide a deeper understanding on the manager’s leadership style and how I can
best handle a similar leadership style in the future.

These reflections demonstrate that authentic assessment has helped the students to build
their confidence in handling similar business issues in their future professional practice. Two
other sub-categories – insights into how to be a more effective leader and improved problem-
solving skills – were also evident in the reflections. Overall, data from reflections coded in this
category demonstrate that students developed a range of general leadership skills as a result of
undertaking the authentic assessment task.
In summary, our analysis demonstrate that the application of authentic assessment accompa-
nied by a reflection can assist in: (1) developing deeper understanding of leadership and organ-
isational theories, (2) building practical leadership skills, and most importantly, and (3)
developing students’ self-concept and leadership identity so they can become confident practi-
tioners in the future.

Discussion and conclusions

This study investigated the role of authentic assessment, which, followed by a reflective piece,
was found to equip students with leadership knowledge and skills, and more importantly,
develop their understanding as leaders. By reflecting upon leadership roles the students took as
part of the assessment, they started building authenticity of their thinking, attitudes and behav-
iours. They started building the authentic concept of themselves as leaders. Findings from this
study contribute to two bodies of literature: assessment in higher education and leader-
ship education.
Firstly, this research contributes to the assessment in higher education, research and practice
by extending our understanding of the application and use of authentic assessment when com-
bined with a reflective piece. Research recognises the importance of critical reflection (Ashford-
Rowe, Herrington, and Brown 2014) and experiential learning (McLoughlin and Luca 2002) when
designing authentic assessments. Building on this research, our study demonstrates that authen-
tic assessment in conjunction with a reflective piece deepens students’ learning and gives them
the opportunity to discover their true, authentic self, making it a powerful learning tool to
enhance personal development in leadership education programmes.
Findings from our study demonstrate that this type of assessment supports an experiential
learning cycle. Broader research shows that experienced-based learning provides effective and
long-lasting learning outcomes (Kolb and Kolb 2005; Tracey and Phillips 2007). Authentic assess-
ment supports experiential learning by utilising real-life challenges that students are likely to
 ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION 13

experience in the workplace (Biggs 1993; McLoughlin and Luca 2002; Adie, Hee, and Wharton
2010). According to experiential learning theory (Kolb 1984; Kolb and Kolb 2005), effective learn-
ing is achieved when the learner progresses through four steps of: (1) concrete experience, (2)
reflective observation, (3) abstract conceptualisation, and (4) active experimentation. Assessment
activities should therefore be designed so that all four phases of the cycle are present. Building
on that, the study demonstrated that authentic assessment allows the learner to get involved in
two phases of the cycle — experiencing and conceptualising — through exposure to a concrete
business problem and applying theories to diagnose and resolve the problem.
Adding the reflective piece to the assessment allows students to touch all four steps of the
cycle. Reflection gives students the opportunity to experience abstract conceptualisation and
active experimentation. Students reached the conceptualisation stage when given the opportun-
ity to formulate new ideas or change their presumptions as a result of their reflections, for
example: ‘I did not realise the extent leadership issues impact upon an organisation and I was
surprised that company values can be lost without a strong and suitable leadership style’. The
fourth step of acting was apparent when students reported on increased confidence in their abil-
ities to actively engage in new, similar experiences: ‘I am able to critically critique myself as a
manager and learn from this experience and how I should approach this in the future’.
Summarising the above, our findings enrich existing research on authentic assessment by provid-
ing an avenue for an authentic assessment design which, when accompanied by a reflective
piece, enhances experiential learning outcomes and allows students to better connect with their
inner-self and build confidence in their abilities to perform in the real world.
Secondly, the study advances leadership education theories by offering an assessment tool
that helps students to develop their leadership self-concept. Leadership education and develop-
ment research recognises that not enough attention has been paid to teach leadership skills
(Mintzberg and Gosling 2002), and one of the greatest challenges of leadership education is to
transform students into leaders (Klimoski and Amos 2012). Existing approaches to leadership
education focus predominantly on exposing students to various theories and frameworks, and
assessments are structured to verify that knowledge (Petriglieri and Petriglieri 2015). This, at
most, helps students to gain awareness of the existing leadership models and, to some extent,
develop their leadership skills, but it is the transformation of being — the identity aspect of
leadership — that is lacking in leadership education programmes (Hill 2004). Research suggests
that: ‘central to the process of becoming a leader is achieving both greater self-insight and self-
knowledge, especially as these allow students to calibrate their desire and motivation to be lead-
ers … it means that to truly become leaders, students must emotionally identify with being a
leader, come to recognise this potential in themselves, and in many ways ‘choose’ to assume
leadership responsibilities (Klimoski and Amos 2012, 688). Lester et al. (2011) similarly argue for
the need to focus explicitly on developing self-efficacy in acting like a leader, thinking like a
leader and in regulating the self-motivation required as a leader.
Addressing a call from Petriglieri and Petriglieri (2015) to introduce other ways of assessment
to enable change in the way leading is internalised and enacted, this study demonstrated that
the authentic assessment with a reflection task can effectively assist students in the development
of their self-concept — a key component of the authentic leadership style. Self-awareness can
help future leaders understand why they behave in a certain way and how they could modify
their behaviours to achieve goals and build their leadership identity, which as a result will
enhance their leadership effectiveness (Day and Harrison 2007). Our study further demonstrates
that self-reflection helped students recognise and verify their internal moral standards and con-
nect with their emotions, contributing to self-development and building their leadership identity.
The authentic task given to the students provided moderate experience in terms of its degree
of authenticity, as compared to a placement or simulation-type task. Although the task was
related to a real-world problem and set in the context of an actual government institution,
except for one student who happened to work in that institution (but not in a leadership role),
14 A. WIEWIORA AND A. KOWALKIEWICZ

other students were not exposed directly to the real environment of that institution. Instead
they learned about the issues from the case scenario media articles, reports and the company’s
website. We acknowledge that this might have limited their understanding of the problem and
the context. One way to further increase the value and relevance of authentic assessment could
be to develop closer links between industry and university, and involve industry partners in pro-
viding empirical evidence to students exposing them to data and context.
Our findings demonstrate that authentic assessment, when accompanied by a reflective piece,
could be an effective educational tool in leadership development programmes in tertiary educa-
tion by supporting experiential learning and allowing students to express and verify their learn-
ing outcomes. It is worth emphasising that the definition of authentic leadership as ‘knowing
oneself and being oneself’ is sufficient and complete for the core of the authentic leadership
construct and that adding other traits and skills to this concept may counteract the idea of
authenticity itself. From the perspective of designing assessment tasks, it is therefore advisable
to focus on setting tasks, such as self-reflection, that stimulate development of students’ self-con-
cept and allow them to reconnect with their inner-self.

ORCID
Anna Wiewiora http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2550-9332
Anetta Kowalkiewicz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6799-7082

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