Pseudo-Authentic Leadership: A Case Study in Deception

When talking to people about positive leadership concepts such as Authentic Leadership I often get the same reaction: they enjoy arguing that there are many examples for inauthentic leadership. I’ve always been aware that there are inauthentic leaders (those who don’t even pretend to be authentic), or pseudo-authentic leaders (those who pretend to be authentic but aren’t) out there. From now on I can even claim to know one example for a pseudo-authentic leader.

I’ve experienced a truly pseudo-authentic leader. What’s worse: I have personally been affected deeply by his actions and behaviors. The story in a nutshell: on March 27th I terminated my PhD candidacy at the Thierry Graduate School of Leadership, founded and conducted by Mr. Jean-Pierre Bal. The reason: against my long lasting beliefs to the contrary, it turned out that neither school nor programs or degrees had ever been formally accredited.

The Background: Trust and Leadership

Of course it was foolish of me to believe and not to look for verification before enrolling in the Masters, and later the PhD program. I believed the website contents where Mr. Bal referred to his school’s proper accreditation and recognition. I have to admit I didn’t confirm all details because if I had I would have noticed the complete lack of references, links or names of external accrediting institutions. Yes, I blindly trusted him, a Professor of Leadership Studies. I dismissed uncritically the fact that he didn’t have a PhD degree despite offering PhD programs. Like a good follower, I looked for positive confirmation of my beliefs about the validity of the school and I found plenty. Stating in a newsletter from 2001, Mr. Bal wrote about: “our accredited Masters, PhD and Coryphaeus programs”, and in a letter to students he confirms in 2005 that “accreditation of our degree-programs was obtained, and ratified.” In a different letter from 2006 where he again confirmed the school’s compliance with academic norms, and he added: “I save you the details.” I wish he hadn’t.

The face of Pseudo-Transformational Leaders

In Authentic Leadership research we call what happened here a ‘trigger event’; it means that events which shatter a person’s worldview can be utilized as a learning experience. And that’s what I’m trying to do whilst looking for another school to continue my PhD program. In due course I dug up an article about Pseudo-Transformational Leadership. The authors point out the fact that there are authentic and pseudo-transformational leaders. In real life, it can be very hard to tell them apart at first.

“Pseudo-transformational idealized leaders may see themselves as honest and straightforward and supportive of their organization’s mission but their behavior is inconsistent and unreliable. They have an outer shell of authenticity but an inner self that is false to the organization’s purposes.”

By constantly confirming the school’s accredited status and building up a comprehensive information structure on his website, Mr. Bal made current and future students believe that Thierry Graduate School of Leadership is a recognized educational institution.  In short, the picture of transparency was conveyed. Today I know that the words were never actualized, as the alleged accreditation was never received.

Ambiguity and the consequences

Most interesting is how this deception got revealed: after having been a loyal student of Thierry School for 6 years it was Mr. Bal’s own behavior that triggered my mistrust and consequent outcomes. Much more than a straightforward answer did his behavior make me wary and encourage my own research into this matter. In the end, this led to the uncovering of the sad truth.  But make up your own mind with excerpts from my last email exchange with Mr. Bal in March 2009*:

Andrea: I was wondering whether you can send me the information of your school's up-to-date accreditation.
Mr Bal: On accreditation. What info do you need?

I expected my leader to be more than willing to provide information on such an important matter, because ”transformational leadership incorporates an open architecture dynamic into processes of situation evaluation, vision formulation and patterns of implementation”.  What I didn’t know at the time was that: “The intellectual stimulation of pseudo-transformational leaders manifests a logic containing false assumptions to slay the dragons of uncertainty. Pseudo-transformational leaders overweight authority and underweight reason.” That can look like this:

Andrea: What I need is the information of external bodies that officially recognize the degrees awarded by your school.
Mr. Bal:  I do not want to enter here into a lengthy discussion about recognition of institutions and accreditation of their degrees, which in any case are two different things.

It was this response that planted the seed of mistrust and a bad feeling started to creep up inside me. Why did I not get a straightforward answer? I found the explanation in the article: “Pseudo-transformational leaders may create the impression that they are doing the right things, but will secretly fail to do so when doing the right things conflict with their own narcissistic interests. They are less likely to listen to conflicting views and more likely to be intolerant of the differences of opinion between their followers and themselves.” OK, that’s why!

Andrea trying to clarify a few points in regards to accreditation, asking specific info on external accreditation bodies.

Mr. Bal: Sorry to say: you're way off-base, and you're mixing up things. I'm really upset now with your line of thinking and way of going about this.

At that point I was pretty sure that there was something wrong with the accreditation of this school. What’s worse, though, is the way this was handled. Now I know that: “They [pseudo-transformational leaders] substitute emotional argumentation for rational discourse.” True!

Andrea : If I were to apply for a teaching job in any college/university anywhere in Europe or the USA, would my degree be recognized?

Mr. Bal: It's very disappointing to read that you have entered a motion of doubt and mistrust.

Andrea: …it is every of your student's right to know what the official status of their program is once they want to apply for jobs. Why do you not want to share this information with me?

Mr. Bal: I really cannot believe what you are undertaking here… Please stop this nonsense 'policing work' ...I'm now extremely disappointed, and will not pursue this here email discussion thread any further.

These words without provision of a satisfactory answer concluded my communication with Mr. Bal and  prompted the start of my own research about the accreditation issue of Thierry Graduate School of Leadership. Weeks of research resulted in the following letter from a Dutch agency dealing with issues of accreditation:

“Thierry Graduate School of Leadership holds no valid recognition nor any valid accreditation anywhere in the world.  Degrees of this institution are not recognized anywhere in the world. … For all of the above reasons, Thierry Graduate School of Leadership is listed as an unaccredited institution by the Oregon Office for Degree Authorization and by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board".

Final Words, or No Feelings of Guilt

Fascinating is also Mr. Bal’s response to this whole matter. As a result of this revelation, the school has ceased to offer Masters and PhD degrees, and current students have been put into the position of accepting a diploma instead of a PhD, or being invited to leave the school. However, not one word of an apology from Mr.Bal. Quite the opposite; in a letter to his students he admitted that the:” Belgian higher education systems could not ‘host’ our institution and program”, was not really honest when he stated that “… in some cases the degree is deemed as not-accepted in some countries” and of course,  he mentioned no other accrediting bodies on an international scale. But hey, in the same letter he reminds us that: “The true worth of a program can, as everyone knows, only be measured by the success of its alumni.” Amazing. As if to say: Who needs accreditation anyway?

For an up-to-date example for his reckless behavior see his response to my entry on an online-university forum.

My own failure to recognize a pseudo-transformational leader is what bothers me most. It was my blindness to certain details about a leader who I trusted that caused the situation to go on for so long. I have learned my lesson and this case will probably occupy my own learning about leadership for quite some time. If this is all I learned in the past 6 years, it’s probably still worth it.

For comments, feedback or questions, please contact me at andrea@derlercoaching.com

Reference:

Bass, B.M. & Steidlmeier, P. (1999) Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 10 (2), 181-217

* Personal Communication March 2009 between Andrea Derler and Mr Jean-Pierre Bal