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Leadership that Listens

Last registered on June 30, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Leadership that Listens
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015606
Initial registration date
March 31, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
April 03, 2025, 1:07 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
June 30, 2025, 5:20 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Uganda
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Silvia Castro
Affiliation
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Hoa Ho
PI Affiliation
University of Munich (LMU)
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PI Name
Maren Mickeler
PI Affiliation
ESSEC
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PI Name
Simone Haeckl
PI Affiliation
University of Stavanger
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PI Name
Dominik Grothe
PI Affiliation
University of Munich (LMU)
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-03-01
End date
2026-04-30
Keywords
Firms & Productivity, Labor
Additional Keywords
supportive leadership, RCT, field experiment, workplace climate
JEL code(s)
M12, D83, M53, C93, J24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Front-line employees hold valuable insights that can enhance strategic decision-making and operational efficiency, yet their knowledge often fails to reach upper management. This project investigates whether supervisors and middle managers act as barriers to bottom-up knowledge sharing due to hierarchical structures, micromanagement, or lack of psychological safety. We conduct a randomized controlled trial in partnership with a large African bank where supervisors in randomly selected branches receive supportive leadership training. Using employee survey data collected at baseline and endline, we assess the impact of this intervention on knowledge sharing and broader organizational outcomes.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Castro, Silvia et al. 2025. "Leadership that Listens." AEA RCT Registry. June 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15606-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Supportive leadership training for the supervisors in the organization
Intervention (Hidden)
The two-day leadership training equips supervisors with essential supportive supervision skills to foster a positive and productive work environment. It begins with an overview of the principles and benefits of supportive supervision, followed by practical strategies for goal setting, performance monitoring, and continuous improvement. Emphasis is placed on effective communication, including managing difficult conversations and overcoming common barriers. The program concludes with best practices for delivering and receiving feedback, with a focus on constructive dialogue and professional growth.
Intervention Start Date
2025-04-01
Intervention End Date
2025-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Employees bottom-up knowledge sharing
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
With our primary outcome variable, we aim to explore how supportive leadership training can influence bottom-up knowledge sharing of critical information. To capture bottom-up sharing, we will run a survey where we ask participants to share critical knowledge on procedures, processes or more that points to current suboptimal situations in the bank.

We will capture both the quantity and quality of bottom-up knowledge sharing.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Mechanisms:
Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship (employee reported)
Leader basic need support (employee reported)
Psychological safety (employee reported)
Perceived Supervisor Knowledge Withholding (employee reported)

Outcomes
Employee well-being,
Employee Retention
Productivity of low performing/junior employees
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Apart from our main outcome variable, we will collect several other measures to be able to explore whether and how supportive leadership skills of supervisors influence employees and the organization as a whole.

We will measure leader basic need support using Tafvelin and Stenling (2019).

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Half of the bank’s branches are enrolled in a supportive leadership program. In these branches, supervisors are invited to attend a two-day leadership training focused on developing effective communication and supportive leadership skills.

Following the intervention, we will compare treatment and control branches to assess whether supervisors act as a barrier to upward knowledge flow. Using revealed behavioral outcomes, we will evaluate the extent to which improved communication and leadership skills help overcome these barriers.
Experimental Design Details
Our study will include one treatment arm and one control arm. We capture bottom-up knowledge sharing by asking participants to share critical knowledge on procedures, processes, or more that point to current suboptimal situations in the organization in the midline survey. We inform employees that their supervisors will know what they respond to examine how barriers to bottom-up knowledge sharing affect employees’ willingness to share knowledge with their supervisor and head office.

After the revealed stage, in a second step, we remove the barriers to knowledge sharing mechanically by allowing participants to contribute anonymously, without revealing their identity to the supervisor. This enables us to test whether removing these barriers reduces the reluctance to actively communicate ideas, insights, or concerns upward to higher levels of the organizational hierarchy.
Randomization Method
Pairwise clustered randomization at the branch level conducted using a computer (Stata).
Randomization Unit
Bank branches
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
80
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
40 branches in control and 40 branches in treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Research Ethics Committee ESSEC
IRB Approval Date
2024-12-12
IRB Approval Number
2024-12MM
IRB Name
HHUiS-IRB
IRB Approval Date
2025-01-16
IRB Approval Number
2025-001
IRB Name
Ethics Commission, Department of Economics, University of Munich
IRB Approval Date
2025-01-24
IRB Approval Number
2025-01
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials