Apparent Sincerity
Apparent sincerity is the degree to which others perceive a person as honest, open and genuine, with no hidden motives. It is one of the four dimensions of the Political Skill Inventory.
Apparent sincerity is one of the four dimensions of political skill measured by the Political Skill Inventory, developed by Gerald Ferris and colleagues and published in the Journal of Management in 2005. It describes how much others see a person as authentic, trustworthy and free of ulterior motives.
The word apparent is deliberate. The dimension concerns how a person is perceived, since influence depends on what others believe about one's intentions. A leader may have good intentions and still be seen as calculating if their behavior is inconsistent, if they share information selectively or if they adjust their message too obviously for each audience.
Apparent sincerity is what makes the other dimensions of political skill effective. Influence attempts that are seen as manipulative tend to trigger resistance, and networks built by someone who is seen as self serving tend to be shallow. In this sense sincerity is the condition under which political skill is accepted as legitimate by others.
The dimension also connects political skill to ethics. The most reliable way to be seen as sincere over time is to actually be sincere: to be transparent about one's goals, to keep commitments and to give credit honestly. Attempts to fake sincerity tend to be detected eventually, especially by people who work closely with a leader.
Because sincerity is a perception, self assessment alone is a weak guide. Leaders often rate their own sincerity highly because they know their intentions, while colleagues see only behavior. Comparing self ratings with 360 feedback is one of the most informative ways to identify a gap.
In the Pine model, apparent sincerity corresponds most closely to Projected Authenticity, which describes whether a leader comes across as genuine and trustworthy while pursuing their aims.
Reference: Ferris, G. R., Treadway, D. C., Kolodinsky, R. W., Hochwarter, W. A., Kacmar, C. J., Douglas, C., & Frink, D. D. (2005). Development and validation of the political skill inventory. Journal of Management, 31(1), 126 to 152.