Putting the leader back into authentic leadership: Reconceptualising and rethinking leaders

Joseph A Crawford, Sarah Dawkins, Angela Martin and Gemma Lewis
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Joseph A Crawford: Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
Angela Martin: Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
Gemma Lewis: Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia

Australian Journal of Management, 2020, vol. 45, issue 1, 114-133

Abstract: Increasingly poor and unethical decision-making on the part of leaders across the globe, such as the recent Australian Cricket Ball Tampering Scandal, pose a significant challenge for society and for organisations. Authentic leadership development is one strategy that has been positioned as an antidote to unethical leadership behaviours. However, despite growing interest in authentic leadership, the construct still embodies several criticisms including conceptual clarity; leader-centricity; bias towards the person , not the leader ; philosophical ambiguity; and demographic challenges. Each of these criticisms will be explored in depth to inform a reconceptualisation of the authentic leader construct, comprising indicators of awareness, sincerity, balanced processing, positive moral perspective and informal influence. Importantly, this revised conceptualisation considers how researchers can conceptually distinguish between authentic leaders, followers and individuals. To conclude, we propose a research agenda for authentic leaders, encouraging the pursuit of further construct clarity, including the development of rigorous authentic leader behaviour measures, expanding the psychometric profile of the authentic leader construct, increasing the focus on authentic followers and enhancing leader development programmes. JEL Classification: M12

Keywords: Authentic leadership; authenticity; construct clarity; definition of leadership; leadership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ausman:v:45:y:2020:i:1:p:114-133

DOI: 10.1177/0312896219836460

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