Authenticity

Conceptual Overview

In management science, authenticity is manifested through authentic leadership. Authentic leaders operate from a moral and ethical base, have a positive emotional orientation and high level of self-awareness, and [Page 83]are consistent in words and actions. Authentic leaders have authentic relationships with followers and are focused on follower development. Authentic leadership transcends the individual leader and, through positive modeling and empowerment, results in employees who are enthusiastic about and committed to their role in the organization.

Authenticity is predominantly rooted in the humanistic and positive psychology literature, and is particularly related to ethics, morality, the self, and identity theory. The historical roots include Mead's conceptualization of self, Maslow's notion of the self-actualized person, and positive forms of leadership, such as servant, charismatic, transformational, and spiritual. To understand authenticity and authentic leadership, a review of the main authenticity scientists is required and presented below.

Erickson's 1995 theoretical work on the relevance of authenticity for individuals and society is grounded in identity theory. She maintains that an individual's authenticity is highly influenced by society and culture, but that the degree to which an individual is authentic rests purely with the self. She proposes that authenticity is a commitment to self-values and that an individual's sense of relative authenticity is the degree to which an individual accomplishes the goals or commitments one has for the self. The self (including the authentic self) is espoused as complex, changing, and often inconsistent.

George brought the concept of authentic leadership to the mainstream in 2003. His book focuses primarily on authentic leadership examples at Medtronic, where he was Chairman and CEO. George claims that authentic leadership is the most effective type of leadership and that emulating past leaders is not effective. He proposes five dimensions of authentic leadership: purpose, values, heart, relationships, and self-discipline.

May and colleagues discuss the moral components and decision-making processes inherent in authentic leadership. This theoretical work is based on decisionmaking literature, positive psychology, and Luthans's conceptualization of positive organizational behavior. Chan and colleagues present a model of how the moral aspect of authentic leadership is developed, which is built around three main authentic leader attributes: (1) authentic decision making; (2) authentic behavior; and (3) authentic leadership development.

Avolio and colleagues present a framework to explain the relationship of authentic leadership to follower attributes. The authors define authentic leaders as individuals high in authenticity who know themselves and their beliefs, and who act upon both while maintaining transparency in their relationships. They propose that an authentic leader's hope, trust, and positive emotions manifest in followers through personal and social identification, and hence, followers develop certain work-related attitudes and behaviors, such as commitment and job performance.

Critical Commentary and Future Directions

While authenticity has existed since before the Greeks said “to thine own self be true,” the concept of authentic leadership is in its infancy and lacks definitional agreement. Furthermore, researchers still need to overcome multitudes of hurdles to empirically validate the construct. For example, identity theorists would hypothesize that the self is always changing, inconsistent, and influenced by the environment. How can an instrument account for these fluctuations? Additionally, researchers must decide the factors required for validation. Are the followers, the individual leader, the situation, or various organizational performance metrics the most salient? What role do the environment and/or culture play? In addition, can authentic leadership exist if the company is not performing well?

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