AL Redef Manuscript - accepted.pdf (311.22 kB)
Putting the leader back into authentic leadership: reconceptualising and rethinking leaders
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 02:43 authored by Joseph CrawfordJoseph Crawford, Sarah DawkinsSarah Dawkins, Angela MartinAngela Martin, Gemma LewisGemma LewisIncreasingly 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.
History
Publication title
Australian Journal of ManagementIssue
10 AprilPagination
1-21ISSN
0312-8962Department/School
TSBEPublisher
Sage Publications Ltd.Place of publication
United KingdomRights statement
© The Author(s) 2019Repository Status
- Open