leader

1.1. Overview of Authors Position

This report is a critical evaluation of authentic leadership theory and how it is related to

behavioural leadership theory. In the first section, the author explains leadership as being able to

motivate followers and the three main leadership theories which are trait, contingency and

behavioural theory. Furthermore, the author elaborates more on authentic leadership, giving the

differences between authentic and inauthentic leadership. Also they have provided a rationale as

to why the author considers authentic leadership to be significant. In the second section, the

author highlights the essential themes from the literature of authentic leadership in which its

development through two main components has been shown, which is being self-aware and

having self-regulation (Gardner et al., 2005).

In addition, the challenges of authentic leadership development have been explained in the 3rd

section which includes vague definitions, the impossibility of developing authenticity and

whether adults can achieve authenticity. The fourth section gives details on the importance of

managing change as a leader. In the last section, the author has summarised the report and

acknowledges the limitations found in authentic leadership such as vague definitions and little

proof as to how people can develop authenticity. In the words of Avolio and Gardner (2005),

authenticity originates from Greek which means to be true to an individual’s self through actions

and personal experiences. Therefore, to be authentic, one needs to be truthful to his/her self about

their emotions, beliefs, past experiences and to act accordingly with what he or she thinks and

believes etc (Harter, Schmidt and Hayes, 2002).

On the other hand, Erickson (1995), noted that being authentic is not a condition. It is either that

people are more or less authentic or inauthentic at all. Conversely, Avolio et al. (2004) stated that

authenticity involves two components, which are a leader being able to act on the right societal

values and influencing followers, and also their followers being able to act according to the

leader. This implies that an authentic leader can influence their followers towards acting in the

right way.

2.0 Authentic Leadership

Authentic leaders motivate their followers by being aware of their actions and also being

transparent (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). To achieve authenticity, one has to possess the

following elements which are transparency, openness, trust, and follower development.

Furthermore, Avolio et al. (2004) added that to be authentic, a leader must be more aware of

his/her actions and the impact that it has on their followers. However, Cooper et al (2015) argued

that the authentic leadership definition is unclear because the concept has been taken from a wide

range of literature and has been adopted from different aspects such as traits, behaviours and

attributes which make it hard to define what authentic leadership is. Thus, they suggest that more

research has to be done to come up with a precise definition to narrow down the meaning of

authentic leadership by conducting qualitative research that will enable them to remove the

ambiguities. Furthermore, a comparison between authentic leaders and inauthentic leaders will

help to give a clear picture of what leaders are expected to do to be authentic, and what makes

them inauthentic through empirical research.

3.0 Authors Arguments

3.1 Can authenticity be developed?

Schriesheim (2013) question as to whether authenticity can be developed and trained. In their

articles (Avolio and Gardner, 2005; Mitchie and Gooty, 2005), the aforementioned authors point

out that authentic leadership development begins with trigger events and is led by self-awareness

and self-regulation. However, the question is, can authenticity be taught and trained? Are there

special programs for this? Can authenticity really be achieved? They urge researchers in the field

to answer these questions first and to explicitly state who the authentic leadership is intended for.

3.2 Behaving in an ethical manner

Another challenge of developing authenticity is behaving ethically and effectively. Leaders

operate in various competitive environments which may cause an individual to go to certain

extremes just to win. Such circumstances may lead to inauthentic behaviours such as seeking

personal gains rather than what benefits a group as a whole. This is against the qualities that

Gardner et al. (2005) has stated, in that authentic leaders must not seek to achieve self-gains.