A Critical Review of Authentic Leadership and Workplace Dynamics

This report presents a critical review of authentic leadership, a leadership style increasingly valued in today's world due to rising cynicism towards leaders. The review synthesizes findings from various studies, including those by Wang and Hsieh (2013), Černe et al. (2014), and Leroy, Palanski, and Simons (2012), to explore the impact of authentic leadership on employee trust, job satisfaction, and overall work performance. The studies highlight the importance of leader consistency, integrity, and self-awareness in fostering positive employee outcomes, such as increased engagement and commitment. The review also acknowledges limitations in the research, such as reliance on self-reported data and small sample sizes, while emphasizing the practical implications for managers and organizations in cultivating authentic leadership practices. The report explores the role of authentic leadership in driving employee involvement, organizational commitment and ethical behavior, and the need for leaders to understand the environment in which people act authentically.

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 1
Critical Review of Authentic Leadership
Name
Institution

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 2
PART A: CRITICAL SUMMARY AND REVIEW
Critical Review of Authentic Leadership
Good performance, creativity, and innovativeness of employees is pretty much dependent
on the leadership style deployed by the organization and is demonstrated by multiple empirical
research and conceptualizations (Yukl 2013, p.78). Reaching success in the marketplace
demands the coordinated efforts of the employees and the leaders who direct, influences and
harmonizes work activities in an attempt to accomplish common goals (Müceldili, Turan and
Erdil 2013, p.674). In most cases, the leadership style that drives innovation has been the subject
of numerous studies. However, the mechanism for the processes connections which involves
both creativity and the implementation of inventive thoughts still lacks enough details (Černe,
Jaklič and Škerlavaj 2013, p.3). Several study findings have however proven an effective
connection between specific leadership styles and workplace outcomes (Cassar and Buttigieg
2013, p.172). This review will be centered on the authentic leadership and the implication it has
on the employees and workplace outcomes.
In the contemporary world, there is a solid chorus of pleas for authentic leadership due to
the escalating levels of cynicism that the people have expressed concerning the leaders across the
world who seem to fatten their own pockets at the expense of other people and the companies
they serve (Ibarra 2015, p.5). Wherry (2012, p.4) believes that leadership is authentic if it is,
trustworthy, sincere, ethical, and genuine in behaviors and collaborations. Today, we know
everything about what our leaders do in the public eye and beyond. The widespread availability
of information on public offices and the organizations, the transparency demanded of the leaders
and the increased awareness of the people that they can access information on the online media is
fostering a call for authentic leadership (Erkutlu and Chafra 2013, p.830-832). Rego et al. (2012,
p. 429) define authentic leadership as the leadership behavior that seeks to foster positive
psychological and ethical environment to promote self-awareness, moral values, transparency,
and processing of balanced information on the part of both leaders and their followers.
Developing a clear understanding of these fundamental values is a vital component of
authentic leadership. With time, elevating the values as new circumstances and challenges are
perceived as the practices and development of authentic leadership. Laschinger, Wong, and Grau
(2013, p.543) stated that as the leaders develop authentic leadership style, they need to question
themselves as to what institutes their present core values as well as what influences the base for

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 3
their key decisions and actions. The values and beliefs must include a more general principle
rather than one's personal desires and must incorporate principles of how the leaders influence
their followers by raising themselves and others to greater standards of ethical behavior
(Treviäno & Nelson 2014, p.16 and Day et al. 2014, p.69). To add onto that, it is crucial to note
that authentic leadership is not an object or entity that exists or fails to exist instead, this
leadership style occurs over time.
Algera and Lips-Wiersma (2012, p. 118) in the article ‘Radical Authentic Leadership,’
they sought to develop circumstances in which managers, leaders, and employees within an
organization can be authentic. They argued that the way in which authentic leadership is
currently being theorized, it may be difficult to accomplish its set objectives. The article
addresses the inconsistencies and shortfalls in the existing theories to deliver an extended focus
of the study. Four authenticity themes were identified including authenticity demands developing
own meaning, authenticity is not intrinsically ethical, authenticity fails to imply value
congruence, and authenticity is avoidable (Algera and Lips-Wiersma (2012, p. 122).Although
authentic leadership previously acknowledged as authenticity to imply a complex concept, its
effects have been glossed over and are yet to be followed from time to time. Proceeding along
these lines would lead to authentic leadership as a management technique thereby undermining
authentic leadership’s shared vision of increasing positive work and ethical behavior. Algera and
Lips-Wiersma (2012, p. 129) studied the assertions of authentic leadership through an existential
model of authenticity. The four themes identified emphasized on the significance of a person’s
freedom and responsibility in being authentic as well as the connection and the responsibility of
the collectiveness within a firm (Algera and Lips-Wiersma (2012, p. 129). The implications of
the themes were carefully pursued. The expansion of theories of authentic leadership help put
forward a more radical form of the leadership style where the emphasis is placed on the leaders
to understanding the environment in which people within an organization act authentically. The
authors offered that for authentic leadership to be theorized it must ask the question as to how
people and the collective can stay current to the structural pressures of time, power, and purpose
that will modify authenticity within organizations (Algera and Lips-Wiersma (2012, p. 128). It
was concluded that this would result in a pretty much complicated and time-consuming study yet
claimed that the objective of authentic leadership is crucial to warrant the commitment that the

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 4
study demands and that it has the potential to break through the existing impasses in the creation
of leadership theory.
Wang and Hsieh (2013, p. 613) sought to explore the implications of authentic leadership
on team members trust and involvement. Employee trust is a vital tool to foster cooperative
relationships within an organization. Trust in leaders has been found to be one of the critical
elements of employee engagement. Employee engagement is where an employee becomes
involved, receives satisfaction, and enthusiasm for work. Data was collected from about 390
employees in 1,000 manufacturing companies in Taiwan (Wang and Hsieh 2013, p.617). In the
study, hierarchical multiple regression methods were deployed to test the hypothesis (Wang and
Hsieh 2013, p.618). The research findings ascertained that through employee trust, authentic
leaders exercise close contacts with their followers, improve job and employee engagement
contributing to a sustainable organization. The results established that the managers' consistency
between the words, behaviors, and moral awareness are strongly related to members’
engagement (Wang and Hsieh 2013, p.617). At the same time, consistency between the
managers’ words and behaviors are strongly related to members trust. In addition, it was revealed
a positive connection between employee trust and engagement. There was a restricted mediating
impact between employee trust, authentic leadership, and employee engagement. This research
had its own drawbacks due to the fact that it used self-reported data from similar sources which
could provide artificially inflated results which raised concerns of the common method variance
(Wang and Hsieh 2013, p.622). To reduce this risk, several procedural remedies were applied
which comprised protecting the respondents anonymity, counterbalancing question order, and
psychological separation of measurement (Wang and Hsieh 2013, p.622). The core weakness of
this study is that the researchers could not utilize the multilevel modeling on the variables
thereby failing to shed light on and discover a more accurate implication of authentic leadership
on employees’ behavior and attitude. All in all, the major strength of the article findings offered
practical effects for the managers and the organization. Organizations must recognize the need
for authentic leadership. The research demanded that leaders must hold specific conducts such as
consistency and integrity in behaviors, distribution, and delegation of roles, effective
communication and showing apprehension (Wang and Hsieh 2013, p.621).
In yet another study, Černe et al. (2014, p.1) examined the impact of authentic leadership
on how it enhances employee job satisfaction. Studies were conducted to analyze how the two

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 5
concepts may relate and appear at the various levels of agreement between the supervisor and
employee perceptions stimulate the outcome. This will help to deliver a more thorough
evaluation of the connection between authentic leadership and job satisfaction. The researchers
collected data from 24 supervisors and 170 direct reports, i.e., team members (Černe et al. 2014,
p.19). They empirically tested the interactions between the leaders and followers perceptions on
job satisfaction. Hierarchical linear modeling was applied in the study to test various aspects of
the multi-level model including cross-level impact of leader self-awareness and team members
‘awareness of the leadership style on job satisfaction, the implications of interaction between
leader self-awareness and team members' awareness in forecasting job satisfaction, and the
existence of multi-level structure (Černe et.al 2014, p.20). Leaders' self-awareness and team
members' awareness were analyzed using the authentic leadership inventory model (Černe et al.
2014, p.17). Job satisfaction was measured using four parameters, and the data was self-reported
by the employees (Černe et al. 2014, p.18). Social identity for the respondents was effectively
controlled so as not to impact the connection between authentic leadership and the outcome
(Černe et al. 2014, p.18). The results established a link between employee perceptions of
leadership on being content at the workplace. Also, the interactions between the leaders' self-
awareness and members' awareness of an authentic leader in forecasting job satisfaction were
established thereby incorporating the supervisor and team members' awareness of authentic
leadership (Černe et al. 2014, p.29). The methodological limitation of the research is that it used
a small sample size of 24 supervisors for testing and interpreting cross-level relationships (Černe
et al. 2014, p.31). Where a larger sample size was used, it would be efficient to depict patterns
between supervisors and the employees over time. The key strength was evidenced by deploying
meta-analytical approach to positively foster employee performance. The researchers stressed the
fact that team leaders should put more emphasis on the development of authentic interactions
with their subordinates. In this way, team members' will become more contented with their job
roles.
Very few studies have investigated the impact of authentic leadership on overall work
performance. Leroy, Palanski, and Simons (2012, p.1) examined how authentic leadership and
integrity interact to influence worker performance. The researchers studied both authentic
leadership and leadership behavioral integrity in greater details. The aim is to validate that
authentic leadership and behavioral integrity have been hypothesized to create a key ingredient

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 6
of leadership positive forms (Leroy, Palanski, and Simons 2012, p.2). The positive image on
employee conduct in the workplace recognizes the strengths that stimulate satisfactory
performance in the contemporary competitive and dynamic work environment. Leroy, Palanski,
and Simons (2012, p.3) developed three hypotheses to further elaborate on their thoughts. From
the premises, they were able to argue that authentic leadership and leader integrity are founded
on the same hypothetical tools which drive the performance of the employees. Thus, authentic
leadership and leader integrity stimulate employee involvement within an organization thereby
driving effective organizational commitment (Leroy, Palanski, and Simons 2012, p.4). Job
performance is the behaviors that an employee exhibits that contribute to the accomplishment of
organizational goals. Authentic leaders influence their team members to consistently strive to
improve their work and overall performance outcome via facilitating involvement and assurance
to work. The researchers wanted to examine and verify the ideology that an authentic leader is
the main originator to self-perception thereby affecting follower organizational work
commitment and performance. Data was obtained from 25 companies in Belgium to test the
hypothesis (Leroy, Palanski, and Simons 2012, p.6). A total of 49 leaders and 345 team members
were used in the study (Leroy, Palanski, and Simons 2012, p.6). The study was administered in
two phases. In stage 1, 75% of the respondents completed the survey whereas, in stage 2, the
supervisors were required to provide ratings for their subordinates’ performance (Leroy,
Palanski, and Simons 2012, p.6). The data were analyzed using structural equation model which
was conducted in two stages (Leroy, Palanski, and Simons 2012, p.8). The outcomes showed that
there was a connection between authentic leaders behavior and follower organizational
commitment. Similarly, the leadership style and behavioral integrity influence job performance
entirely facilitated through follower commitment. The primary limitation of the study
demonstrated that since large amounts of the data were cross-sectional, the researchers were
unable to derive robust causal inferences concerning the direction of the relationships (Leroy,
Palanski, and Simons 2012, p.12). Surveys that make use of longitudinal research methods are
used to figure out the direction of the connections among the variables under study. The key
strength in this research proves that its findings can be expanded in several ways in terms of
future studies. In this case, future studies may want to explore on other backgrounds to leaders
integrity with one particular variable being leaders’ political skills.

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 7
In this final article, Emuwa (2013, p.45) sought to investigate the authentic leadership
interactions with subordinates effects of commitment to that of the supervisor and empowerment.
The empowerment concept has been theorized as an improved inherent motivation which
displays itself in four intuitions namely: competence, impact, meaning, and self-determination.
The hypothetical concept on authentic leadership defines the leaders as having team members
who feel more mentally endowed to assume superior roles for their work. The independent
variables i.e. authentic leadership and dependent variables, i.e., empowerment and commitment
as well as moderating variable, i.e., procedural justice were derived in the study (Emuwa 2013,
p.52). The controlled variables included followers' gender, age, and tenure (Emuwa 2013, p.52).
Questionnaires and stratified random sampling were employed in the study. A sample of 20
respondents for each independent variable was preferred, and the survey yielded a response rate
of 85% (Emuwa 2013, p.52).The results established while using independent variables showed a
strong link between authentic leadership and commitment to supervisor whereas tenure exhibited
a negative relationship with authentic leadership. Procedural justice with demonstrated a positive
connection with empowerment and assurance to a supervisor and authentic leadership. Also, the
results established a positive connection between commitment to manager and empowerment
and authentic leadership actions (Emuwa 2013, p.54). Similarly, hypotheses 1 and 2 derived
established that authentic leadership impacts employees’ outcome (Emuwa 2013, p.57). The
projected outcome of correlation between authentic leadership, empowerment, and commitment
to supervisor proves that balance processing and interpersonal transparency are leaders’ actions
that influence subordinate development. The study’s key limitation was the fact that it utilized
convenient sampling which raises concerns about its generalizability (Emuwa 2013, p.58). It
tends to compromise representativeness of the sample population.
PART B: IMPLEMENTATION, SUMMARY, AND REFLECTION
Three Week Timeline of Activities
Fig. 1. Ms. Word 2
Implementation
An implementation of the activities clarifies and describes what each activity should
deliver and within a specific timeframe. Usually, in a project phase, each stage is divided into
dependent activities to accomplish a specific objective (McLeod, Doolin and MacDonell 2012,
p.1). During the implementation process, it is recommended that each activity must be well

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 8
outlined to attain its deliverable within the specified time frame (English and Kitsantas 2013,
p.129). An implementation of the activities carried out during the three weeks is discussed
below.
Week 1
I commenced the week by trying to understand what leadership is. While basing
preference on authentic leadership style, I read Part one and two of the book ‘Leadership:
Theory, application, & skill development’ by R.N. Lussier, and C.F. Achua’ to gain a clear
understanding and discover my authentic leadership skills. This book allowed me to think about
the basis for my leadership roles and the processes required to become an authentic leader. I did
self-assessments and completed questionnaires on leadership which helped to gauge several
factors like how self-expressed I am as a leader, my influence on my peers, and the degree of
impact. I also examined my former years and circumstances of leadership during this period.
Examining my life story and the various opportunities in leadership allows me to identify what
activities created a big impact on myself and the situations in which I was discontented with my
leadership style or received feedback from my peers. While collaboration with my colleagues to
evaluate my emotional intelligence, I was able to reflect on managing personal actions and
relationships. At the end of the week, I would sit down and reflect on activities conducted during
the week to help enhance my self-awareness and internalize moral perspectives.
Week 2
In week 2, I primarily focused on my career goals, personal analysis and those of others. I was
able to explore my strengths and fatal weaknesses. Developing a career vision and objective is
key for those that strive to be successful in their professions. Having a clear understanding of the
major strengths helps to increase potential. At the same time, it was also crucial to identify any
restrictions to help minimize them from interfering with leadership roles. At some point in our
lives, we encounter difficult situations. Such instances are usually very painful, but instead, they
occur to provide unique opportunities for individual development. Emotional intelligence is
founded on self and social awareness, self-management, and worker engagement (Serrat 2017,
p.1). These variables demand constant development; thus emotional awareness can be used to
identify and manage the emotions of others and foster constructive relationships. Taking the time
to record decisions and provide a rationale for then instigates personal analysis. From the
decision outcomes, I can develop a personal feedback that shows what event went as planned,

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 9
what event went wrong and what needs to be done, and what events may be successful. Also,
engaging a colleague as an observational partner may be relevant to offer advice with positive
directions. Therefore, when, leaders seek another person’s input, it is important for them to listen
to feedback without striking back against the invited colleague.
Week 3
This week commenced by focusing on improving my self-awareness. It is believed that authentic
leadership can be nurtured. For one to be an authentic leader, one has to acquire self-
improvement, reflection, and self-discovery (Miniotaitė and Bučiūnienė 2015, p.68). I had an
excellent opportunity to list, analyze and think through beliefs, leadership doctrines, and moral
boundaries that fosters development towards becoming an authentic leader. The primary
objective of this exercise is to allow openness about the beliefs that are fundamental to me, the
philosophies I will employ when leading, and the moral standards that will guide my actions
even when under immense pressure (Baron and Parent 2015, p.42). On the third day of the
week, I was able to dig deeper to gain a wider insight about myself. It is essential for leaders to
ask themselves the questions: Who am I? What is my goal? What motivates me? etc. Studying
through these questions requires commitment, time, and response from others. This reflective
exercise shows the internal processes of leadership development that other lack. Also, I had the
opportunity to take some downtime by doing yoga from my busy schedule which greatly helped
to clear my mind and offer a balanced outlook. The reflective downtime also allowed to improve
my self-awareness and to grow authenticity. Take the much-needed breaks at specific intervals to
celebrate important achievements can be both energizing and motivating to yourself and team
members. On the last day, I reflected on the activities carried out during the week and the prior
two weeks. I was able to examine the techniques to enhance my effectiveness as a leader. I
reflected on the questions the ways in which my leadership style will be consistent with my
values and principles, the importance of having a flexible leadership style and will the flexibility
allow me to be authentic.
At the end of the day, a timeline of activities helps to record individual thoughts that
result to a wider degree of self-perception as well as foster writing and emotional confidence. It
allows identifying good and undesirable behaviors that may be repeated or amended for self-
improvement. In addition, it is relevant to compose life story to shed light on how far you have
come, what you have learned from the experience and provide a sense of direction for the future.

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 10
Summary and Reflection
The activities conducted helped in fostering interdependence. Tasks that are
accomplished independently may not stimulate the kind of contact and interdependence needed
for effective teamwork (Robbins & Judge 2014, p.28). Individual achievement is in part, a role
of joint success and that every member is reliant on and is responsible to other team members
(White 2016, p.321). The initial phase of becoming an authentic leader entails one to reflect
inside personal self-knowledge, self-concept, and self-regulation as behaviors are molded from
these aspects. To nurture this, it requires engaging in personal responsibility, devotion, hard
work and reflective actions. In this project, interdependence was exercised through interactions
with work colleagues to motivate and build positive work relationships. Opportunities to
evaluate what I have accomplished within each week and to collaborate with my colleagues were
important to reflect on the potential strategies to improve my team members as well as my self-
development, career, and authentic leadership skills. In conclusion, authentic leadership style is
very personal, just like many good things are. This approach to leadership requires
contemplation as well as positive efforts to grow and learn the different ways to become an
authentic leader. It is a lifelong process that needs to be developed and nurtured to influence
decisions of what if good and right as an individual and to the society.

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 11
List of References
Algera, P.M. and Lips-Wiersma, M., 2012. Radical authentic leadership: Co-creating the
conditions under which all members of the organization can be authentic. The Leadership
Quarterly, 23(1), pp.118-131.
Baron, L. and Parent, É., 2015. Developing authentic leadership within a training context: Three
phenomena supporting the individual development process. Journal of Leadership &
Organizational Studies, 22(1), pp.37-53.
Cassar, V. and Buttigieg, S., 2013. An examination of the relationship between authentic
leadership and psychological well-being and the mediating role of meaningfulness at work.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 3(5), pp.171-183.
Černe, M., Dimovski, V., Marič, M., Penger, S. and Škerlavaj, M., 2014. Congruence of leader
self-perceptions and follower perceptions of authentic leadership: Understanding what authentic
leadership is and how it enhances employees’ job satisfaction. Australian journal of
management, 39(3), pp.453-471.
Černe, M., Jaklič, M. and Škerlavaj, M., 2013. Authentic leadership, creativity, and innovation:
A multilevel perspective. Leadership, 9(1), pp.63-85.
Day, D.V., Fleenor, J.W., Atwater, L.E., Sturm, R.E. and McKee, R.A., 2014. Advances in
leader and leadership development: A review of 25years of research and theory. The Leadership
Quarterly, 25(1), pp.63-82.
Emuwa, A., 2013. Authentic leadership: Commitment to supervisor, follower empowerment, and
procedural justice climate. Emerging Leadership Journeys, 6(1), pp.45-65.
English, M.C. and Kitsantas, A., 2013. Supporting student self-regulated learning in problem-and
project-based learning. Interdisciplinary journal of problem-based learning, 7(2), p.6.
Erkutlu, H. and Chafra, J., 2013. Effects of trust and psychological contract violation on
authentic leadership and organizational deviance. Management Research Review, 36(9), pp.828-
848.
Ibarra, H., 2015. The authenticity paradox. Harvard Business Review, 93(1/2), pp.53-59.
Laschinger, H.K.S., Wong, C.A. and Grau, A.L., 2013. Authentic leadership, empowerment and
burnout: a comparison in new graduates and experienced nurses. Journal of nursing
management, 21(3), pp.541-552.

CRITICAL REVIEW OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 12
Leroy, H., Palanski, M.E., and Simons, T., 2012. Authentic leadership and behavioral integrity as
drivers of follower commitment and performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(3), pp.255-
264.
McLeod, L., Doolin, B., and MacDonell, S.G., 2012. A perspective‐based understanding of
project success. Project Management Journal, 43(5), pp.68-86.
Miniotaitė, A. and Bučiūnienė, I., 2015. Explaining authentic leadership work outcomes from the
perspective of self-determination theory. Management of Organizations: Systematic Research,
(65), pp.63-75.
Müceldili, B., Turan, H. and Erdil, O., 2013. The influence of authentic leadership on creativity
and innovativeness. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 99, pp.673-681.
Rego, A., Sousa, F., Marques, C. and e Cunha, M.P., 2012. Authentic leadership promoting
employees' psychological capital and creativity. Journal of Business Research, 65(3), pp.429-
437.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. 2014. Organizational behavior.
Serrat, O., 2017. Understanding and developing emotional intelligence. In Knowledge Solutions
(pp. 329-339). Springer Singapore.
Treviäno, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. 2014. Managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do
it right. Hoboken NJ, J. Wiley & Sons.
Wang, D.S. and Hsieh, C.C., 2013. The effect of authentic leadership on employee trust and
employee engagement. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(4), pp.613-
624.
Wherry, H.M.S., 2012. Authentic leadership, leader-member exchange, and organizational
citizenship behavior: A multilevel analysis. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
White, J., 2016. The power of collaboration. In Permission (pp. 89-103). Sense Publishers.
Yukl, G. A. 2013. Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River (NJ) [etc.], Pearson.