Authenticity as a leadership value is gaining traction of late research study, as corporations suffer from public condemnation over high profile scandals and cases of gross mismanagement. Authentic leadership theory addresses positive and developmenta...
Authenticity as a leadership value is gaining traction of late research study, as corporations suffer from public condemnation over high profile scandals and cases of gross mismanagement. Authentic leadership theory addresses positive and developmental interaction between leaders and followers. A leader who exercises authenticity influences not only their own well-being, but also the well-being, self-concept, and lives of their followers in the workplace. Authentic leaders are those who aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, keep their personal moral values, and clearly communicate the rationale and goals behind their actions. Such behaviors encourage positive organizational climate characterized by happiness, integrity, and trust, and this climate should contribute to the development of followers. Given the potential benefits, it is essential to understand how authentic leadership helps to develop followers’ psychological well-being and adaptive performance. In particular, we consider followers’ self-efficacy as a mediating role in this regard. Based on this reasoning, we advance the following.
Hypothesis 1 : Authentic leadership will have a positive impact on the psychological well-being of followers.
Hypothesis 2 : Authentic leadership will have a positive impact on the adaptive performance of followers.
Hypothesis 3 : The impact of authentic leadership on psychological well-being of followers is mediated by followers’ self-efficacy.
Hypothesis 4 : The impact of authentic leadership on adaptive performance of followers is mediated by followers’ self-efficacy.
We collected data from a custom survey of 275 employees. The sample consisted of 172 males and 103 females. The mean tenure of participants was 7.0 years. We designed a robust research model in order to assess model fit and avoid issues of common method variance. Using the verified model, standardized path coefficients were examined to test research hypotheses.
We found strong support for hypotheses 1 and 2, demonstrating that authentic leadership has a clearly positive impact on the psychological well-being and adaptive performance of followers. The results suggested that self-efficacy only partially mediates the effect of authentic leadership on followers’ psychological well-being and adaptive performance. Authentic leadership appears to have a positive relationship on followers’ self-efficacy because authentic leaders apply a positive perspective as they communicate through their words and deeds while showing their respect, trust, and confidence toward followers. Followers who work with an authentic leader tend to behave confidently and sincerely, which leads to a more positive sense of psychological well-being and better adaptive performance. Overall, our findings suggest that followers’ positive state of mind and performance outcomes can be determined by the degree of authentic leadership.
This study was planned to investigate how authentic leadership influences followers’ psychological well-being and adaptive performance, while noting the mediating role of effect of followers’ self-efficacy. This study adds valuable insight into research design and also new knowledge regarding the theory and practice. First, authentic leaders who are in the high levels of self-awareness and high self-regulation provide followers with the sense of identification with leaders. Authentic leader who understand of his or her own strengths and weaknesses are cognizant of his or her impact on other people. Authentic leader also present his or her authentic self to others. Such behavior promotes trust though disclosure that includes openly sharing information and expression of one’s true thoughts and feelings. In this reasons, authentic leader encourages followers’ self-determination and establishes positive relationship with followers while trying to minimize displays of inappropriate emotions.