Elsevier

The Leadership Quarterly

Volume 22, Issue 6, December 2011, Pages 1120-1145
The Leadership Quarterly

Authentic leadership: A review of the literature and research agenda

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.007Get rights and content

Abstract

The past decade has seen a dramatic increase in scholarly interest in the topic of authentic leadership. We review this literature with the goal of clarifying the state of knowledge in the field. We begin with a historical overview of the construct's definition and evolution. Next, we present the results of a content analysis of 91 publications that focus on authentic leadership. Specifically, we examined the publication type (theoretical, empirical, and practitioner), contributors (e.g., discipline, nationality, and institutional affiliation), theoretical foundations, research strategies, sample location/type, data collection methods, analytical procedures, and nomological network of authentic leadership. We conclude by presenting an agenda for future research.

Introduction

Spurred by deep-rooted concerns about the ethical conduct of today's leaders based on chilling examples of corporate and government malfeasance, popular leadership authors such as former Medtronic CEO Bill George (Authentic Leadership, 2003; True North, George & Sims, 2007) and leadership consultant Kevin Cashman (Leadership from the Inside Out, 1998, 2008; Awakening the Leader Within, 2003) called for a new type of genuine and values-based leadership — authentic leadership (AL). Sharing these concerns, Luthans and Avolio (2003, p. 244) expressed “a need for a theory-driven model identifying the specific construct variables and relationships that can guide authentic leader development and suggest researchable propositions”; henceforth they introduced an initial model for this purpose. Interdisciplinary summits were hosted in 2004 and 2006 by the Gallup Leadership Institute (GLI) of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with the goal of generating scholarly and practitioner interest in AL development. A subset of papers presented at the 2004 Gallup Leadership Summit were published in a special issue of The Leadership Quarterly (2005, Volume 16, Issue 3) and an edited book (Gardner, Avolio, & Walumbwa, 2005b), further stimulating interest in the topic.

The simultaneous proliferation of practitioner and scholarly writings has generated several competing conceptions of AL that have created confusion about the construct. Anticipating these problems, Cooper, Scandura, and Schriesheim (2005) articulated some of the areas of conceptual ambiguity (e.g., levels of analysis) and cautioned scholars to avoid the pitfalls encountered in advancing prior leadership theories by carefully defining, measuring, and rigorously investigating the construct. More recently, Yammarino, Dionne, Schriesheim, and Dansereau (2008) examined the literature from a meso, multi-level perspective, noting several shortcomings, such as a primarily leader-centric focus operating at the individual level of analysis; they also provide specific recommendations for advancing AL theory at and across the individual, dyadic, group, and organizational levels of analysis.

Unfortunately, the cautions of these authors have often gone unheeded, as the emergence of multiple practitioner and scholarly conceptions of AL has created ambiguity about what does and does not constitute AL, as well as the efficacy of strategies for its development. These problems are compounded by a limited amount of empirical research, which makes it difficult to assess the validity of assertions regarding the positive effects of AL that are commonly advanced by its proponents. Nonetheless, the scholarly literature has seen a recent upsurge in empirical investigations of AL that show promise for alleviating some of the conceptual confusion.

The purpose of this manuscript is to review the scholarly literature on AL with the goal of clarifying the construct and our knowledge about its antecedents and outcomes. More specifically, we: (1) provide a historical overview of the construct of authenticity; (2) discuss the underpinnings and milestones in the emergence and refinement of AL theory; (3) describe the content analysis methodology employed to codify the various theoretical perspectives, research methods, and findings reflected in the literature; (4) present our findings regarding the underlying theoretical foundations for AL; (5) review the available empirical research on AL, focusing attention on the measurement of the construct and mapping out the nomological network; and (6) recommend future directions for the study and practice of AL.

Section snippets

Authenticity

Authenticity can be traced back to ancient Greek philosophy and is reflected by the Greek aphorism “Know Thyself” which was inscribed in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi (Parke & Wormell, 1956). Indeed, the etymology of the word authentic can be traced to the Greek word, authento, “to have full power” (Trilling, 1972), reflecting the notion of authentic functioning whereby an individual is “the master of his or her own domain” (Kernis & Goldman, 2006). An early reference to authentic functioning

Sample

To identify publications for inclusion in our review, we searched EBSCO/Host databases using specific keywords linked to AL such as “authentic leadership” and “authenticity” paired with “leader”, “follower”, or “leadership.” We also issued a call for papers through the Academy of Management's LDRNet and used a snowball approach by searching the references of relevant publications to further identify those for inclusion in the review. As with any extensive search, these attempts yielded

An agenda for future AL research

Throughout this review we have identified directions for future research. We will not reiterate those directions here. Instead, we wish to offer more general observations and additional recommendations for enhancing AL theory and research. We outline a five-pronged agenda for future AL research below.

Conclusion

Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to ultimately be at peace with themselves. What humans can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature” (Maslow, 1970, p. 22, original emphasis). This quotation from Maslow reflects a central premise of the authentic leadership literature that truly authentic leaders must lead, but they must do so in a way that honors their core values, beliefs, strengths — and weaknesses. This assumption of authentic

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