Authentic Leadership – A Multi-Component Model

Abstract

The need for research on authentic leadership in social sciences has emerged in the last few years. Until, now there has been done a very little research on this construct with respect to organizational sciences. There exist many ambiguities in conceptualization of authentic leadership and there exist many gaps in literature. In this paper, the critical review of literature on authentic leadership is done and literature gaps are identified. On the basis of identified gaps, a multi-component model is given for development of authentic leadership and its consequences on organizational outcomes. Hence, the main aim of this research is to present a theory-driven model of AL that presents consequences of the AL and gives suggestion of researchable propositions. Previous model could not address the multi level analysis for analyzing antecedents and consequences of AL; hence, this paper contributes to the literature by presenting a multi-level model. The significance of this paper is that it links the authentic leadership with organization-wide outcomes. Furthermore, this model has presented the mechanism. By using that authentic leaders can influence the followers and develop them in authentic followers and authentic leaders that have considerable implications for research and practice. Hence, the present model contributes to the literature by conceptually reviewing the construct of ‘authenticity’ and proposing a framework with testable propositions. This paper stimulates inspiration in future researchers to empirically investigate the presented model. Moreover, this also has practical implications as this model provides guidelines for interventional programs to foster authenticity at workplace.