In tandem with a surge of public interest in authenticity, there is a growing number of empirical studies on individual authenticity in work settings. However, these studies have been generated within separate literatures on topics such as authentic leadership, emotional labor, and identity management, among many others, making it difficult for scholars to integrate and build on the authenticity research to date. To facilitate and advance future investigations, this article reviews the extant empirical work across 10 different authenticity constructs. Following our research review, we use a power lens to help synthesize our major findings and insights. We conclude by identifying six directions for future research, including the need for scholars to embrace a multifaceted view of authenticity in organizations. Overall, our review both reinforces and tempers the enthusiasm in contemporary discussions of authenticity in the popular and business press.
Stockholder and stakeholder perspectives have been positioned in the literature as being in tension, and thus a potential source of innovation and change. However, researchers have overlooked a systematic examination of this presumption in theory and in practice. This study explores the ways that stockholder and stakeholder assumptions are presented by theorists and compares these with expressions of stockholder and stakeholder perspectives used by firms in practice. We argue that theoretical entrenchment dichotomizing these perspectives has disrupted the ability of researchers to leverage this tension. While scholarship remains trapped in a vicious cycle, we also argue that firms in practice express only the acceptance dimension of a virtuous cycle. Our empirical research demonstrates that firms accept and accommodate the paradoxical tension between managing for Cynthia E. Clark is an Associate Professor at
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