Authentic Leadership Through an Ethical Prism

Abstract

The Problem. Authentic leadership (AL) focuses on enhancing the capabilities and capacities of leaders. Instead of focusing on the leader, this article considers the ethical challenges of fostering authenticity among employees. One such challenge is that marginalized groups may feel unable to be true to their values, a key premise of authentic leadership. To foster workplaces where marginalized groups feel able to be true to themselves, we must consider the cultural and structural barriers that can negatively affect people's ability to express themselves in the workplace. Hence, when considering the merits of AL, it is important for human resource development (HRD) professionals to consider what occurs when employees do not fit institutional norms. The Solution. Creating the conditions for a relational authentic approach to AL that allows authentic otherness to flourish is an important and complex ethical task, one that HRD scholars and practitioners are uniquely placed to encourage. The Stakeholders. HRD scholars and practitioners interested in creating the conditions that encourage the flourishing of authentic otherness among employees.

Authentic Leadership Theory and Practical Applications in Nuclear Medicine

“…Leaders are examined carefully by others and defined by their values and character. An authentic leader has a strong sense of right and wrong and allows those values to guide challenging decisions because it is difficult to trust or follow a leader who lacks integrity (7). Through the introspection of becoming self-aware, authentic leaders should discover their moral compass and possess a strong sense of personal morality and values (1,4,6).…”

“…Many research studies have examined the relationships between authentic leadership and workplace behaviors or attitudes (4,7,14,15,19). Braun and Peus, for example, examined work-life perceptions to reveal a significant relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction (20).…”

“…Authentic leadership was first discussed in the literature in the 1960s, though research has greatly increased over the last decade as unethical business practices have become more publicized. Authentic leadership theory has developed and evolved out of growing frustration with modern leadership along with the positive psychology movement of humanism (7). Examples of corruption, including corporate bailouts, abuse of power, and fraud, are well documented and publicized in the mainstream media (4).…”

Toward Agentic HRD: A Translational Model of Albert Bandura’s Human Agency Theory

“…Bandura (1986Bandura ( , 1999bBandura ( , 2018 explains this mechanism using the term, reciprocal determinism. Other articles used human agency to address ethics (Gardiner, 2017), social change (Byrd & Stanley, 2009;Collins & Chlup, 2014), strategic HRD (Horwitz, 1999), and self-efficacy (Totawar & Nambudiri, 2014). Table 1.…”

Fostering Workplace Innovation through CSR and Authentic Leadership: Evidence from SME Sector

“…A true leadership model such as authentic leadership will ensure that moral and ethical standards are at their best in an organization [4]. Since this model of leadership promotes morality at all levels of an organization, a stable ethical image of the organization among employees is developed [5]. Authentic leaders do not focus on self-gain as they want the business to succeed and thrive, together with the subordinates [6].…”