The impact of authentic leadership on employees' organizational citizenship behavior in Ethiopia public service

Abstract

There has been an increased recognition that more attention needs to be paid to authentic leadership as it emphasizes positive psychological behavior. Organizational citizenship behavior is crucial in the public service, and there should be friendly leadership behavior that could enable public employees to engage in helping behavior. Research in this area is of great interest and with a very active research community. The problem has recently attracted more attention due to the increasing mismanagement, scandal, and corruption in various public organizations that have contributed to the demand for authentic leadership. Although public organizations were trying to introduce various leadership styles that can enhance service delivery, what and how leadership behavior contributes to employees' Organizational Citizenship behavior (OCB) in public service is not well elaborated. The respondents were leaders from 10 public service organizations. Empirical evidence revealed that leaders' authentic leadership behavior impacted employees' organizational citizenship behavior through self-awareness, sharing information, ethical practices, good relation with subordinates, mutual understanding, and transparency. The innovative results of the study revealed that political, cultural, and social aspects influence the leadership behavior of leaders in public service. This study concluded that authentic leaders play a great role in creating a positive relationship and promoting employees' citizenship behaviors. The implications and future research of the results were discussed based on the influence of authentic leadership on employees' OCB.

The Effect of Servant Leadership and Authentic Leadership on Employee Performance: The Mediating Role of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)

“…The empirical result shows that authentic leadership positively deals with organizational citizenship behavior (Shaikh et al, 2022) . Shifare et al (2021) found that 80 % of respondents perceived that OCB was influenced by authentic leadership style of the leaders. Meanwhile, 15% of respondents stated that authentic leadership affects indirectly, and 5% of the respondents answered that authentic leadership is less influence on OCB.…”

“…Shaikh et al (2022) found that authentic leadership influenced on OCB among the employees of the telecommunication sector of Pakistan through psychological ownership as mediating variable. Shifare et al (2021) found that authentic leadership plays a significant role in shaping a positive relationship and increasing OCB of employees. The findings of the research explain that the qualified OCB will also be able to increase the employee's performance and OCB will potentially mediate servant leadership on the employees performance.…”