Abstract
Bestowing authentic leadership (AL) by leaders and followers in organisations involve the subjective interpretation of the meanings and understandings given to the construct. The likely implication here is that evaluations of the AL construct may vary in different settings. Therefore, the leaders’ and followers’ constructs of authentic leadership in a public and a private organisation in Ghana were documented and compared using Q methodology. Thirty leaders and followers in each of the two organisations sorted selected statements about authentic leadership. Three factors or types of authentic leadership were identified and named for each of the two settings yielding six different perceptions of authentic leadership. While these results suggest that authentic leadership is idiosyncratic, further analysis showed that some attributes of authentic leadership were common to the organisations. The study concluded that in defining authenticity in leadership in the organisations used for this study in Ghana the following characteristics cannot be overlooked: leader goal orientedness, good listening, leader respect for followers, objectivity and justice, inspirational teaching and leader commitment, God fearing, leader fairness, and leader flexibility. This implies that in designing leadership training programs for organisational success, these attributes, if incorporated could prove helpful.
Highlights
The basis of this study is the identification of some concerns in the authentic leadership (AL) literature regarding the exact make-up of the authentic leadership construct and the several calls made by researchers (Avolio, Gardner, Walumbwa, Luthans, & May, 2004; Fields, 2007; Luthans & Avolio, 2003; Vogelgesang, Clapp-Smith, & Palmer, 2009; Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wersing, & Peterson, 2008) for more empirical analysis to address such concerns
The study concluded that in defining authenticity in leadership in the organisations used for this study in Ghana the following characteristics cannot be overlooked: leader goal orientedness, good listening, leader respect for followers, objectivity and justice, inspirational teaching and leader commitment, God fearing, leader fairness, and leader flexibility
I have compared the subjective interpretations of respondents in two organisations regarding authentic leadership
Summary
When they encounter a leadership situation later they compare the observed attributes and behaviour to the pre-existing notion held in memory and when the two matches, the person being observed is categorized as an effective or non-effective leader During such interactions, leaders are assessed in terms of followers’ own rating systems, perceptions and expectations. Differences in expectations and interpretations will influence assessment of acceptable leadership and organisational practices in different situational or cultural contexts It is against this background that this study is arguing that if authentic leadership is not a trait but an attribute conferred on leaders based on the congruence between: follower assessment of leaders’ espoused values and behaviours, assessment of leader-follower expectations and assessment of leader actions and the direct benefits it produces to the organisation and the followers.
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