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QUOTES FROM STUDY INTERVIEWS
AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP
AS A MORAL COMPASS
The authors of another experimental study (Cianci, Hannah,
Roberts & Tsakumis, 2014) show that authentic leadership influences
employees’ responses to temptations of an unethical
nature. In the study, employees with authentic line managers
made fewer unethical decisions when exposed to temptation.
Employees with neutral or less authentic line managers tended
to give into such temptations more often.
In other words, authentic leadership can serve as a moral compass.
It encourages ethically RESPONSIBLE behaviour in the
company – and can thus play a role in avoiding irregularities
or even scandals. Aside from the positive effects of authentic
behaviour within the organisation, the case can be made that
it serves an even more important purpose for external stakeholders,
given the heightened public awareness of improper
conduct and rule-breaking by companies.
An article in the Journal of Business Ethics in September 2015
(Liu, Liao & Wei) points in the same direction. In this study,
which was carried out in China, the authors reported a positive
correlation between authentic leadership and internal
whistleblowing. Specifically, employees of authentic managers
are more prepared to draw attention to irregularities
because their managers have given them a feeling of psychological
safety.
The reverse is the case with the current scandals and crises of
credibility plaguing companies, for example in Germany. The
underlying causes in each case are usually the same: we find
rigid hierarchical structures primarily in large organisations,
coupled with a culture of fear that does not allow for errors.
OPENNESS ENHANCES
PERFORMANCE
Authentic leadership can accomplish more than just prevent
scandals from happening. A manager’s authenticity also has
a positive effect on the PERFORMANCE OF HIS/HER TEAM,
as another study, from the UK and Greece, reveals (Lyubovnika,
Legood, Turner & Mamakouka, 2015). According to the
study, teams led by authentic managers are more inclined to
self-reflection: the fact that such teams think and talk about
the status quo and about strengths and weaknesses more often,
more intensively and more openly has a positive effect on
team performance.
In addition, numerous studies (including Rahimnia & Sharifirad,
2014) emphasise that authentic leadership promotes
the well-being, health and motivation of employees. That has
a positive impact on levels of commitment – and, according to
the Gallup Index, a regular survey of workplace quality in Germany,
that is a factor with a very positive effect on the corporate
bottom line.
AUTHENTICITY:
SOCIAL ROMANTICISM OR
VALUE CREATION?
Anyone who as ever been a manager knows that maintaining
an authentic stance can be a challenge. The incentives and
constraints that lead managers to behave in a strategic, political
or opportunistic manner often appear to be unavoidable.
But, for the individual, it is worth putting up resistance to these
supposed constraints; and for companies, it makes sense not
simply to demand authenticity, but to support and promote it
in structural and cultural terms as well. It transpires that authenticity
can enhance VALUE CREATION – in the shape of
more open and better-performing teams, greater resistance to
rule-breaking and higher levels of employee commitment. ||