Authentic Leadership:Getting back to the roots of the 'root construct'?

In their 2011 review paper Gardner et al concluded that the Authentic Leadership (AL) construct was still in the first stage of evolution, that of concept introduction and evaluation. At that time, the field was characterized by two types of contribution: conceptual expositions and largely quantitative research seeking to map out its antecedents and consequences, moderators and mediators. The current review aims to: 1) critically evaluate the development of the AL construct to the present time; and 2) taking this evaluation as a point of departure, propose the need for a radical re-grounding of our understanding of AL aimed at countering what we believe to be the substantive flaws in both its philosophical underpinnings and empirical grounding. We propose that these shortcomings have arisen due to the failure of existential and other critiques of the dominant (normative and functionalist) discourse of AL to gain traction, and due to an absence of practice-based, qualitative research. As a strategic platform for the potential re-grounding and relaunch of AL we propose a radical return to the existential and practice roots of authenticity as the basis for a broader understanding of ‘authentic leadership’ as a ‘central organizing principle’ in leadership studies. Despite the flaws identified in the AL construct, we suggest that the notion of authenticity may still have a valuable role to play in the study of leadership: that role, however, can only be determined through a thorough understanding of authentic leadership as a practice-based phenomenon

An organizational impression management perspective on the formation of corporate reputations

Researchers have only recently turned their attention to the study of corporate reputation. As is characteristic of many early areas of management inquiry, the field is decidedly multidisciplinary and disconnected. This article selectively reviews reputation research conducted mainly during the past decade. A framework is proposed that views reputation from the perspective of organizational impression management. Corporations are viewed as social actors, intent on enhancing their respectability and impressiveness in the eyes of constituents

Can Positive Employees Help Positive Organizational Change? Impact of Psychological Capital and Emotions on Relevant Attitudes and Behaviors

Although much attention has been devoted to understanding employee resistance to change, relatively little research examines the impact that positive employees can have on organizational change. To help fill this need, the authors investigate whether a process of employees’ positivity will have an impact on relevant attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, this study surveyed 132 employees from a broad cross-section of organizations and jobs and found: (a) Their psychological capital (a core factor consisting of hope, efficacy, optimism, and resilience) was related to their positive emotions that in turn were related to their attitudes (engagement and cynicism) and behaviors (organizational citizenship and deviance) relevant to organizational change; (b) mindfulness (i.e., heightened awareness) interacted with psychological capital in predicting positive emotions; and (c) positive emotions generally mediated the relationship between psychological capital and the attitudes and behaviors. The implications these findings have for positive organizational change conclude the article