Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 9: Authentic Leadership
Learning Objectives
9-2 Explain how authentic leadership works.
9-4 Discuss the criticisms of authentic leadership.
9-5 Recognize applications of authentic leadership.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Description
A. A newer area of leadership research.
i. Still in a formative phase of development.
ii. Should be considered tentatively.
a. Research and theory are likely to change.
B. Demand for authentic leadership comes from a variety of cultural sources:
i. Destruction of 9/11.
ii. Corporate scandals at companies like WorldCom and Enron.
iii. Fears of “fake news.”
iv. Potential foreign influence in presidential elections.
C. Authentic Leadership Defined
i. Complex and difficult to characterize.
a. No single accepted definition.
b. Existing definitions written from different viewpoints.
ii. Authenticity: Genuineness and trustworthiness in leadership.
iii. Three views of authentic leadership:
a. Intrapersonal: A perspective that focuses closely on the leader and
what goes on within the leader.
something that can be nurtured in a leader, rather than as a fixed trait.
iv. Walumbwa et al. (2008) identified four distinct but related components of their
developmental model of authentic leadership:
a. Self-awareness.
b. Internalized moral perspective.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
D. Approaches to Authentic Leadership
i. Bill George’s Authentic Leadership Approach focuses on the essential qualities of
authentic leadership and how these qualities can be developed.
a. George identified five basic characteristics: (1) They have a strong sense
of purpose, (2) they have strong values about the right thing to do, (3)
c. Passionate: Individuals who have a deep-seated interest in what they
are doing and truly care about their work.
d. Values: An understanding of who you are, where you are going, and
what the right thing is to do.
e. Behavior: An action which may reflect a leader’s values.
i. Consistent: Predictable in behavior, which makes communication
easier.
ii. The Theoretical Approach is a recent development in research that focuses on
“authenticity” in leadership.
a. First article on authentic leadership published by Luthans and Avolio in
2003.
d. Desire to extend and clarify the work of Bass and Steidlmeier, to
operationalize it and create a theoretical explanatory framework for it.
e. Authentic leadership: A pattern of leader behavior that draws upon and
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
f. In the research literature, different models have been developed to
illustrate the process of authentic leadership.
g. Gardner et al. (2005b) created a model that frames authentic leadership
around the developmental processes of leader and follower self-
i. Luthans and Avolio (2003) formulated a model that explains authentic
leadership as a developmental process.
j. Four components characterize authentic leadership: self-awareness,
k. Self-awareness: The ongoing personal insights of the leader.
a. Includes core values, identity, emotions, motives, and goals, and
l. Internalized moral perspective: A self-regulatory process whereby
m. Balanced processing: A self-regulatory behavior in which an individual
analyzes information objectively and explores other people’s opinions
before making a decision.
n. Relational transparency: Being open and honest in presenting one’s
true self to others.
a. Related to sharing core feelings, motives, and inclinations with
others appropriately.
o. Influential factors in authentic leadership: positive psychological
capacities, moral reasoning, and critical life events.
p. Four key positive psychological capacities.
a. Confidence: A state of having self-efficacy, or a belief in one’s
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
c. Optimism: The cognitive process of viewing situations from a
q. Moral reasoning: Capacity to make ethical decisions about issues of
II. How Does Authentic Leadership Work?
A. Practical approach prescriptive in many ways: teaches how to be authentic and develop
authentic leadership.
B. The George (2003) approach focuses on five characteristics of authentic leaders:
i. Purposeful.
ii. Value-centered.
C. Theoretical approach is deliberately less prescriptive.
i. Describes what authentic leadership is and what accounts for it.
ii. Factors of authentic leadership in the theoretical approach:
a. Self-awareness.
b. Internalized moral perspective.
iii. Traits and attributes of authentic leadership are cultivated over a lifetime.
a. Often influenced by critical life events, whether positive or negative.
D. More recent research has focused less on the development of authentic leadership.
i. More on the effects of authentic leadership on followers and the effects of
followers on developing authentic leadership.
a. Authentic leadership correlates directly to followers who thrive at work.
III. Strengths
A. Fulfills an expressed need for trustworthy leadership in society.
i. Public distrust is increasing due to failures in leadership.
B. Provides broad guidelines for individuals who want to become authentic leaders.
i. Both practical and theoretical approaches point to actionable changes that can
increase authenticity.
C. Similar to transformational and servant leadership, authentic leadership has an explicit
moral dimension.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
D. Emphasizes that authentic values and behaviors can be developed in leaders over time.
i. Not a rare attribute or an innate one.
ii. Luthans and Avolio (2003) contended that leaders can learn to develop positive
psychological capacities such as confidence, hope, optimism, and resilience, and
can use these to create a positive organizational climate.
E. Measurable with the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ).
i. Validated and theoretically-derived instrument of measurement for the four
factors of authentic leadership.
IV. Criticisms
A. George’s practical approach is not fully substantiated.
i. Practical approach is not built on a broad empirical base.
a. Has not been tested for validity either.
ii. Relies on a given leader’s personal experiences.
B. Moral component of authentic leadership requires clarification.
i. Authentic leadership implies that leaders are motivated by higher-order end
values such as justice and community.
ii. Definitions of morality depend on personal experience rather than societal
norms.
C. Researchers question inclusion of positive psychological capacities as components of
authentic leadership.
i. Rationale for its inclusion is not clearly defined.
a. May be derived from a general psychological interest in positive human
ii. Foundations of the theory are too shaky to earn the public trust and cachet the
theory has.
D. Potentially lacks applicability to the millennial generation.
i. Stumbling points for authentic leadership in the millennial ethos:
a. Individualism.
Northouse, Leadership 9e
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E. Unclear how authentic leadership results in positive organizational outcomes.
i. More data are necessary to substantiate the value of the theory.
ii. Some have found that authentic leadership failed to explain significant
incremental variance in these outcomes over and above transformational
leadership.
iii. Authenticity may in some cases be counterproductive.
F. Unclear whether authentic leadership is sufficient to achieve organizational goals.
i. Authenticity is important and valuable to good leadership, but how authenticity
relates to effective leadership is unknown.
V. Application
A. Little research on strategies that people can use to develop or enhance authentic
leadership behaviors.
i. Practical advisements in George’s approach are not empirically supported.
B. Common themes from the authentic leadership literature that may be applicable to
organizational or practice settings:
i. Authentic leadership can be learned.
ii. Overriding goal of authentic leaders to try to do the “right” thing, to be honest
with themselves and others, and to work for the common good.
C. Authentic leadership is shaped and reformed by critical life events that act as triggers to
growth and greater authenticity.
i. Sensitivity to these events and awareness of their potential as a “springboard” to