Management Focus
Determinants of Follower Perceptions of a Leader’s Authenticity and Integrity

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This study proceeds from the perspective that a leader’s authenticity and integrity must be recognizable to the members of a work unit in order for these qualities to make a difference in the degree or nature of the leader’s influence. The study builds from previous studies in cognitive and social psychology to develop and apply a model of person perception. The study examines how actions and attributes of a leader and aspects of the situation in which leaders and followers interact may affect the agreement among followers concerning the authenticity and integrity of a leader. Propositions are developed for empirical testing in future research.

Section snippets

Models of Perceptions of Leaders

There are two general models that describe variables that may influence follower judgments about leaders. The first is that ratings of leadership behaviors provided by followers indicate the extent to which followers have actually observed the focal manager (Lord and Emrich, 2001). Leadership instruments such as the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) or the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) reflect this perspective. These instruments assume the responses reflect each follower’s

Variables Affecting Follower Perceptions of a Leader

Early work on person perceptions found substantial variation among raters, leading some to conclude that the way a perceiver cognitively structures his/her schema may be a powerful influence on descriptions of other persons (Kenny, 1991). Thus, studies concerned with the variables that may impact perceptions of a focal person such as a leader have grappled with the issue of whether such perceptions are primarily driven by attributes of the focal person or by internal processes resident in the

Application of the Model

Self-focused definitions and models of leader authenticity and integrity assume that followers base their assessments of these leader attributes primarily on direct observation of or interactions with leaders (Avolio and Gardner, 2005, Gardner et al., 2005, House and Aditya, 1997, Dasborough and Ashkansy, 2005). Some studies have indicated that followers may pay most attention to and react most to leader actions that are inconsistent with follower expectations based on previous experience with

Implications for Further Research

This study started from the question of which variables would affect how authenticity defined as a leader’s inner-directed focus on being true to him/herself, would be recognized and appreciated by followers. The focus quickly expanded to include leader integrity, because authenticity without moral code adherence may not be sufficient for effective leadership (Bass and Steidlmeier, 1999). One implication of this effort is the realization that understanding how leader authenticity and integrity

DAIL L. FIELDS, School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship, Regent University, 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23464-9800, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Fields (Ph.D., Georgia Tech) teaches in the Regent University Ph.D, program in Organizational Leadership, supervises doctoral dissertations and conducts an international research program. He is currently a Fulbright Scholar based at Lithuania Christian College. Dr. Fields has been a guest lecturer and speaker for

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    DAIL L. FIELDS, School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship, Regent University, 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23464-9800, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

    Dr. Fields (Ph.D., Georgia Tech) teaches in the Regent University Ph.D, program in Organizational Leadership, supervises doctoral dissertations and conducts an international research program. He is currently a Fulbright Scholar based at Lithuania Christian College. Dr. Fields has been a guest lecturer and speaker for professional organizations and universities in Lithuania, Russia, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong and is engaged in cross-cultural research in organizational leadership.

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