Abstract
We study authentic leadership as a prominent but problematic example of positive leadership that we use as a more general “warning” against the current fashion of excessive positivity in leadership studies. Without trying to cover “everything”, we critically examine the principal tenets of mainstream authentic leadership theory and reveal a number of fundamental flaws: shaky philosophical and theoretical foundations, tautological reasoning, weak empirical studies, nonsensical measurement tools, unsupported knowledge claims and a generally simplistic and out of date view of corporate life. Even though our study focuses on authentic leadership, much of our criticism is also applicable to other popular positive leadership theories, such as transformational, servant, ethical and spiritual leadership.
Original language | English |
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Peer-reviewed scientific journal | The Leadership Quarterly |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 4 |
Pages (from-to) | 383-395 |
Number of pages | 13 |
ISSN | 1048-9843 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 28.04.2019 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article - refereed |
Event | 35th EGOS Colloquium: Sub-theme 37: The Intricacies of Meta-Organizations - University of Edinburgh Business School, Edinburgh , United Kingdom Duration: 04.07.2019 → 06.07.2019 |
Keywords
- 512 Business and Management