2.2 Problems with authentic leadership
Four limitations are evident.
The first is ‘authentic inequality’. Discrimination in society means that certain identities will be marginalised. As leadership status is always something that needs to be confirmed by followers (if there’s no one to lead, there can be no leadership), who is viewed as a ‘legitimate’ leader depends on a group’s norms, which can be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. In practice, therefore, people with marginalised identities can be punished by prejudiced groups for displaying their true, authentic selves (Eagly, 2005; Liu et al., 2015). The four attributes of authentic leadership, however, are presented as positive categories without downsides for the person demonstrating them. This is a naïve view that overlooks lived experiences of oppression.
The second flaw is the problem of ‘white shaping’. Studies of authentic leadership are usually based on the characteristics of senior executives in the US, the majority of whom are white men. This criticism echoes an almost identical problem identified earlier in relation to transformational leadership.
Taking on board these first two flaws, Ladkin (2021, p. 396) introduces the idea of ‘double consciousness’ to understand the experiences of Black people with regard to authenticity and inauthenticity. As Black people within white-dominated societies experience so much discrimination, they inevitably begin to second-guess their actions and the way in which they may be perceived by others. This is called double consciousness because Black leaders are forced to try to see double by asking themselves ‘am I acting in ways true to myself?’ as well as ‘is this way of acting going to be acceptable to white eyes?’ Such an experience of double consciousness can be profoundly alienating for Black leaders.
The third flaw with authentic leadership is the ‘seniority flaw’. Like many person-based approaches, authentic leadership assumes that organisational and societal problems can be solved by senior corporate leaders.
The fourth flaw is one of ‘ethical and moral imprecision’ (Smolović Jones and Grint, 2013). Authentic leadership writers do not say what they mean by ethically good or bad. Lacking a clear definition of what it means to be ethical is problematic, because it means in practice that any old ethics will do.
Now that you have considered some of the flaws of authentic leadership, you will move on to consider its usefulness in relation to Rosa Parks.
Activity 3 Rosa Parks and authentic leadership
If you were an authentic leadership researcher, and using the four attributes of the theory, how would you assess Rosa Parks in relation to her leadership in the Montgomery bus boycott?
Comment
This was a trick question. In reality, the white tendencies of authentic leadership theory mean that it is unlikely it would be used, and modified, in relation to a non-corporate context such as the civil rights movement. Furthermore, if you were an authentic leadership researcher who did decide to research Montgomery, you almost certainly would not have considered Rosa Parks a valid research participant, because she was not part of the formal leadership structures of the boycott. And of course this has gendered implications – the formal leaders were men.
You will now move on to a (real!) activity that will explore the failings of authentic leadership in more detail. This will help to clarify what may be rescued from the theory and put to use in Black leadership.
Activity 4 Exploring the privileges of authentic leadership
Work your way through the four attributes of authentic leadership theory:
- greater self-awareness
- an internalised moral perspective
- balanced processing of information
- relational transparency.
Ask yourself:
- a.How does Rosa Parks meet the requirements of the attribute?
- b.What is one flaw of the attribute in relation to Rosa Parks?
- c.Could the attribute be recovered and modified for Black leadership?
Comment
Here are some points you might have considered:
- Greater self-awareness:
- a.Rosa Parks had a view of her own strengths and limitations. For example, she knew she was good at working with young people, and therefore did a lot of this work.
- b.A lot of ‘self-awareness’ is shaped by social norms and prejudices. We often don’t know what we’re capable of because we’ve never been given the chance to try to build new capacities. Rosa Parks was never given the opportunity to step into a formal leadership role.
- c.It has limited value unless the organisation also takes development and social justice issues seriously.
- An internalised moral perspective:
- a.Rosa Parks was committed to equality. She allowed this commitment to drive her actions, even when they went against the dominant consensus.
- b.Authentic leadership does not account for the setbacks or harm Black leaders can experience when they follow their internalised moral perspective.
- c.It has limited value, because it encourages leaders to think about and act according to their values and could, technically, encourage everyone involved in leadership practice to do likewise.
- Balanced processing of information:
- a.Rosa Parks was a thoughtful person who was hungry for knowledge. She valued a diverse range of approaches and views from within the civil rights movements – her ‘quilting’ approach.
- b.Her influence was informal and a lot of it was exercised behind the scenes in smaller groups. Rosa Parks’ balanced processing, while admirable, could have had an even greater impact had she been given a more influential formal position.
- c.It has value. Balanced processing is important in any context.
- Relational transparency:
- a.Parks was honest about her motivations and about who she was.
- b.However, other people tried to edit her identity and her values in ways that better fitted white and male-dominated norms.
- c.It has value, as long as we situate it within a broader social context of prejudice and are able to assess the obstacles people face when trying to practice transparency. They can then be supported by others to be as transparent as they would like to be.
You will now conclude this week of study by considering what can be taken from notions of authentic leadership.