Just ‘Be Yourself’?: A Deep Dive into Authentic Leadership in Uncertain Times

While it has long been said that we operate in a fast-paced ever-changing environment, recent global events and trends further concretize the fact that we live in times of uncertainty. As we navigate challenging times, individuals increasingly look up to leaders not for what they know, but for who they are. Authenticity is emerging as one of the most important factors that we value in leaders, as difficult decisions to be made often test leaders’ core beliefs, which allow stakeholders to see if a) leaders’ actions are aligned with their beliefs, and b) leaders’ beliefs are aligned with those of employees, the organization, and other relevant stakeholders. This Research Topic is focused on the role of authentic leadership in organizations, examining authenticity beyond “freely expressing oneself” but with a deeper look at authenticity of leaders that encompasses self-awareness and internal processing of values and behaviors in leading teams and/or organizations.Research on authentic leadership has mostly shown positive relationships with important organizational and employee outcomes such as innovativeness, job performance, and well-being. However, there is recent debate that authentic leadership may be posited as a concept that is “too positive” and subjective evaluations of positive traits may create causal illusions. This call for submissions would like to encourage debate and discussion on the topic of authentic leadership. In particular, we invite contributions that examine the boundary conditions relevant to authentic leadership, such as the role of media, culture, generations in the workforce, and the size of the organization. The goal is to also decouple authentic leadership from positive leadership, in that the emphasis is on leaders’ self-awareness, relational transparency, moral standards, and balanced processing. Can there be negative consequences related to authentic leadership? If yes, which, and how? What role does authentic leadership play in the context of our current (uncertain) times?We invite submissions involving original research. Research methods can come in the form of qualitative interviews, quantitative approaches (experience sampling methodology, diary studies, large surveys), experiments, or mixed methods. Several specific themes that submissions can cover include:• The role of authentic leadership in small and medium-sized businesses• The role of media in representing and constructing authentic leadership• Authentic leadership and communication strategies, for example in the context of a hybrid workplace• Cross-cultural factors that influence the emergence and/or acceptance of authentic leadership• The role of authentic leadership in a multi-generational workforce• Authentic leadership in creating and maintaining future-ready organizations• The role of authentic leadership in crises Topic editors: Rashimah Rajah, Ningxin Wang, Emily David, Mariano (Pitosh) Heyden Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/75195/just-be-yourself-a-deep-dive-into-authentic-leadership-in-uncertain-times