Session Information
26 SES 09 B, Researching Educational Leadership across the Globe
Paper Session
Contribution
Authentic leadership is a metaphor for professionally effective, morally sound, and deliberately reflective practices in educational administration (Begley, 2001). This leadership links assumptions, beliefs, and actions related to the authentic self, relationships, learning, governance, and organization, through significant human values, to leadership and management practices that are ethically and morally uplifting (Duignan & Bhindi, 1997: 208). At the time when an atmosphere of distrust and despair is gradually permeating schools, there is a growing expectation of authentic school leaders to build a rich, engaging, and productive learning environment for students. With the collective efforts of all school stakeholders, students can achieve high-quality learning outcome (Duignan, 2014).
Developing authentic capacity in others is one significant function of authentic leaders (Whitehead & Brown, 2011). Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May and Walumbwa (2005), and Ilies, Morgeson and Nahrgang (2005) propose the theoretical perspective that authentic leaders can be positive behavioral models for followers to emulate, and the followers are more likely to have similar values and behave more authentically through the development of high-quality relationships with their leaders, which are based on the principles of social exchange. (Ilies, et al., 2005). Leader-member exchange (LMX) is a social exchange relationship, which is developed through the interaction or exchange between leaders and followers. Social exchange engenders the feelings of personal obligation, gratitude, and trust (Sparrowe & Liden, 1997: 523). Authentic educational leaders must achieve the goals through webs of relationships (Duignan, 2014). Ilies et al. (2005:387) claim that authentic leaders are more likely to develop high-quality LMX, which characterized by high levels of respect, positive affect, and trust. Such reciprocity is posited to result in greater authenticity and well-being among followers (Avolio & Gardner, 2005).
Therefore, the underlying assumption here is that authentic leader enhances high quality LMX with the followers, high quality LMX will have a positive effect on followers’ authenticity. LMX could mediate the effect of principals’ authentic leadership on teacher authenticity. However, confirming this viewpoint needs more empirical studies.The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between principals’ authentic leadership, LMX and teacher authenticity. The research questions are as follows:
1. Can a model be formulated to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of principals’ authentic leadership, LMX, and teacher authenticity?
2. Does LMX mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and teacher authenticity?
Authenticity
According to Gardner et al. (2005), the same components of authenticity that are present in authentic leaders are also present in authentic followers. A framework based on literature review (e.g., Gardner et al., 2005; Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008) and Taiwan culture context is adopted to examine principals’ and teachers’ authenticity, including self-awareness, moral discipline, relational transparency, balanced processing and psychological capital. What follows is a brief description of each dimension. Self-awareness represents that individuals are aware of their own strengths, weaknesses, and motivations as well as others’ perceptions of their work practices. Moral discipline emphasizes that individuals display behaviors that are guided by internal moral standards and values, fit their deeds to words and have moral courage. Relational transparency means that individuals disclosing their real thoughts and feelings to others, and devoting to genuine interpersonal interaction. Balanced processing indicates individuals can objectively and fairly analyze all relevant information before making a decision. Finally, psychological capital refers to individuals’ positive psychological capacities of confidence, optimism, hope and resiliency when they enact their role as principals or teachers.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 315-340. Begley, P.T. (2001). In pursuit of authentic school leadership practices. International Journal of Leadership in Education 4(4): 353–66. Duignan, P. A. (2014). Authenticity in educational leadership: History, ideal, reality. Journal of Educational Administration, 52( 2), 152 – 172. Duignan, P., & Bhindi, N. (1997). Authenticity in leadership: An emerging perspective. Journal of Educational Administration, 35(3-4), 195-209. Gardner, W. L., Avolio, B. J., Luthans, F., May, D. R., & Walumbwa, F. (2005). "Can you see the real me?" A self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 343-372. Ilies, R., Morgeson, F. P., & Nahrgang, J. D. (2005). Authentic leadership and eudaemonic well-being: Understanding leader-follower outcomes. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 373-394. Sparrowe, R. T., & Liden, R. C. (1997). Process and structure in leader-member exchange. Academy of Management Review, 22, 522-552. Walumbwa, F. O., Avolio, B. J., Gardner, W. L., Wernsing, T. S., & Peterson, S. J. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34(1), 89-126. Whitehead, G. E. & Brown, M. (2011). Authenticity in Chinese leadership: A quantitative study comparing western notions of authentic constructs with Chinese responses to an authenticity instrument. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 6(2), 162-188.
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