Authentic Leadership and Improved Individual Performance: Affective Commitment and Individual Creativity’s Sequential Mediation

Abstract

Authentic leadership has become increasingly important in the literature, attracting the attention of many scholars in the last decade. This study adopted an employee-centered perspective to guide its examination of the relationship between authentic leadership and individual performance and investigation of the sequential mediation of employees’ affective commitment and individual creativity. An analysis was conducted of data collected from 214 employees working in different business sectors. The results reveal a statistically significant positive relationship between authentic leadership and employees’ workplace performance, which are both directly connected and indirectly linked through the two proposed psychosocial mechanisms. The findings thus indicate that authentic leadership reinforces workers’ emotional connection with their organizations, thereby increasing their individual creativity and, subsequently, promoting better on-the-job performance. This study presents new and significant results since, on the one hand, it relied on a sequential mediation analysis of variables and, on the other hand, integrated the four main constructs into a single model. The proposed model displays the chain of effects between authentic leadership, affective commitment, individual creativity, and employee workplace performance. Implications for organizational management are discussed.

The relationship between benevolent leadership and affective commitment from an employee perspective

“…The subject literature pays much attention to different leadership styles. Research on leadership styles has particularly focused on transformational leadership [ 1 , 2 ], ethical leadership [ 3 ], spiritual leadership [ 4 ], servant leadership [ 5 ] or authentic leadership [ 6 , 7 ].…”

A New Concept of Work Engagement Theory in Cognitive Engagement, Emotional Engagement, and Physical Engagement

“…Finally, previous studies have proposed that AL can increase the self-development and self-confidence of the employees ( Walumbwa et al, 2008 ), and the subordinates are self-confident, positive, and well-adjusted to believe in efficacy within an organization to achieve high levels of availability because of AL. In fact, past studies have examined similar connections between AL and absorption, core affect, and work intensity (e.g., Smithikrai and Suwannadet, 2018 ; Duarte et al, 2021 ; Huang et al, 2021 ).…”

The Effects of Leaders’ Prosocial Orientation on Employees’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior – The Roles of Affective Commitment and Workplace Ostracism

“…Affective commitment refers to an individual’s identification with an organization’s goals and values, emotional attachment, and level of commitment to the organization. 37 It represents the employee’s inner motivation to devote to the organization and influences the employee’s degree of work involvement. It is a high-level emotional factor for organizations and is also an internal motivation that drives employees to engage in positive behaviors for the organization’s benefit.…”

“…Under this situation, employees can develop great enthusiasm and dedication to their work and invest much time and effort to improve job performance. 37 At the same time, such employees will be spontaneously concerned about the interests and development status of the organization. They will be more inclined to establish harmonious working relationships with colleagues and help each other at work.…”

“… 44 Such participation in organizational development is regarded as the responsibility and obligation of employees. 37 Meanwhile, a high sense of psychological security causes employees to be unafraid when they face potential risks and failures in transformative behaviors. 45 Employees will be more inclined to share tasks and demonstrate positive building behaviors to their leaders, which will promote the generation of challenge-oriented OCB.…”