Authentic Leadership and Societal Transformation: A Review of Literature

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the literature on authentic leadership and societal transformation. The paper presents authentic leadership as the key player in the transformation of society. Society has suffered due to many financial and moral scandals, corruption, nepotism, leadership that has no place for followers, and lack of transparency. The paper proposes a new theoretical model to show how the newly discovered constructs interconnect and relate to one another. The methodology employed in this article is the review of extant conceptual, theoretical, and empirical literature to build a case for a theoretical model that links up authentic leadership and societal transformation to cause a change in society. The study identifies five main constructs that positively relate to one another and can provide the required leadership for societal transformation. The five constructs include authentic leadership, trigger events, developmental readiness, core positive psychological resources, and societal transformation. The findings showed that authentic leadership has positive effects on societal transformation. The mediation role of the core positive psychological resources variable is discussed. In addition, the moderating role of developmental readiness is discussed. This study will be important in providing knowledge in regard to the effect of authentic leadership on societal transformation. Finally, the recommendation for future empirical studies is given.