The Authenticity of the Others: How Teammates’ Authenticity Relates to Our Well-Being

Abstract

Although prior research has linked being authentic to individual well-being, little is known about authenticity’s external effects, that is, whether being around those who are authentic is good or bad for us. Integrating authenticity research and social penetration theory, we propose that others’ authenticity facilitates a number of positive intra- and interpersonal processes. Using a sample of 715 employees nested in 109 teams working for a nonprofit organization, we found that teammate authenticity relates positively to focal employees’ work engagement and negatively to their emotional exhaustion. While teammate authenticity explained incremental validity in both outcomes beyond the focal employee’s self-authenticity, it did not moderate the link from self-authenticity to well-being. Thus, instead of further facilitating beneficial intra-individual processes, being around authentic teammates seems to trigger distinct beneficial (social) processes that are neglected when focusing merely on the authenticity of the individual employee.

Fall Issue, 2022

“…For instance, Kernis and Goldman (2006) found that misunderstandings and conflict with others are linked to inauthenticity (Sedikides et al, 2019). Alternatively, work teammates can influence authenticity (Emmerich et al, 2020). For…”

Widerstand im Arbeitsprozess

“…Luhmann, 1964a, S. 324, 380ff. ;1965, S. 173;Emmerich et al, 2019). 5 Unter Bedingungen hoher Mobilität der (potenziellen) Mitglieder erscheint die Entfremdungsthematik für die Organisation letztlich als Motivations-und Personalproblem, als Problem der Unzufriedenheit und Arbeitsleistungsminderung, als Behinderung der Beteiligung an formalen Situationen (vgl.…”

Authentic leadership and employee health: a conditional process model

“…Additionally, employees who feel able to exhibit their true emotions and whose outward expression is thus aligned with their true self should also benefit from establishing meaningful connections with their coworkers, giving them access to the resources the group offers (Emmerich, Knoll, & Rigotti, 2020). For example, employees who share their struggles concerning a specific work task with their coworkers should receive help from them, constituting additional resources that protect their health (Hobfoll, 2002).…”

“…Specifically, expressing felt emotions, such as sadness, frustration and joy, enables employees to conserve and replenish the attentional and energy resources they would normally invest into monitoring and regulating said emotions (Baumeister et al, 1998;Baumeister et al, 2007;Muraven et al, 2006) and thus represents a self-regulatory break (Grandey et al, 2013). Additionally, employees who feel able to exhibit their true emotions and whose outward expression is thus aligned with their true self should also benefit from establishing meaningful connections with their coworkers, giving them access to the resources the group offers (Emmerich et al, 2020). For example, employees who share their struggles concerning a specific work task with their coworkers should receive help from them, constituting additional resources that protect their health (Hobfoll, 2002).…”

“…The mediating role of PCA Combining the previous hypotheses, we propose that through expressing authentic emotions, authentic leaders set the contextual standard for the expression of genuine emotions in the group of employees they supervise (Cha et al, 2019;Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978), influencing emotional display rules in a top-down fashion (Grandey et al, 2013). Employees who perceive their workgroup as enabling them to express their true emotions (PCA) need to invest less attentional and energy resources into regulating their emotions (Baumeister et al, 1998) while also benefitting from social resources from their work group brought about by sharing their true needs and concerns (Emmerich et al, 2020). Such employees should thus benefit from an increased pool of resources that positively contributes to their health (Baumeister et al, 1998;Hobfoll, 2002).…”