Theorizing leadership authenticity: A Sartrean perspective

Lawler, John; Ashman, Ian

doi:10.1177/1742715012444685

Cited by 70 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(58 reference statements)

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“…By showing how the media constructed the two CEOs in our study as authentic or inauthentic, our findings move us further away from trait‐based explanations of what constitutes authentic leadership. At the same time, they extend recent work that has shown that authenticity is not something that individuals possess, but is something that is attributed to them (Lawler and Ashman, ; Sinclair, ). This attribution of authenticity is not stable, but is continually constituted through the enactment of embodied gendered leadership (Butler, , ) embedded in a context that itself is discursively constructed.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Doing Authenticity: The Gendered Construction of Authentic Leadership

Liu¹,

Cutcher²,

Grant³

2015

Gender Work & Organization

106

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Authenticity has been a focus of much leadership research in recent years. Despite this interest, there has been a dearth of studies that explore the role of gender in the social construction of authenticity. To date, authentic leadership theories have tended to be either gender neutral or, where gender has been considered, it is argued that women as ‘outsiders’ are less likely to be accepted by their followers as authentic leaders. In this study we examine the media representations of the CEOs — one male, one female — of two major Australian retail banks during the global financial crisis. Our approach enables us to show that authenticity is something leaders ‘do’ rather than something they ‘have’ or ‘are’, and that being constructed as authentic depends on the leader performing authenticity in line with gender norms deemed appropriate for the socially constructed context in which they are expected to lead.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Doing Authenticity: The Gendered Construction of Authentic Leadership

Liu¹,

Cutcher²,

Grant³

2015

Gender Work & Organization

106

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“…Living an authentic life reflects an adequate acknowledgment and embracement of an individual role to make free choices alongside the willingness to take responsibility of the consequences of these choices. Authenticity is not something that can be claimed as achieved but as an aspiration (D'Anjou, 2011;Lawler and Ashman, 2012). A Sartrean perspective is adopted in order to bring this richness and theoretical flavour to our interpretation of the content analysis.…”

Section: The Concept Of Authenticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Authenticity does not exist in a vacuum by one identifying an authentic faith and staying true to that in practice. Lawler and Ashman (2012) interpret 'unauthenticity' as being in a situation where individuals refuse (or fail) to make choices/decisions and take personal responsibility for their decisions and actions (Lawler and Ashman, 2012).…”

Section: The Concept Of Authenticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sartrean bad-faith? Site-specific social, ethical and environmental disclosures by multinational mining companies

Khalid

Atkins

Barone

2018

AAAJ

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Structured AbstractPurpose: This paper investigates why environmentally-sensitive companies still face criticism despite the extensive disclosures in their annual reports. This paper explores the extent of site-specific social, environmental and ethical (SEE) reporting by mining companies operating in Ghana. Methodology/Approach:We conduct an interpretive content analysis of the annual/integrated reports of mining companies for the years 2009 to 2014 to extract sitespecific SEE information relating to the companies' mining operations in Ghana. We also theorise these actions using the existentialist work of Jean-Paul Sartre, in particular his work on 'bad faith, nothingness and authenticity'. Findings and Implications:The findings suggest that SEE information disclosure at site specific level remains problematic because of bad faith and inauthenticity by mining companies attempting to placate a range of stakeholders. Bad faith represents a form of selfdeception or internal denial which manifest in corporate narratives. Inauthenticity is a selfawareness that culminates in the denunciation of corporate identity and the pursuit of external expectations. The effect is the production of inauthentic corporate accounts that is constrained by assumption made on stakeholder expectation. Originality:We apply a Sartrean lens to explore site-specific SEE. Furthermore, we seek to expand the social accounting research domain by drawing on Sartre's work on 'bad faith' and 'nothingness'. Sartre's work to the best of our knowledge is not explored in social accounting research.

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“…Sartre's commentary on bad faith is helpful for understanding that trust for professions, as for individuals, must be earned not through who we say we are, but rather through demonstrations of what we actually do. Actions rather than intentions are what counts in building trustworthiness (Lawler & Ashman, 2012). And perhaps that is not a bad thing.…”

Section: On Being Trustworthymentioning

confidence: 99%