Viewing Authentic Leadership Through a Bourdieusian Lens: Understanding Gender and Leadership as Social Action

Abstract

The Problem. Many leadership development activities in modern organizations focus on the individual, either finding an individual with the secret sauce, named leadership potential, or training the individual in so-called effective leadership competencies. For women, this focus often leads to a 'fix the women' approach. Avolio and Gardner's Authentic Leadership (AL) theory with its overemphasis on the individual and narrow definitions of what it means to be 'authentic' reinforces the concept of the 'ideal leader' as the hero who will rid organizations of unethical practice. The theory's lack of attention to the role of context leads to errors in our understanding of gender and leadership, and perpetuates discrimination. The Solution. Bourdieu's Social Theory is used to explore AL theory with a view to illuminating the role of power and privilege inherent in this concept. The Stakeholders. Stakeholders are leadership development practitioners and HR specialists who are interested in reducing inequalities in organizational practices.

Leading the Academic Department: A Mother–Daughter Story

“…Given so much variation, we agree with Fox-Kirk [5] that context is key and that an individual achieving success as a leader in one setting may flounder in another. In the generally masculinist culture of universities, women leaders might be expected to face obstacles.…”

“…Leadership theorists attempt to categorize different "types" of leadership, such as "authentic" (using self-awareness to improve leadership) or "distributed" (shared across an organization), although not without attracting critique [5,6]. Another persistent theme is the attempt to discover qualities that predict "good" leadership and the combination of such qualities into leadership "styles", such as transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire [7].…”

Impossible or just irrelevant? Unravelling the ‘authentic leadership’ paradox through the lens of emotional labour

“…In a further challenge to AL’s leader-centric perspective on authenticity, Gardiner (2016: 633) draws on the work of Arendt to suggest that we are ‘always already beings in the world’ and hence that our actions and deeds are a truer reflection of who we are than our inner sensibility. The embodied nature of social history as context that shapes what individuals from different backgrounds can display and still be considered authentic (Fox-Kirk, 2017) is of relevance here, with Fox-Kirk (2017: 445) holding that ‘the idea that the working-class, Black woman from the American South and the elite, white man from New York can both equally express their “true self” in any social situation and be perceived as “authentic” is simply false’.…”

Contesting “Authenticity” in Authentic Leadership through a Mad Studies Lens

“…Differently, (neuro)prototypical "ideal" leaders can incorporate the capabilities of those with difference into their stories to help promote mad people as leaders (Fox-Kirk, 2017). Authenticity can be fostered with those who remove their false faces/ masks of normalcy.…”