AUTHENTIC VERSUS TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP: ASSESSING THEIR EFFECTIVENESS ON ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR OF FOLLOWERS

Thomas H. Tonkin Regent University

ABSTRACT 

With the corporate scandals of the 2000s, many employees in organizations are clamoring for authenticity in their leaders. Though authenticity appears to be a noble trait, how effective is this as a leadership approach, specifically in increasing altruistic employee organizational citizenship behaviors? Is authentic leadership more effective than other leadership approaches, such as transformational leadership? This study examined the extent to which authentic leadership is a stronger predictor of employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCBs) compared to transformational leadership. The analysis also investigated the extent to which overall job satisfaction mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and OCBs. The findings suggest that in fact three out of the fours sub scales in authentic leadership had a positive effect on both overall job satisfaction and the OCB of altruism. This study implies suggestions for practical interventions based on the associated theories found in this paper.