Leadership: Facing the Authenticity Conundrum

Abstract

This chapter analyses common, contradictory, paradoxical patterns in the evolution and development of authentic leadership that emerged throughout this handbook. The authentic leadership literature has been valuable in focusing on and reawakening a wider discourse on leadership and in particular the need for a reappraisal of leadership values. The adamant, one might say absolutist, claims for the theory have begun to restrict understanding. The chapters in this book reveal dimensions and insights that broaden and diversify potential approaches to contextual understanding and exercising leadership. Reilly and Turcan conclude that authentic leadership is still in its embryonic stage and whether it will fully emerge and become a mature discipline remains to be seen.

Citation

Reilly, J.E. and Turcan, R.V. (2023), "Leadership: Facing the Authenticity Conundrum", Turcan, R.V., Reilly, J.E., Jørgensen, K.M., Taran, Y. and Bujac, A.I. (Ed.) The Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 559-576. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-013-920231025