Leading Change Authentically: How Authentic Leaders Influence Follower Responses to Complex Change
Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies
Published online on August 16, 2016
Abstract
Organizational change has become complex and challenging, and employee attitudes and beliefs toward change are even more important. This article proposes a theoretical framework on how authentic leadership may influence followers’ change-oriented attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors through follower psychological resources including hope, trust, optimism, self-efficacy, and resilience, which influence readiness for change and change implementation. We maintain that an authentic leader’s behavior can influence his or her followers’ change-oriented behaviors in participation in decision-making processes and change initiatives, organization citizenship behavior, organizational learning processes, and forming coalition for change. We developed propositions for further empirical investigation.