
Mats Alvesson
Professor

The perils of authentic leadership theory
Author
Summary, in English
In this commentary, we discuss perils of authentic leadership theory (ALT) in a modest effort to help weed out one theory that has gone amiss to pave the way for new ideas. We make an argument for why ALT is not only wrong in a harmless manner, but it may be outright perilous to leadership scholars, scholarship and those who believe in it. It may undermine academic work, delegitimize university institutions, make false promises to organizations, and cause identity trouble through encouraging managers and others overeager to live up to the proposed formula. We argue that leadership and authenticity should be kept separate as interests and themes of study.
Department/s
- Organizational Studies
Publishing year
2021-08-01
Language
English
Pages
483-490
Publication/Series
Leadership
Volume
17
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Topic
- Business Administration
Keywords
- Authenticity
- critique
- identity
- leadership
- research
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1742-7150