Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-03T06:38:20.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Leader Authenticity and Ethics: A Heideggerian Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2023

Florence Villesèche Open the ORCID record for Florence Villesèche [Opens in a new window] ,
Anders Klitmøller Open the ORCID record for Anders Klitmøller [Opens in a new window]  and
Cathrine Bjørnholt Michaelsen Open the ORCID record for Cathrine Bjørnholt Michaelsen [Opens in a new window]
Florence Villesèche
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Anders Klitmøller
Affiliation:
Royal Danish Defence College, Denmark
Cathrine Bjørnholt Michaelsen
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the shadow of various business scandals and societal crises, scholars and practitioners have developed a growing interest in authentic leadership. This approach to leadership assumes that leaders may access and leverage their “true selves” and “core values” and that the combination of these two elements forms the basis from which they act resolutely, lead ethically, and benefit others. Drawing on Heidegger’s work, we argue that a concern for authenticity can indeed instigate a leadership ethic, albeit one that acknowledges the unfounded openness of existence and its inherent relationality. On this basis, we propose an ethics-as-practice approach in which leaders respond to the situation at hand by being “attuned to attunement,” which cultivates an openness to otherness and a responsibility to others.

Keywords

leadership ethicsauthenticityHeideggerphilosophynonfoundational ethicsresoluteness
Type
Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , First View , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Business Ethics

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agarwal, J., & Cruise Malloy, D. 2000. The role of existentialism in ethical business decision‐making. Business Ethics: A European Review, 9(3): 143–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmed, S. 2014. Not in the mood. New Formations: A Journal of Culture/Theory/Politics, 82: 13–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvesson, M., Blom, M., & Sveningsson, S. 2017. Reflexive leadership: Organizing in an imperfect world. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Alvesson, M., & Einola, K. 2019. Warning for excessive positivity: Authentic leadership and other traps in leadership studies. Leadership Quarterly, 30(4): 383–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arendt, H. 1958/2013. The human condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . 2014. Aristotle’s ethics: Writings from the complete works. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashman, I., & Winstanley, D. 2006. The ethics of organizational commitment. Business Ethics: A European Review, 15(2): 142–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjørnholt Michaelsen, C. 2021. The ethos of poetry: Listening to poetic and schizophrenic expressions of alienation and otherness. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 52(4): 334–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolle, E. 2006. Existential management. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2(3): 259–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, G. E. J. 2010. Reflective practice: Writing and professional development (3rd ed.). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bonner, J. M., Greenbaum, R. L., & Mayer, D. M. 2016. My boss is morally disengaged: The role of ethical leadership in explaining the interactive effect of supervisor and employee moral disengagement on employee behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 137: 731–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, B. 2012. The power of vulnerability: Teachings on authenticity, connection and courage. Louiseville, CO: Sounds True.Google Scholar
Brown, B. 2018. Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Carroll, B. J., Parker, P., & Inkson, K. 2010. Evasion of boredom: An unexpected spur to leadership? Human Relations, 63(7): 1031–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cashman, K. 2017. Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life (3rd ed.). Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler.Google Scholar
Chia, R., & Holt, R. 2006. Strategy as practical coping: A Heideggerian perspective. Organization Studies, 27(5): 635–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciulla, J. B. 1995. Leadership ethics: Mapping the territory. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5(1): 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciulla, J. B. 2009. Leadership and the ethics of care. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(1): 3–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciulla, J. B. 2020. The search for ethics in leadership, business, and beyond, vol. 50. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciulla, J. B., & Forsyth, D. R. 2011. Leadership ethics. In Bryman, A., Collinson, D., Grint, K., Jackson, B., & Uhl-Bien, M. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of leadership: 229–41. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Ciulla, J. B., Knights, D., Mabey, C., & Tomkins, L. 2018. Guest editors’ introduction: Philosophical contributions to leadership ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 28(1): 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clegg, S., Kornberger, M., & Rhodes, C. 2007. Business ethics as practice. British Journal of Management, 18(2): 107–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunliffe, A. L., & Hibbert, P. 2016. The philosophical basis of leadership-as-practice from a hermeneutical perspective. In Raelin, J. A. (Ed.), Leadership-as-practice: Theory and application: 50–69. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Beauvoir, S. 1947/2013. Pour une morale de l’ambiguïté. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Dreyfus, H. L. 1991. Being-in-the world: A commentary on Heidegger’s Being and time, division I. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Elley-Brown, M. J., & Pringle, J. K. 2021. Sorge, Heideggerian ethic of care: Creating more caring organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 168: 23–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elpidorou, A., & Freeman, L. 2015. Affectivity in Heidegger I: Moods and emotions in being and time. Philosophy Compass, 10(10): 661–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fanon, F. 1952/2015. Peau noire, masques blancs. Paris: Editions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Fischer, T., & Sitkin, S. B. 2023. Leadership styles: A comprehensive assessment and way forward. Academy of Management Annals, 17(1): 331–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flynn, G., & Werhane, P. H. 2022. A framework for leadership and ethics in business and society. In Flynn, G. (Ed.), Leadership and business ethics, vol. 60: 1–18. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, J., & Harding, N. 2011. The impossibility of the “true self” in authentic leadership. Leadership, 7(4): 463–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardiner, R. A. 2017. Authentic leadership through an ethical prism. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 19(4): 467–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardiner, R. A. 2018. Ethical responsibility—an Arendtian turn. Business Ethics Quarterly, 28(1): 31–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, W. L., Cogliser, C. C., Davis, K. M., & Dickens, M. P. 2011. Authentic leadership: A review of the literature and research agenda. Leadership Quarterly, 22(6): 1120–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, B. 2003. Authentic leadership: Rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.Google Scholar
George, B., & Clayton, Z. 2022. True north, emerging leader edition: Leading authentically in today’s workplace. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.Google Scholar
George, B., & Sims, P. 2007. True north: Discover your authentic leadership. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. 1984. Hölderlins Hymne “der Ister .” Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Vittorio Klostermann.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. 1994. Basic questions of philosophy: Selected “problems” of “logic” (Rojcewicz, R. & Schuwer, A., Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heidegger, M. 1995. Fundamental concepts of metaphysics (McNeill, W. & Walker, N., Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. 1998. Pathmarks (Mcneill, W., Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heidegger, M. 2010. Being and time (Stambaugh, J., Trans.). Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, J. 2011. Education as authentic dialogue or resolute attunement. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 49(2): 50–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iszatt-White, M., Carroll, B., Gardiner, R. A., & Kempster, S. 2021. Leadership special issue: Do we need authentic leadership? Interrogating authenticity in a new world order. Leadership, 17(4): 389–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iszatt-White, M., & Kempster, S. 2019. Authentic leadership: Getting back to the roots of the “root construct”? International Journal of Management Reviews, 21: 356–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iszatt-White, M., Stead, V., & Elliott, C. 2021. Impossible or just irrelevant? Unravelling the “authentic leadership” paradox through the lens of emotional labour. Leadership, 17(4): 464–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnsen, C. G. 2018. Authenticating the leader: Why Bill George believes that a moral compass would have kept Jeffrey Skilling out of jail. Journal of Business Ethics, 147: 53–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C. E. 2019. Normative leadership theories, meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.Google Scholar
Kempster, S., Iszatt-White, M., & Brown, M. 2019. Authenticity in leadership: Reframing relational transparency through the lens of emotional labour. Leadership, 15(3): 319–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kernis, M. H., & Goldman, B. M. 2006. A multicomponent conceptualization of authenticity: Theory and research. In Zanna, M. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 38: 283–57. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ladkin, D. 2021. Problematizing authentic leadership: How the experience of minoritized people highlights the impossibility of leading from one’s “true self.” Leadership, 17(4): 395–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladkin, D., & Taylor, S. S. 2010. Enacting the “true self”: Towards a theory of embodied authentic leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 21(1): 64–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawler, J., & Ashman, I. 2012. Theorizing leadership authenticity: A Sartrean perspective. Leadership, 8(4): 327–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, C. 2020. How does openness about sexual and gender identities influence self-perceptions of teacher leader authenticity? Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 50(1): 140–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemoine, G. J., Hartnell, C. A., & Leroy, H. 2019. Taking stock of moral approaches to leadership: An integrative review of ethical, authentic, and servant leadership. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1): 148–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinas, E. 1961/1979. Totality and infinity. An essay on exteriority. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monzani, L., Hernandez Bark, A. S., Van Dick, R., & Peiró, J. M. 2015. The synergistic effect of prototypicality and authenticity in the relation between leaders’ biological gender and their organizational identification. Journal of Business Ethics, 132: 737–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nancy, J. L. 2002. Heidegger’s “originary ethics.” In Raffoul, F. & Pettigrew, D. (Eds.), Heidegger and practical philosophy: 65–86. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Nancy, J. L. 2008. Dis-enclosure: The deconstruction of Christianity. New York: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar
Ngunjiri, F. W., & Hernandez, K.-A. C. 2017. Problematizing authentic leadership: A collaborative autoethnography of immigrant women of color leaders in higher education. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 19(4): 393–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nietzsche, F. 2001. The gay science: With a prelude in German rhymes and an appendix of songs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Novicevic, M. M., Harvey, M. G., Buckley, M. R., & Brown, J. A. 2006. Authentic leadership: A historical perspective. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 13(1): 64–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Painter-Morland, M. 2008. Business ethics as practice: Ethics as the everyday business of business. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Painter-Morland, M. 2017. The role of Continental philosophy in business ethics research. In Werhane, P. H., Freeman, E. R., & Dmytriyev, S. (Eds.), Research approaches in business ethics: 36–49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Segal, S. 2010. A Heideggerian approach to practice-based reflexivity. Management Learning, 41(4): 339–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiller, C., Maunganui Wolfgramm, R., Henry, E., & Pouwhare, R. 2019. Paradigm warriors: Advancing a radical ecosystems view of collective leadership from an indigenous Māori perspective. Human Relations, 73(4): 516–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spoelstra, S. 2018. Leadership and organization: A philosophical introduction. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C. 1991. The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomkins, L., & Simpson, P. 2015. Caring leadership: A Heideggerian perspective. Organization Studies, 36(8): 1013–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warner, L. S., & Grint, K. 2006. American Indian ways of leading and knowing. Leadership, 2(2): 225–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. K. 1991. Political theory and postmodernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Withy, K. 2015. Heidegger on being uncanny. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zundel, M. 2012. Walking to learn: Rethinking reflection for management learning. Management Learning, 44(2): 109–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar