Hi Dorianne and Patrice: Great discussions. So what's the Real Deal? I think it's highly contextual and personality driven.
Reflecting on a work environment familiar to me, which is a national government, I'd agree that being authentic and true to self is a function of where you work, and the degree to which your work environment is open to .... Being open and sincere with one's self. I've concluded that, in a political arena (with reference to Patrice's comment) it's not possible to be authentic to self. Being political, in my world, implied compliance to authority and power. Where there was challenge, there came the inevitable and often forced 'career move' obliging those who chose to be 'authentic' to .... Move on. I think there is ample anecdotal evidence to prove this is often the case, though I'm not aware of quantitative research on this topic.
I also believe that personality plays a big role; it takes a special skill set to be deeply self-aware and conscious of interactive responses, and aware of the consequences of choice. To comply, or not, or find a hybrid solution, and live with the results.
A conclusion, based on career and life experience, is that being authentic and true to self isn't possible in this crazy competitive organizational work environment which now has the added complexity of social media where, at its early stages, we naively thought it possible to be 'authentic' in sharing one's life with the world without realizing the potential damage to our working lives.
Looking forward to more exchanges!
On 3 May 2016 at 09:08, Dorianne Cotter-Lockard
<dcotter-lockard@email.fielding.edu> wrote:
I am grateful to Patrice Rosenthal for the important questions she raises and I hope that others will join in the conversation on this topic of Authentic Leadership. It is my hope that the volume I am editing will highlight the voices of those who have different definitions of authenticity. The question of power in relationships and organizations is certainly one important aspect, but not the only one. I think that self-awareness and other-awareness plays a key role. And since "awareness" is filtered by an individual's world view, what it means to be self- and other- aware will again differ depending on culture and context. The question of how authenticity affects power-relationships and the capacity for organizations to change (or evolve, to use another perspective) is intriguing. What do others have to say in response Patrice's question? What's the "real deal" here?
Best regards,
Dorianne
Dorianne Cotter-Lockard, PhD
Fellow, Institute for Social Innovation
Fielding Graduate University
SKYPE: dorianne.cotter
On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 12:00 AM, ODC-L automatic digest system
<LISTSERV@aomlists.pace.edu> wrote:
There is 1 message totaling 103 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Authentic Leadership for Change: Really?
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Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:38:37 +0000
From: "Patrice E. Rosenthal" <prosenthal@FIELDING.EDU>
Subject: Authentic Leadership for Change: Really?
I have some authenticity issues. That's to say, I have questions around authentic leadership (AL) as a growing issue in our field. AL is intriguing, without doubt. But it raises big questions. I'm wondering where we are as a community on AL, a decade or so after it became a 'thing' in our scholarship and practice.
Here are some questions. Reading across the literature, I can't grasp the meaning of authenticity that's at play. Authenticity seems to have as many meanings as individuals may have selves.
Some of my questions are about evidence. The field's still young so the jury's still out. But are we moving in the right direction re exploration of viability and impact?
Most of my questions relate to power. Some of these intersect with diversity (eg possible 'authenticity traps' for women managers; cultural differences). Others concern the concept of authentic followership. To me, AL (if we are still talking about position power here, which I think we are), seems a piece of cake compared to the vulnerabilities of upward authenticity in organizations. Can we authentically call for this and if so, where ..... in what kinds of organizations?
I'll stop here with a question. Is AL a new example of a classic issue in OD... the question of how to bring positive (values) change to the (inescapably) political arenas that constitute organizations? Political skills are essential in these efforts and I wonder whether AL facilitates or sidelines that issue.
I'm glad to see the recent call from Dorianne Cotter-Lockard for proposals for a new volume on AL. It looks like the collection will touch on many of the issues raised in this post and I look forward to it.
Meanwhile there's no time like the present for a conversation about whether AL is the real deal. I'd be interested in hearing colleagues' views.
Cheers,
Patrice
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End of ODC-L Digest - 24 Apr 2016 to 27 Apr 2016 (#2016-32)
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