Prelims

Half Title Page

The Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership

Endorsements

The Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership is a remarkable reader covering the complexities of leading across time, and into the future, with authenticity. The handbook offers a fresh leadership perspective across a vast field of research, from leadership insight revealed by classic literature, to the role of political and multinational institutions, to the growing influence of the internet of things, and well beyond. Great leadership literature compels the individual to think well beyond the chapters. As the handbook is about original research into the topic, the questions and unique insights about the leadership conditions lead the reader to consider their own role and aspirations in leadership. It is truly a mind-expanding exploration into all things authentic leadership.

Justin Ferbey, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Yukon, Canada

Like many helpful big ideas, the notion of authentic leadership can prove to be remarkably slippery when subjected to close academic scrutiny. With contributions from a wide diversity of expert contributors, the Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership maps out and explores the boundaries of the landscape of authentic leadership, its literature, theory and practice, with commendable clarity and insight. I am encouraged to hope that its contribution will broaden our knowledge and understanding of the notion of authentic leadership, making it less slippery and more profoundly useful for many readers.

Norman M. Fraser, PhD, IT entrepreneur, Adjunct Professor, Aalborg University Business School, Denmark.

In a world where the old paradigms are breaking down, we need leaders to guide our politics, institutions and organisations through the turbulent waters of the 21^st century and enable the world to break through to new sustainable models of growth. What is leadership? How do we define it and what does ‘good’ look like, in a world increasingly disrupted by existential threats such as pandemics and climate change? What do we mean by ‘authentic and how does it “fit” with different cultures, social norms and the increasing intrusion of technology into decision-making? Finally, as new types of organisations and businesses emerge, what types of leadership are needed? The Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership gives us perspectives from multiple dimensions as to how we might answer these vital questions. It will provoke thinking and, hopefully, lead to different ways of being and seeing leaders in our modern world.

Steven Parker, Leadership Coach, Chair of TAA Tech Ventures, UK

Scholars, practitioners, and the general public will enjoy this insightful handbook on authentic leadership lessons from AI, education, business, policy, NGO contexts, as well as COVID-19, which specifically benefits from considerable data and hindsight since the pandemic onset. This interdisciplinary author team blends in historical approaches with the latest in the field to provide analysis and advice for leaders in corporations, non-profits, and the public sector. The variety of methodological approaches (e.g., bibliometrics, inductive qualitative research, and autoethnography) and contexts in the Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership showcase state-of-the-art scholarship and practice in authentic leadership.

Siri Terjesen, Professor, Florida Atlantic University, US

In today's fast-paced and ever-changing world, leadership plays an indispensable role in shaping society. With the emergence of alternative facts, truth decay, siloed thinking, and the unstoppable rise of AI, it has become increasingly difficult to come together and tackle regional and global issues while adhering to shared values. The Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand and participate in the dialogue around the role of authentic leadership in today’s fluid world. It is a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary guide that serves as a catalyst for meaningful conversations about what it means to be an authentic leader and the important part it plays in our ability to navigate the challenges of the 21st century. I believe it spurs on multi stakeholder debate and further collaboration on the complex topic of authentic leadership.

Alex Tveit, Co-founder and CEO, Sustainable Impact Foundation, Toronto, Canada

Title Page

The Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership

Edited by

Romeo V. Turcan

Aalborg University, Denmark

John E. Reilly

University of Kent, UK

Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen

Malmö University, Sweden

Yariv Taran

Aalborg University, Denmark

And

Andreea I. Bujac

University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

First edition 2023

Copyright © 2023 by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80262-014-6 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-013-9 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-015-3 (Epub)

Dedication

To our families, leaders who continue to inspire us.

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Vignettes

About the Contributors

Tommi Auvinen is a Senior Lecturer and leading researcher in Management and Leadership at the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics (JSBE) in Finland and a docent in narrative leadership research at the University of Lapland. His research focuses on leadership themes, such as storytelling and discursive power, and strategy-as-practice. Tommi has published more than 30 refereed articles in national and international journals – including the Journal of Management Learning, Accounting and Business Research and the Journal of Business Ethics – and has written book chapters published by Routledge and Springer. Tommi received his MSc in Management and Leadership in 2006, licentiate in 2008 and PhD in 2013 from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.

Andreea Bujac is an Associate Professor of B2B Marketing at the University of Southern Denmark's Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management. Her research focuses on B2B marketing, branding and marketing communication. She has been published in several reputable scientific journals, including Industrial Marketing Management and the Journal of Euromarketing. Andreea teaches courses and supervises projects at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. She received her MSc in International Business Economics and PhD in Marketing from Aalborg University in Denmark.

Sofia Daskou is an Associate Professor of Business and Customer Management at Neapolis University Pafos (NUP). She holds a PhD from the University of Strathclyde and has more than 20 years of academic experience at several UK universities, including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Plymouth, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Stirling. She currently coordinates the MSc in Digital Marketing at NUP. Her research interests include sustainability, CRM, customer relationships and issues, service management, education, ethical consumption, mindfulness and entrepreneurial thinking. Her research has been published in the Journal of Financial Services Marketing, the European Journal of Sport Science, the International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Nutrients, Global Business and Economics Review and the Journal of Relationship Marketing. She is on the editorial board of several academic journals and serves as the President of the International Advisory Council for the Marketing Profession, an advisory body of the International Institute of Marketing Professionals.

Ralph Dreher is a Full Professor of Technical Vocational Didactics (TVD) at the University of Siegen. He completed his vocational education in automotive mechanics before studying mechanical engineering, pedagogy and German Language. After earning his MSc, he wrote his doctoral dissertation on simulation-added and multimedia-supported technical training. Ralph worked as a technical teacher and researcher behind the development and evaluation of TT-TVET programmes for technical vocational teachers in Germany, China and Bangladesh. Following his work as a Full Professor at the University of Wuppertal, he founded the TVD Chair at the University of Siegen. Ralph leads several international projects: Agora (encourages undergraduate engineering students to enrol in MA teacher-training courses); Diakom-E (develops the diagnostic competence of automotive mechatronics); FAKTUR (develops cases for inclusive VET teaching and learning); and COMET (develops work-oriented tasks for TVET and measures the competencies of VET students and teachers).

Lord Michael German OBE led the Liberal Democrat group on Cardiff City Council from 1983 to 1995. Between 1990 and 1999 he headed the European Division of the Welsh Joint Education Committee. In 1997, he was awarded the OBE for political and community service in Wales. In 1999, he was elected to represent South Wales East in the first-ever elections for the National Assembly for Wales and to lead his party in the Senedd (the Welsh Parliament). Throughout his legislative tenure, he served as Deputy First Minister and held various ministerial portfolios. In 2007, he became the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, ultimately leaving the National Assembly in June 2010 to join the House of Lords. Between 2010 and 2015, he served as the House of Lords' Spokesperson on Work and Pensions. He currently occupies several roles, including the House of Lords' Spokesperson for Probation, Rehabilitation and Prison Reform, a member of the House of Lords Commission and a former member of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. He holds an PG Diploma in Education Management from the University of West England.

Gesine Haseloff is a researcher and project coordinator at the Chair of Technical Vocational Didactics at the University of Siegen and the Technical University of Dresden Germany. She has experience in training teachers for technical vocational education and training (TVET) and has been involved in several international research and development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. In her doctoral thesis, Gesine developed an educational system that allowed students to progress from the bachelor's level to the master's level and to the PhD level. She has co-authored several international research projects, including the Cedefop study on micro-credentials for labour market education and training and a study on transnational qualification and training partnerships on behalf of the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Benjamin Heslop has undertaken two PhD programmes, most recently at the University of Newcastle in Australia. In both programmes, he investigated group dynamics from numerous perspectives, aiming to combine multiple bodies of literature and their theories into a single model. Benjamin is currently conducting research for Australia's Department of Defence to improve military structures and operations and restructure its science and technology arm. Benjamin remains interested in developing empirical support for his ComPILAR model. He has earned the following degrees: MPhil (Public Health), MPhil (Innovation) and BEng (Systems).

Jens Holmgren is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Leadership, the Head of Studies and the Vice Head at Aalborg University Business School. His research has focused on the managerial aspects of implemented changes in both public- and private-sector organisations and has, among other things, contributed to the development of the national competence framework within the competence self-leadership. He has gained extensive management experience through his roles as HR manager in the construction industry and development manager at a large consulting firm.

Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen is a Professor of Organization Studies at the Department of Urban Studies at Malmö University in Sweden. He teaches leadership in the context of societal challenges and organisational changes. His research has focused on storytelling, ethics and power in organisations, and his current research focuses on how to combine storytelling and Gaia into a renewed concept of sustainable leadership. Furthermore, he assesses the relationship between entrepreneurial stories and urban spaces. Kenneth's work has been published by multiple prominent publishers, including the Copenhagen Business School Press, Sage, Palgrave MacMillan and Springer, and in several journals, including Organization, the Scandinavian Journal of Management, The Learning Organization and Business Ethics: A European Perspective.

Eneli Kindsiko is an Associate Professor of Qualitative Research and former Research Fellow and Lecturer of Management at the University of Tartu School of Economics and Business Administration in Estonia. She has previously served as a visiting lecturer and researcher at Southampton University (UK), the Manchester Business School (UK), the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and the University of Bratislava (Slovakia), among many others. Her qualitative research focuses on the academic labour market and management dynamics. She has written one monograph published by Emerald (‘Organisational Control in University Management’), several book chapters and several articles published in prominent academic journals, including the Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, PLOS One and Journalism Practice. Eneli received a PhD from the University of Tartu in 2014, and the milestones of her thesis were established during her stay as a visiting doctoral student at the Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom.

Jackson Kinyanjui is an early-stage researcher at the LNETN project currently pursuing a PhD in Management at Halmstad University Sweden. In his research, Jackson explores how new ventures and sectors co-emerge, compete and are co-legitimated. His recent work has been underpinned by emergence, legitimation and complexity theories. Jackson has served as a change and management consultant for SMEs in the business and health domains in both Kenya and the United Kingdom. Jackson earned his MSc in Global Business and Management from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom and his MSc in International Management from ISCTE-IUL in Portugal.

Louise B. Kringelum is an Associate Professor and Head of Studies at Aalborg University Business School. Her research is primarily focused on business models, strategy and organisational development. Methodologically, she works as an engaged scholar with an interdisciplinary perspective on business development. Her research has been published in multiple journals, including the Journal of Critical Realism, The Learning Organization and the Journal of Industrial Ecology. Louise received a BSc in Business Economics and an MSc in Management Accounting from Aalborg University and earned her industrial PhD in collaboration with Aalborg University, the Port of Aalborg.

Igor Laine is a post-doctoral researcher at the LUT University School of Business in Finland. He also serves as the Academic Director of the Master's in International Business and Entrepreneurship programme. His primary research interests are the internationalisation of entrepreneurial firms across various institutional contexts, decision-making logics and entrepreneurial ecosystems. His work has been published in the International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, the Journal of East-West Business and the Journal of Business Ecosystems. He has also written numerous book chapters and conference papers. Igor received a BSc in Management from St Petersburg State University in Russia and an MSc in International Technology & Innovation Management and PhD from LUT University in Finland.

Jeremy Lefroy has worked in the coffee industry for much of his life, including in Tanzania from 1989 to 2000, where he was involved in establishing the Training for Life programme. He is a qualified chartered accountant with a background in manufacturing, international trade and agriculture. Between 2010 and 2019, he was a member of the UK Parliament, serving on the International Development Committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights. He ran multiple all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs), including the APPG on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases. He also chaired the board of the international Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (2013–2019), which focuses on the urgent need for sustainable work and livelihoods for young people. Since leaving Parliament, his work has focused on jobs and livelihoods in agriculture and accessible finance. He serves as the treasurer of a local church and enjoys playing in the University Hospital Orchestra in Stoke-on-Trent, UK.

Louis Lines is a Marie-Curie Horizon 2020 researcher focused on questions of legitimacy within the context of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union and the emerging new Europe. Louis's research centres on processes of building legitimacy and the mechanisms of de-legitimation with a conceptual focus on tradition and its intersection with modernity. Holding an MBA from the Manchester Business School Louis previously worked in strategic and financial consultancy in London and continues to hold a trustee position at Michal Hall, an independent Waldorf Steiner School.

Lucia Mortensen is an experienced facilitator of industrial symbiosis at Port of Aalborg Research and Development in Denmark. Lucia engages with action research methodologies through a transdisciplinary approach to facilitating the emergence of symbioses. Her work has been published in multiple international journals, including the JCLEPRO and the Journal of Maritime Policy & Management. Lucia earned her BSc in Geography and MSc in Environmental Management and Sustainable Science from Aalborg University and her industrial PhD in collaboration with Aalborg University and Port of Aalborg.

Chris Mould is one of the UK's top social entrepreneurs profiled by The Guardian, the founder and CEO of the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion, a Bulgarian organisation working to break the cycle of poverty in Southeast Europe, and a partner at the Shaftesbury Partnership, a social business whose mission is to create trailblazing reforms that tackle systemic disadvantages and create opportunity. Chris has worked with officials at the highest levels of government in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. Chris has extensive leadership experience in the NHS, the police and the voluntary sector. He has led more than 20 start-ups and mergers across the public, voluntary and private sectors. Chris led the Trussell Trust through its transition from a small Christian charity developing community-based projects aimed at tackling poverty and exclusion to an award-winning national organisation. Chris has an MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics.

Niilo Noponen is currently earning his PhD in Management and Leadership and serving as a lecturer at the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics (JSBE) in Finland. His research focuses on algorithmic management and the impact of artificial intelligence on leadership and organisations. Niilo has a BSc in Business Administration and Management and an MSc in Management and Leadership from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Justinus Pieper is a Research Associate at University of Siegen, TVD, Chair: Professor Ralph Dreher. He received the 2020 FiNAF Award for Sustainable Leadership Research and was nominated for the university's Professor of the Year Award in 2019. He served as a visiting professor at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences with the denomination: ‘History and Strategy in Business Context’, where he received the 2016 Teaching Award. Justinus is the initiator and moderator of the ‘Beuth Meets Business’ (We Meet Business) series at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences featuring high-ranking guests from the business and policy spheres. Additionally, he heads the ‘Leadership and Strategy’ working group of the Association of German Engineers Berlin-Brandenburg (VDI-BB). Justinus earned his PhD in Leadership from the University of Vienna. For fifteen years he is a leadership coach, whose clients are besides others Audi AG, MastJaegermeister SE and Siemens Nokia.

Titta Pitman is an entrepreneur and a corporate professional in marketing management. She is a city council member in Imatra, Finland, and has served as a member on several boards. She currently works at LUT Business School in Finland as a junior researcher and doctoral candidate. Her research interests include B2B sales management and leadership development, the digital transformation of B2B sales and the leadership capabilities important in the digital age. Titta earned her MSc in Business administration (International Marketing) from LUT Business School (known then as the LUT School of Business and Management) in Finland and her BSc in Business Administration (Marketing) from the LAB University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

Mihai Pohontu is the Chairman of Amber, a videogame-development agency headquartered in Bucharest, Romania. Previously, Mihai served as the VP of Emerging Platforms at Samsung, working to build the developer ecosystem around the company's product line. Prior to joining Samsung, he oversaw product operations at Disney Interactive, a team of 600+ staff distributed across nine locations around the world. While at Disney Interactive, Mihai founded the Partners Group, delivering a portfolio of co-development and licensing projects that leveraged Disney's intellectual property to deliver high-quality entertainment experiences in collaboration with external studios and publishers, such as the top 50 grossing game ‘Frozen Free Fall’. Prior to his time with Disney, Mihai served as the VP and General Manager of Central Development Services at Electronic Arts, overseeing operational teams and supporting 18 development studios across three continents. He founded and worked as the General Manager of EA Romania, one of the largest videogame-development studios in Eastern Europe.

John E. Reilly has considerable experience in both international higher education and the field of university governance and management. His extensive knowledge of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Europe, East Africa and Oceania, among others, has given him a multi-cultural, transnational understanding of the prominent issues and challenges facing the field of university autonomy, governance and management. He is a member of the UK EHEA (Bologna Process) Experts team, meaning that he has a full understanding of the Bologna Process and the European Commission's modernisation agenda. Other areas of interest on which he has written include the following: student mobility (study and work placement); academic recognition and the use of credits (ECTS); joint degree programmes (bachelor's, master's, doctoral); the Bologna Process and European higher education modernisation; the tuning process; governance and management in higher education; external and internal quality-assurance and enhancement measures (European Commission-funded study and publication with Ard Jongsma); and university internationalisation and transnational education. He received an MA from Edinburgh University in 1962 and a diploma in education from Oxford University in 1963. Later, in 1969, he received an MA in Oriental and African Studies from the University of London.

Sami Saarenketo is a Professor of International Marketing at LUT Business School in Finland. His primary areas of research interest are international marketing and entrepreneurship among small technology-based firms. His work on these topics has been published in the Journal of World Business, Management International Review, International Business Review, the European Journal of Marketing and the Journal of International Entrepreneurship, among others. Sami currently serves as the Dean of the School of Business and Management. He earned his MSc and PhD in Economics and Business Administration from LUT University in Finland.

Pasi Sajasalo is a Lecturer of Management and Leadership at the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics (JSBE) in Finland. His research focuses on various aspects of strategy in diverse contexts, including the forestry, engineering and media industries as well as the financial sector. More recently, his work has focused on strategy-as-practice, including cognitive aspects of strategy, such as strategy-related sensemaking and sensegiving. His work has been published in national and international journals as well as in books published by national and international publishers. Pasi earned his PhD in Strategy from the University of Jyväskylä in 2003.

Dennis P. Sakalauskas is a member of the Faculty for the MBA programmes at both McGill University and the University of Ottawa as a mentor and also as a Lecturer of Entrepreneurship Innovation and Strategic Marketing Management. He is also a proficient entrepreneur and a Fortune 500 Executive, having launched and run a digital marketing communications agency now in its 11th year and he has also built teams and led roles with Pfizer, Medtronic and Bristol-Myers Squibb in both the United States and Canada. He is currently innovating a new frontier of research in the areas of entrepreneurial motivations for starting new venture luxury creations and implementing environmental sustainability, social good and ethical governance management (ESG). Dennis started his career in management consulting with Boston Consulting's Putnam Associates in Boston, US. He is currently a doctoral researcher affiliated with Aalborg University Business School studying sustainable luxury entrepreneurship and he holds an MSc in International Marketing from the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom and a BComm from Mount Allison University in Canada.

Susanne Sandberg is an Associate Professor of International Business and Marketing at the School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University in Sweden. In addition to being the educational coordinator for the knowledge platform Global Mind, she serves on the faculty's educational committee and is responsible for the International Business Strategy master's programme as well as several courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Her teaching is primarily centred on international business, marketing, strategy and entrepreneurship, while her research is focused on internationalisation processes and strategy as well as entrepreneurship especially that among immigrants and refugees. Her work has been published in the Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, International Marketing Review, the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business and the Journal of International Entrepreneurship, among others.

Demet Schaefler is the CEO of a health institution in Switzerland. Over the last 10 years, she has held multiple executive positions in the acute care healthcare market and is highly specialised in the restructuring of existing hospitals and the construction of new hospitals. Demet has also worked as a CEO in the information technology and hospitality industry. She is a highly proven and experienced leader who loves to work with people from different backgrounds. Demet's research centres on authentic leadership in organisations with a specific focus on how authentic leadership manifests at the levels of executive boards and boards of directors, exploring these manifestations through the lens of grounded theory. She studied business economics in Switzerland, specialising in international and financial management, and received her advanced postgraduate diploma and PhD from the University of Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom.

Rudolf R. Sinkovics is a Professor of International Business at Glasgow University's Adam Smith Business School in the United Kingdom and a Visiting Professor at LUT University in Finland. His research covers issues of inter-organisational governance and the role of ICT with a particular focus on responsible business. He serves as co-editor-in-chief for Critical Perspectives on International Business, and associate editor for Transnational Corporations.

Yariv Taran is an Associate Professor of Innovation and Organization at Aalborg University Business School in Denmark. His research focuses on the management of risk and uncertainty in business model innovation processes. His other research interests include decision-making, entrepreneurship and regional systems of innovation. His work has been published in a number of international journals, including Decision Sciences, the International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management and the European Journal of Innovation Management. He was also the lead author of a book published by Routledge entitled The Business Model Innovation Process: Preparation, Organization and Management. Yariv received a BSc in Management and Sociology from the Open University of Israel and an MSc in Economics and Business Administration as well as a PhD in Business Model Innovation from Aalborg University.

George Spencer Terry is a Lecturer of War and Conflict Studies at the Baltic Defence College. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Tartu's Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies. His research interests include political science, Eurasia and discourse theory. He earned his MA in Political Science from the University of Tartu's Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies and his BA in International Affairs from George Washington University in Washington, DC. He lives in Tartu, Estonia.

Romeo V. Turcan is a Professor at Aalborg University Business School. Romeo's main research interests include the creation and legitimation of new sectors and organisations as well as cross-disciplinary theory building. Romeo is the founder and coordinator of an interdisciplinary collaborative research programme, the Theory Building Research Programme (www.tbrp.aau.dk). Prior to commencing his academic career, Romeo served in a range of positions involving public policy intervention in the restructuring, rationalisation and modernisation of both the private and public sectors, including the energy, military, management consulting, ICT and higher education industries. He founded and served as the CEO of a branch of an international NGO. Romeo has led four EU-funded projects with a total value of more than €7.3m. Romeo earned his PhD and MSc from the University of Strathclyde's Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship and Marketing Department, respectively, in Glasgow. He earned his mechanical engineer diploma from the Air Force Engineering Military Academy in Riga, Latvia. Romeo is Adjunct Professor at the Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Nikolaos Tzokas is a Professor of Marketing at the Mohammed bin Salman College for Business and Entrepreneurship in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. His research focuses on value co-creation through new product development, relationship marketing and knowledge management. He has received over £5m in funding for his research from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council. His work has been published in many international journals, including JPIM, JMS, BJM and IMM. Nikolaos earned his MBA from the Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece and his PhD from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. He joined the University of East Anglia in 2000 as a Full Professor of Marketing and has since held numerous leadership roles, including Dean of the Business School. From 2014 to 2019, he led the Faculty of Business at the University of Plymouth as the Executive Dean and served as both an elected member of the council of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) and the Chair of the CABS International Committee.

Maaja Vadi is a Professor of Management at the University of Tartu in Estonia. Her main research areas are innovation, organisational behaviour and organisational and national culture. Her work has been published in many journals (e.g. California Management Review, Technovation, Management International Review, the International Journal of Manpower, the International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, the Journal of Health Organization and Management, Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal) and edited books (e.g. (Dis)honesty in Management: Manifestations and Consequences). She is a member of the editorial board of several international academic journals. Maaja has served as a visiting scholar at universities in the United States, Australia, Japan, Iceland, France, Slovenia and Sweden; led and worked on various international projects financed by European Commission and Estonian institutions; and worked as a consultant for many companies and state agencies in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Finland.

Hannes Velt is a post-doctoral researcher at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology in Finland. His research covers international business and entrepreneurship with a specific focus on entrepreneurial ecosystems, firm development and internationalisation. His work has been published in multiple journals, including the Journal of Business Ecosystems, Journal of Enterprising Communities and International Journal of Export Marketing, as well as several research handbooks. Hannes earned his MSc in International Marketing Management and PhD in International Entrepreneurship from LUT University in Finland.

David Woollcombe founded Peace Child International in 1981. David's focus on peacebuilding began with the performance of the musical Peace Child at London's Royal Albert Hall. Set 50 years in the future in a world of peace and sustainable prosperity, Peace Child flashes back to the present to tell the story of what today's teenagers do in their working lives to bring about that desired future. For each performance, the young cast members re-invent the characters and re-write the dialogue, imagining themselves to be the protagonists of the story. Peace Child brought the first Soviet youth and rockstars to the United States as part of a cultural exchange in 1986, paving the way for over 100 US-USSR cultural youth exchanges – each one a powerful addition to the citizen diplomacy effort to end the Cold War. Following the end of the Cold War, Peace Child began to focus on the promotion of sustainable development, human rights, youth job creation and community well-being.

Xiaotian Zhang is a Professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship at and the Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global) of Curtin University in Australia. Zhang has held several senior leadership positions at the world's leading universities in Asia and Europe, including that of Deputy Vice President (International) at Shanghai University. He has published dozens of articles in prominent international business and entrepreneurship journals. Xiaotian earned a BA in Management and an MA in International Management from Belarusian State University in Belarus and a PhD in International Business from the University of Tartu in Estonia.

Foreword

What is it that distinguishes ‘good’ leadership from ‘bad’ leadership? Some leaders are renowned for their strength, others for their wisdom, some for their cunning, and still others for their empathy. A weak leader may be dismissed as ineffectual while a strong leader may be detested as brutal and bullying. A cautious leader may be written off as timid while a decisive leader may be condemned for lack of care for details. The very qualities that are judged weaknesses in some are held up as virtues in others. How can a leader chart an optimal course through these and all the other dilemmas that shape their leadership journey?

In recent times, the importance of authenticity in leadership has come to be recognised. Effective leadership has more to do with being than doing. It emanates from an individual's offering of the best version of who they really are, deployed for the common good, rather than an attempt to conform to some borrowed notion of what a leader ought to look like.

‘Fake it 'til you make it’ may sound like good advice, but once the fakery has been unmasked by those being led, the leader can all too readily be dismissed as an imposter. A better soundbite, surely, is ‘be yourself, you can't be anybody else’. Play to your strengths, surround yourself with people who make up for your weaknesses, and don't treat leadership as a role-play exercise.

What I've learnt on my own thirty-year journey as a business founder, chairman and CEO is that leadership by consent beats leadership by force every time. Carrots are dramatically better than sticks. The best leader is one who people want to follow. Unless a leader has the trust of their people, they cannot lead optimally. Trust cannot be presumed; it has to be earned. And in order to be trusted, leaders must be believable. What the leader says and does must be credible, but they must also be credible in themselves. Leaders who command the consent of followers need to display more than skill, understanding and drive; they need to be seen to be true to themselves and to others. In short, leadership must be authentic.

All this may be easy to express in anecdotes and personal observations, as I have done, but like many helpful big ideas, the notion of authentic leadership can prove to be remarkably slippery when subjected to close academic scrutiny. With contributions from a wide diversity of expert contributors, this Handbook maps out and explores the boundaries of the landscape of authentic leadership, its literature, theory and practice, with commendable clarity and insight. I am encouraged to hope that its contribution will broaden our knowledge and understanding of the notion of authentic leadership, making it less slippery and more profoundly useful for many readers.

Dr Norman M. Fraser

IT entrepreneur

Adjunct Professor, Aalborg University Business School, Denmark

Preface

From classical times, writers, scholars, philosophers, not to mention the woman and man in the street, have speculated and continue to do so on the nature of leadership and what makes a good and/or successful leader. Should good and successful be coupled in evaluating leadership and what do either word mean in practice and in time? Does discussion of leadership need always to be contextualised, can it only be understood and evaluated contextually? Is gender a material factor in leadership? Are populism, social media, surveillance capitalism, digital transformation, algorithms, generative artificial intelligence, climate imperatives, fluidity, uncertainty, ambiguity all on a global scale, fundamentally changing the nature and understanding of leadership? Because leadership is so central to human experience, it is a disputed, debated, questioned, mistrusted topic, but that does not diminish; on the contrary, it augments the need to continue to search for insights from practitioners and scholars.

This handbook was prompted by a European ERASMUS+ project for PhD and PhD supervisor training in authentic leadership (IETN, www.ietn.aau.dk) which stemmed from our recognition that understanding of leadership is a competence that doctoral candidates and their supervisors need to acquire and nurture.

Authentic leadership is a relatively young phenomenon. It emanates from the business school world. It draws on other theories, concepts and methods, to develop conceptual or theoretical understanding of leadership and promotes its definitions of authentic. Generic assertions disguise the diversity of views on the nature of leadership and whether leadership is fundamentally about values and value systems or other drivers such as success.

IETN project demonstrated for us the need for more extensive exploration of authentic leadership, the development of leadership capacity, a broader enquiry and understanding of the nature of authenticity, a review of leadership theory and practice, all viewed from diverse, contrasting perspectives. There is an extensive literature and a strong sense of ownership of the concept of authentic leadership primarily in a sector of the American academic community and it is a contested field.

Authors in this handbook do not belong to the orthodox authentic leadership community. They offer varied, provocative views and personal case studies of leadership. Some endorse aspects of the concept of authentic leadership while developing new understanding of authenticity, others suggest that it is flawed and others offer fresh, challenging, leadership insights. Because leadership is a dynamic arena, each study, in offering insights, recognises that continual research is essential to respond to the intensity of change and uncertainty. Innovative, creative, agile, sensing, pragmatic are among the terms leadership development that studies in this book suggest. They may be considered indicators of authenticity, but perhaps they reveal more about the agenda imperatives for the future practice of leadership in all spheres than the four pillars of the authentic leadership paradigm?

Acknowledgements

We take this opportunity to express our gratitude for the invaluable support that we received throughout this motivating journey. This handbook would have not been possible without the financial support from the European Commission through the ERASMUS+ programme that in 2019 funded a Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education project ‘International Entrepreneurship Network for PhD and PhD Supervisor Training’ (IETN). We also acknowledge the financial support from the Aalborg University Business School (Denmark) and the encouragement of the International Partnership office of the University of Kent (UK).

We express our gratitude to all the contributors who submitted interesting, thought-provoking chapters on aspects of authentic leadership, offering insight into the concepts at hand and providing a foundation for future valuable research.

We wish to express our appreciation and thanks to the Emerald team for their guidance and support: Niall Kennedy, during the book proposal stage; David Mulvaney and Aiswarya Mahathma Suritha, during and post COVID-19 challenging times; Sheena Reghunath and Lydia Cutmore, during the production process.

We thank Cambridge Proofreading & Editing: editor Duffy for improving the flow of the work and ensuring clarity throughout the handbook.

We are indebted to our families for their extraordinary encouragement and especially their patience throughout this remarkable journey.

Disclaimer

The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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