The Past, Present, and Future of Authentic Leadership Research

This paper reviews the historical development and current research trends in both global and domestic authentic leadership. Authentic leadership began as a challenging task to address the issues caused by capital market oriented leaders. Authentic leadership emphasizes the authenticity of purpose and compassion leaders carry to rectify the detrimental effects of capital market oriented leaders. While existing leadership emphasizes styles and skills as necessary conditions for leadership, authentic leadership features purpose and compassion as the sufficient conditions for leadership. The paper also introduces the development of authentic leadership theory in Korea and discusses future research prospects with the aim of contributing to overcoming the prevalent leader-phobia in South Korea.