Authentic leadership, gender, and emotional labour: a study

Authentic leaders are transparent with others regarding their strengths and weaknesses. This communication orientation allows authentic leaders to appear to connect interpersonally with their followers. Male leaders, who are stereotypically less concerned with the interpersonal aspect of leadership than female leaders, can develop as authentic leaders in order to appear to be more emotionally connected with followers. This study used cross-sectional data and multi-variable regression analysis in order to show that male leaders who are authentic will be more likely to engage in the emotion labour strategy of deep acting and less likely to engage in surface acting. This study reveals how male leaders can use authentic leadership to challenge stereotypes and access a more socially aware style of leadership.