2015 Theses Doctoral

The Perceived Authenticity of Fairness at Work

Roloff, Kathryn Sarah

The purpose of this study is to understand how individuals form perceptions of authenticity about their leaders and the subsequent organizational outcomes associated with these perceptions. To date, studies on leader authenticity have primarily focused on how a leader can become more authentic by first getting in touch with his or her internal values and then by choosing behaviors to enact these values. As such, the literature has clarified leader authenticity on an individual level, but does not explain how others come to perceive a leader as authentic. To this end, an experiment will be completed to investigate leader authenticity from the point-of-view of the “recipients” of a leader’s behavior. In particular, the focus will be on individuals’ perceptions of a leader’s enactment of procedural fairness by inviting voice during a promotion decision. A new model of perceived authenticity will be tested by determining how two types of interpersonal perceptions—volitionality and intentionality—influence perceptions of authenticity and related outcomes.