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Article Excerpt
Abstract
This study of role models focuses on the attributes most likely to be imitated by followers. Results suggest that publicly recognized charismatic leaders are ignored in favor of more proximal exemplars including professors and coaches. Respondents chose models who exhibited authentic leadership attributes such as confidence, hope, optimism, resilience, high levels of integrity and positive values. Emulation effort was seldom expended on developing charisma, status or physical attributes of the chosen exemplars.
Introduction
Across business, educational, political, religious, military, athletic, and other settings, individuals who exemplify the virtues of trustworthiness, empathy, responsibility, respect, fairness, and integrity are often described as role models who "lead by example." The importance of leading by example or exemplification is well recognized by theories that fall within the "neo-charismatic" (House & Aditya, 1997) or "new leadership" (Bryman, 1992) paradigm, including the theories of charismatic leadership advanced by House (1977), Conger and Kanungo (1987, 1998), Shamir, House and Arthur (1993), Gardner and Avolio (1998), and the transformational/full-range leadership model (Avolio, 1999: Bass, 1998; Bass & Avolio, 1994). The emerging theory of authentic leadership (Gardner & Schermerhorn, 2004; Luthans & Avolio, 2003, May et al., 2003) is yet another leadership perspective that recognizes the critical importance of the leader's exemplification to the follower's development. Surprisingly, the perceived attributes of leaders that people identify as their role models, and the processes whereby such leaders exert influence, have not been extensively explored by leadership scholars.
Drawing upon the emerging positive psychology and positive organization behavior (POB) literatures, Luthans and Avolio (2003) defined authentic leadership and provided a framework for the theoretical development of the construct. The results of this study answer their call for theory development with supporting data concerning influence and exemplification. The study, conducted in 2004, focused on the exemplars chosen by respondents and their qualities, characteristics, and behaviors. A better understanding of current exemplars should aid leaders in developing and exhibiting attributes that their constituents believe are exemplary and find worthy of imitation. Following a brief overview of relevant literature and a description of the methodology, we summarize our key findings from the study and emphasize those relating to authentic leadership.
Literature Review
Authentic Leadership Luthans and Avolio (2003, p. 243) define the construct of authentic leadership as "a process that draws from both positive psychological capabilities and a highly developed organizational context, which results in both greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviors on the part of both leaders and associates, fostering positive self development." In describing authentic leadership, they assert that transparency of the leader's intentions produces a "seamless link" between values, actions and behaviors. Authentic leaders inspire others by modeling the positive organizational states of confidence, hope, optimism, and resiliency (Luthans, 2002, p. 59: Luthans & Avolio, 2003, p. 245)....
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