Authenticity or Self-Enhancement? Effects of Self-Presentation and Authentic Leadership on Trust and Performance

Tae-Yeol KIM, Emily M. DAVID, Tingting CHEN, Yongyi LIANG*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We theorized and tested an integrated model that examines the simultaneous effects of authentic self-expression and self-enhancement (including authentic and exaggerated self enhancement) on employee outcomes. Using a multisource, two-wave survey design and a sample of 143 working groups from 566 employees, we tested the indirect effects of self-presentation on job performance through (a) trust from coworkers and (b) felt trust from coworkers. We found that through trust from coworkers, authentic self-expression had a positive indirect effect on job performance, whereas authentic and exaggerated self-enhancement had negative indirect effects. Via felt trust from coworkers, authentic self-enhancement had a positive indirect effect on job performance, whereas exaggerated self-enhancement had a negative indirect effect. In addition, we identified a boundary condition of these relationships. The positive relationship between authentic self-expression and trust from coworkers and the negative relationship between exaggerated self-enhancement and trust from coworkers were stronger when working for highly authentic leaders. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between authentic self-enhancement and trust from coworkers was negative and significant when working for less authentic leaders.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)944-973
Number of pages30
JournalJournal of Management
Volume49
Issue number3
Early online date5 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

We appreciate the help of Sabrina Volpone, Sebastian Schuh, Byron Lee, Michael Kwan, An Chih Wang, Lars Johnson, Sara Perry, Michelle Zheng, and Maja Graso for their feedback on the item generation and on earlier versions of this manuscript. We also thank Xing Wang, Jiao Chen, Zoey He, Mia Zhou, Pan Fan, and Mingjun Shuai for their support for the data collection and analysis and finding articles.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.

Funding

This research has benefited from financial support of Lingnan University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Funding Reference: DB21B2) awarded to Tingting Chen; the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, China (Funding Reference: 2019A1515010698) and the Guangdong Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science (Funding Reference: GD19CGL33) awarded to Yongyi Liang.

Keywords

  • authentic leadership
  • authentic self-enhancement
  • authentic self-expression
  • exaggerated self-enhancement
  • trust

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