Authentic leadership and implicit theory: a normative form of leadership?

Purpose – This empirical study aims to consider the stability and connection of implicit leadership theories to authentic leadership using performance feedback as a first step in a larger research agenda. Design/methodology/approach – Scenarios were created to operationalize implicit and authentic leadership, manipulate implicit leadership theory between followers and leaders, and discover perceptions of leader effectiveness. The use of scenarios was purposely intended to create anticipatory future research agendas. Findings – Components of authentic leadership may be a part of implicit leadership theory and leadership performance feedback may alter leader and follower implicit leadership theories. Research limitations/implications – Data collected in this study were from students’ perceptions, and did not infer causality between constructs. This study is also subject to mono‐operation and mono‐method bias. Originality/value – This research provides an extension of theory in several ways: by looking at the authentic leadership paradigm; and by viewing perceptions of leader authentic effectiveness as a continuous influence on implicit leadership theories.