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This chapter provides personal – autoethnographic – reflections on an understanding of authenticity in line with Charmaz's concept of social constructivism. The author reflects on her thinking in pursuit of what is true, authentic and genuine, to develop a new concept of ‘authentic power channelling of the self’. ‘Authentic power channelling of the self’ explains how different identities can constitute a unified entity to achieve a consensus and balance. Schaefler calls for research to explore authenticity from the perspective of a leader rather than an external perspective based on employees' perceptions, conjecturing that understanding mechanisms of the self can help leaders to be authentic.

This chapter critically reviews the literature on authentic leadership (AL) that emerged in response to scandals in private- and public-sector organisations, drawing on theories, concepts and methods from other disciplines. The author finds that AL lacks a consensus definition, and that quantitative research has largely been at the level of employees rather than executives or board members. The review reveals 12 categories of criticisms. Schaefler advocates inductive qualitative research on the major concerns of executive leaders and means of addressing them via group dynamics, maintaining that exploring processes of AL in real-world settings would complement existing quantitative research and contribute to the development and extension of AL theory.