Authentic leadership in a health sciences university.

Aim: To study authentic leadership characteristics between academic leaders in a health sciences university.

Methods: Cross-sectional study at a health sciences university in Saudi Arabia. The Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) was utilized to assess authentic leadership.

Results: Out of 84 ALQs that were distributed, 75 (89.3%) were eligible. The ALQ scores showed consistency in the dimensions of self-awareness (3.45 ± 0.43), internalized moral prospective (3.46 ± 0.33) and balanced processing (3.42 ± 0.36). The relational transparency dimension had a mean of 3.24 ± 0.31 which was significantly lower than other domains. Academic leaders with medical background represented 57.3%, compared to 42.7% from other professions. Academic leaders from other professions had better ALQ scores that reached statistical significance in the internalized moral perspective and relational transparency dimensions with p values of 0.006 and 0.049, respectively. In reference to the impact of hierarchy, there were no significant differences in relation to ALQ scores. Almost one-third of academic leaders (34.7%) had Qualifications in medical education that did not show significant impact on ALQ scores.

Conclusion: There was less-relational transparency among academic leaders that was not consistent with other ALQ domains. Being of medical background may enhance leaders' opportunity to be at a higher hierarchy status but it did not enhance their ALQ scores when compared to those from other professions. Moreover, holding a master in medical education did not impact leadership authenticity.