Authentic leadership in healthcare organizations: A study of 14 chief executive officers and 70 direct reports.

There is limited research on authentic leadership in senior leaders of healthcare organizations. The purpose of this study was to investigate authentic leadership from the perspectives of 14 healthcare Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and 70 senior-level direct reports using the validated Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) and one-on-one interviews. CEOs also completed a 20-hour leadership curriculum focusing on authentic leadership. Although CEOs rated themselves higher than their direct reports on the total ALQ, it only approached significance ( = .060). Ratings on the four component parts of the ALQ were also higher, but only one was significant ( = .025) with a trend toward significance on another ( = .61). The CEOs' scores were slightly higher after their self-directed study but only one component was significant ( = .040). Interviews with the CEOs and direct reports underscore how healthcare leadership and authentic leadership specifically is viewed depending on organizational roles.