The effect of authentic leadership on employee trust and employee engagement

Employee engagement is basically the attachment and satisfaction that an employee shows
towards his job and employee trust plays a very important part is making that a positive one. In this
article a study is carried out to find out the relationship between employee engagement and authentic
leadership. Data is being collected from 386 employees working in Taiwan. The results clearly showed
that the authentic behavior of the leader towards his employees is related to the amount of
engagement they show at the work. There is a positive relationship between authentic leadership and
employee engagement.
An authentic leader is the one who has strong values and deals all the employees with fairness.
The authentic leadership not only results in increased employee engagement but it also increases the
organizational outcomes. It increased the job commitment and job satisfaction. When a employee feels
that he is treated authentically he will automatically increase his productivity towards his work. An
authentic leader is the one who succeeds in gaining the trust of the employees since employee trust is a
very important point when it comes to the relationship between individuals and organizations.
Authentic leaders are not born with these qualities. They work their way towards them through
experience and knowledge.
When the leaders treat their employee authentically an element of employee trust develops
which results in employee engagement. It’s human nature that when the employee will feel that they
are treated fairly and authentically their trust towards the leader will increase resulting in employee
engagement. The elements which are important for increasing the employees engagement at work are
goodwill, integrity and professional competency because these three decides whether the supervisor
will be trusted by his employees or not. Integrity is basically the personal values of the leader grounded
in morality. It is very important for the employees to have the respect element for the leader and to be
influenced by their leader.
When the employees feel that they are treated unfairly their engagement towards the firm
decreases resulting in decrease in the overall work outcomes. Thus, the authentic leadership plays a
very important part in the decision employees make towards their engagement at work. To avoid this
the leader should become a role model for his employees and for him to create a trusted
communication with them all. For a leader to gain his employees trust he has to hold moral perceptions.
When the employees are treated authentically and there is a element of trust between the
leader and employees the employee turnover decreases. Employees engagement towards the work
increases and the chances of them leaving the work decreases.

The relationship between employee engagement and organizational

citizenship behavior

The previous studies conclude that there is a positive relationship between employee
engagement and Organizational citizenship behavior. First of all we need to know what exactly
employee engagement and organizational citizenship are. Employee engagement is the positive
psychological conditions that build employee trust and increase the employees productivity towards his
work. Elements like employee trust, job satisfaction, job commitment and organizational commitment
make up the employees engagement. Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is the kind of behavior
that goes beyond the job requirements (Organ 1988). The OCB of an employee can be demonstrated in
five ways.

 Altruism
 Conscientiousness
 Sportsmanship
 Courtesy
 Civic virtue

Human resource development functions are responsible for dealing with employees and
knowledge. HRD plays a major role is the success of organizations. Studies have shown that an
employee’s perception towards the training and development given by the organization results in
positive work attitude. There is a positive relationship between employee engagement, OCB and the
perception of HRD practices. Perception of HRD practices plays a major part in the understanding of how
learning and development play their role in both individual and organizational success.