Journal of Resources Development and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8397 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.45, 2018 7 When Organisational Leadership Embraces Authenticity: An Inquiry into the Resulting Effects on Staff Commitment Sudi Nangoli 1, 2* Ambrose Kemboi 1 Charles Lagat 1 1.School of Business & Economics, Moi University, Kenya 2.Makerere University Business School (MUBS) Abstract The purpose of this paper was twofold; first was to find out what factors underlie leadership authenticity, and second was to explain the resulting effect of authenticity behaviours on the commitment of staff within public hospitals which are typical service organisations. The paper shows that Leaders’ Authenticity can be operationally studied in terms of integrity, Humility and Servant-hood behaviours of leadership. The study also reveals that after controlling for other salient leadership behaviours, a unit increase in the leaders’ authenticity behaviour, accounts for a 0.295 change in staff commitment. The study generates implications for practice and furtherance of research. Keywords: leadership authenticity, integrity, Humility, Servant-hood, commitment Introduction With the ever increasing levels of graft around the globe (Tanzi, 1998; Vian et. al., 2017), peoples’ actions seem to be driven by many selfish motives. This trend is swaying many individuals from embracing authentic actions to embracing corrupt tendencies seemingly based on the question; ‘what is in it for me?’ (Rispel, deJager, & Fonn, 2016). Following from the above, once the decision by organisational employees is based on the question, ‘what is in it for me from this particular client am serving’, then the image of the organisation may be dented and its competiveness consequently tarnished in the long-term (Tanzi 1998; Lutwama et al., 2012). A case in point is in some public hospitals in East Africa were, the tendencies by hospital cadres to offer services based on the perceived individualistic short term benefits, has drastically caused the quality of services to decline (Lutwama et al., 2012; Rijckeghem & Weder 1997; Njuki & Moronge 2016). Most clients now perceive that services offered by public hospitals are getting worse and this calls for immediate interventions. There are cases were patients have lost lives simply because they could not receive services as they did not have immediate kickbacks to give to hospital staff (Among, 2011). When organisational leadership embraces authentic behaviours as part of their day to day practices (Ling et al., 2016; Coetzer et. al., 2017), employees may be inspired to follow suit and also act alike. Authenticity thus gives hope that organisational actors can be more concerned about pursuing the overt interests of the wider organisational stakeholders rather than fronting selfish individualistic interests (Rubel & Kee, 2015; Nangoli et al., 2016). Organisational leaders are at the forefront of driving transformations in behaviours among organisational actors as they often have the required power, and are privy to sensitive information that is not easily accessible to others (Sendjaya 2015; Salancik & Pfeffer, 2016). Under such conditions leadership, runs a risk of misusing its influence by pursuing selfish and corrupt individualistic targets in disregard of the overtly laid down organisational ambitions. The world scene has experienced cases like the Enron saga that awakened the world to the danger that lack of authenticity can create. While authorities have tried to design and implement measures that curb the corruption tendencies among organisational staff in hospitals, the vice has persisted (Gaitonde et al 2016; Njuki & Moronge 2016; Mawa 2012). This implies that interventions that can help to cub the vice are still highly needed. The ever increasing pressure on national economic resources however means that economic solutions like enhancing the salary of health workers can only partially contribute to solving the problem (Rijckeghem & Weder 1997; Vian et al 2017). This means that non-financial solutions like leadership behaviour, ought to be examined and integrated in the overall solution for addressing the challenge of low commitment among employees (Domingo 2015; Kim 2015). While other scholars have attempted to study the consequences of leaders’ authenticity, none of them has examined its effect on the commitment of employees in public hospitals within Uganda. This study covers the above gap from a positivistic approach. The remaining sections of this paper provide, a review of empirical literature on Leaders’ Authenticity and Employee Commitment, methodology of the study, presentation and interpretation of study findings, Discussion of findings, conclusion, Contribution of the study to Practice and knowledge and Suggested areas for research. Theoretical underpinning of the study This study uses the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) by Bandura (1986; 1999), to explain the effect of leaders’ authenticity on employee commitment. SCT holds that learning occurs in a social context with a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and behaviour. SCT utilises part or all of its inherent six