Le leadership authentique : validation d’une mesure et étude de ses effets sur le climat de travail et le bien-être des personnes
Occupational health has been recognized as an important long-term element of global economic development. However, statistical projections suggest dawn concerns on two levels: workers are aging and psychological well-being is deteriorating. To overcome its problems, strong leaders are sought for growing climate of trust as well as the well-being of their employees. This thesis aims to study authentic leadership as a contributor to the work climate and well-being of employees. To this end, two studies were performed. The first study aimed to translate and validate the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire in French. Confirmatory factor analyzes were performed on two samples of Quebec workers (N = 365, N = 859). The results obtained with a shortened version of the instrument show that a second-order structure with four associated factors provides the best fit to the data. The validity of the measure was further supported with authentic leadership correlates. The results revealed that leader’s personal level of authenticity was positively related to the exercise of an authentic leadership, as well as with the leader’s psychological well-being. Furthermore, the expected links between authentic leadership and followers’ well-being, trust and interpersonal justice were supported. No support was found for the link between auto-reveled authentic leadership by the leader and his/her psychological well-being. The second study investigated a mediation model where authentic leadership has been purported to influence psychological well-being through its impact on work climate. Using a sample of 406 nurses, a time-lagged study design was employed to determine the mediational role of work climate in explaining the impact of authentic leadership. A mediation analysis with the use of a bootstrapping technique revealed that work climate mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and psychological well-being at work. These findings indicate that authentic leadership impacts the work climate in a positive manner; thereby, increasing levels of psychological well-being at work. Finally, in conclusion of this thesis endeavour, results are commented, contributions are presented, practical implications are suggested, limits are outlined, and future research are proposed.
Climat Authentic leadership Climate Well-being Mediation Scale