Relationship between Authentic Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

The concept of "authenticity" derived direct from the word "authentic" has various meanings such as “original, genuine, real, true, first hand, not copied, accurate, frank or representing the first author or source” (Ulukan and Ersen, 2014;17). Having been used in the fields of sociology and education in the 1990s, this concept has been questioned by Chan, Hannah and Gardner (2005) in terms of individual virtues and ethical behavior in relation to the field of philosophy. Besides, in the field of the psychology, based upon the individuals’ particular inner thoughts, beliefs and feelings, authenticity is clarified depending on their individual characteristics and identities as well as their way of reflecting thinking and behavior patterns (Tabak, Polat, Coşar and Türköz, 2012; Novicevic, Harvey,Ronald, and Radford, 2006). Authentic leadership is defined as a transparent model of ethical leadership which emerges with the combination of ethics and positive organizational behavioral science and which supports information sharing and preciseness (Avolio and Gardner, 2005). This leadership has emerged as a central component of positive leadership within the context of positive psychology in the early eighties; in addition, it represents the effective interaction process of the leader and the follower (Clapp-Smith, Vogelgesang and Avey, 2009). Goff and Jones (2006) state that ‘‘authenticity is a quality that others must attribute to the individuals; in addition, it is a relational phenomenon rather than an individual trait An individual can be perceived as behaving authentically or not instead of being authentic or not (Endrissat, Müller and Kaudel to-Baum, 2007).