An Investigation of the Impact of Authentic Leadership on Employees’ Thriving at Work in the Hotel Industry the Moderation of Organizational Politics

Abstract

Due to the expansion of the tourism and hotel industry and the role of leadership quality in the promotion and successful development of this industry, several studies have been conducted on this statistical population, considering the specific environmental conditions. Also, recent research has presented a direct, positive, and meaningful relationship between authentic leadership, organizational success, growth, and emergence in the tourism sector. This research aims to investigate the impact of authentic leadership on employees’ thriving at work in the hotel industry, considering the moderating role of organizational politics. A quantitative method (correlation type of structural equation modeling) was used in this regard. The statistical population of the research was hotel employees, and after determining the sample size by G*POWER and distributing questionnaires, 349 complete questionnaires were collected from hotel employees in Shiraz. Initially, reliability and validity were investigated using AMOS software and then the hypotheses were tested using SPSS software and the Process module. The results indicated a positive and significant relationship between authentic leadership and thriving at work, and organizational politics was a significant moderator in that when organizational politics perception was high, the positive effect of authentic leadership on employees’ thriving at work increased. This important finding shows that high organizational politics in organizations adds to the importance of an authentic leader’s positive impact on followers’ thriving at work. IntroductionIn the last decade, the discussion of leadership has always been one of the topics of interest to management and organizational behavior thinkers because, in success or failure, the tip of the arrow of attention has been pointed toward them (Amankwaa et al., 2022). One of the influential factors in achieving the success and prosperity of the employees at work and organizational well-being is the correct use of the leadership style appropriate to the existing situation in the organization. In this regard, using an authentic leadership style can bring us closer to this goal. slow down (Surucu, 2022).Industry leaders in the tourism sector have predicted that the share of GDP in this sector will increase by fifty percent (Warokka et al., 2020). Furthermore, the social growth model presented by Spreitzer et al. (2012) provided a theoretical foundation for examining authentic leadership to achieve success at work. They stated that individual and organizational factors influence success at work, and these two factors will cause success in employees' work by satisfying basic psychological needs. Success at work a psychological state in which a person experiences vitality and learning. (Fang et al., 2021).The relationship between leadership and an organization's outputs is dependent on its environment. One variable that describes the organization's environment is organizational policy. Organizational politics is a process of social influence in which behavior is strategically designed to maximize personal interests in the short or long term at the expense of the interests of others. (Cho & Yang, 2018).This research contributes to the knowledge of authentic leadership and work success in several ways. After considering organizational politics moderation, it was shown that the presence of this variable in the organization affects the desired relationship.Literature ReviewIn internal studies, research about authentic leadership and its impact on success in work with the role of organizational politics as a moderator has yet to be investigated.The authors' review of the background of research in foreign studies also showed that there is more diversity in the topics and titles of foreign research than in domestic studies. One reason for this is the long history of recognition of authentic leadership in international studies.MethodologyConsidering that in this research, the researcher seeks to apply the research results and help identify the variable effect of authentic leadership on success at work, this research is of an applied type in terms of its purpose. Also, because the current research deals with the study of what exists according to the research literature and with the help of the background of the conducted research and related books, in terms of the research method, it is a descriptive survey and the research design is quantitative with the correlation method. It is a type of structural equation modeling.The statistical population included the employees of hotels in Shiraz metropolis (21 hotels), and finally, 349 complete questionnaires were collected according to the sample size determined by G*Power software. ResultsThe present research has investigated the relationship between authentic leadership and success at work, considering the moderating role of organizational politics. In the first hypothesis, the research findings showed a significant positive relationship between authentic leadership and success at work. This means that employees’ success will increase using of an authentic leadership style. This finding is in line with the research results of (2016) Mortier et al. (2019) Wu & Chen and (2021) Iqbal et al. In general, research shows that authentic leaders, due to the transparency they show and show their true selves, incline followers towards them and influence their performance (Wang et al., 2021). An authentic leader directs employees by applying discipline, rules, and rigid procedures. This leadership style influences employees to achieve self-fulfillment at work (Iqbal et al., 2021). In addition, authentic leaders create empathy for their employees by applying the desired style in the organization. This empathy affects employees’ well-being, learning, and strengthening, ultimately leading them to prosperity and success at work (Chang et al., 2021).In the second hypothesis, the results of the desired hypothesis showed that organizational politics moderate the relationship between authentic leadership and success at work, which means that with the increase of organizational politics, the influence of authentic leadership increases success at work. This result is consistent with the research findings (2020) by Khuwaja et al.Due to the competitive and ambiguous nature of political contexts, authentic leaders may be less able to motivate and satisfy followers who become distressed, quit, or become disaffected by the political disclosure of behavior by others. They become pessimistic. In addition, authentic leaders’ tendency to speak honestly and listen to different perspectives may expose them to disproportionate efforts toward performance acceptable to followers, undermining their ability to influence follower outcomes. Finally, the transparent nature of authentic leadership can reveal sensitive knowledge and elements from leaders that others can use politically. Therefore, according to the results obtained from the data analysis, the relationship between authentic leadership and success at work changes in the presence of moderating variables such as organizational politics. This means that by increasing organizational politics, the effect of authentic leadership on success at work is strengthened, and employees feel more successful at work.

Keywords

• authentic leadership
• thriving at work
• organizational politics
• hotel industry