ROLE OF BEHAVIORAL INTEGRITY IN LINKING AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATIVE PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between authentic leadership and innovative performance via behavioral integrity. The authentic leadership as characterized by transparency, self-awareness, and ethical behavior is shown to positively influence the followers' commitment and performance whereas behavioral integrity is alignment in leader's words and actions, is proposed as vital mediator in linking authentic leadership and innovative performance. The data was collected from teachers hailing from southern region higher institutions through survey approach by using the structured questionnaire to examine the hypothesized relationships as extracted from theoretical framework of study by using different statistical procedures as per nature of relationships. The findings suggest that authentic leadership boosts perceptions of behavioral integrity among followers, which in turn fosters the innovative performance. This underscores importance of leaders demonstrating consistency between their communicated values & actions to cultivate an environment conducive towards innovations. In this regard, recommendations are offered about research phenomena for generalizing findings, and its application in other contexts along with certain directions to future researchers.