Authentic leadership and employee performance: Exploring a serial mediation model in the Indonesian palm oil sector

Abstract

In the dynamic environment of high-performance organizations (HPOs), authentic leadership has emerged as a crucial determinant of positive employee attitudes and enhanced behavioral outcomes. This study examines the impact of authentic leadership on employee performance, highlighting the mediational effects of job-related motivation and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), both independently and sequentially. Using purposive sampling, data were collected from 145 employees of a palm oil manufacturing company in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS version 3.3.3. The results reveal that authentic leadership positively and significantly influences employee performance, job-related motivation, and OCB. Moreover, job-related motivation has a strong positive effect on both OCB and employee performance, while OCB itself contributes substantially to performance enhancement. Mediation analyses confirm that job-related motivation and OCB serve as significant mediators, both individually and in sequence, in the relationship between authentic leadership and employee performance. These findings provide deeper insights into the psychological and behavioral mechanisms linking authentic leadership to performance outcomes. The study highlights the importance of authenticity, intrinsic motivation, and voluntary employee behaviors as key drivers of superior performance. It also contributes to leadership theory by presenting an integrative serial mediation model that explains how authentic leadership fosters employee excellence within the context of Indonesia’s palm oil industry.