The Journey to a Realistic Leadership Theory

Sammanfattning: Academic literature mainly exposes authentic leadership as a representation of positive traits, values, and intentions. However, there are researchers who argue that it should be studied from another point of view, mainly taking into consideration the dark side of leadership. This study aims to cover this existing gap and portray a more realistic view of leadership. It is imperative to identify how self-aware are leaders of their dark leadership traits for better functionality of the process itself, and therefore manage various aspects of the business performance. Through a qualitative study, based on the use of diaries, the participants shared their thoughts and reflections about the leadership process that they have participated in for three weeks. This ended up in an analysis of the Dark Triad components of the participants. The study shows that indeed leadership process implies both positive and dark leadership, and therefore it is necessary to be aware of how this mix is influencing it.