Exploring an Authentic Leadership Pattern for Education Administrators: A Qualitative Study

Objective: Educational institutes have increasingly recognized the importance of choosing authentic leadership pattern for their administrators, as it will bring them very positive and wonderful consequences in various levels. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to explore an authentic leadership pattern for educational administrators. Method: In order to achieve this special pattern, the study was performed qualitatively and with a qualitative case study method. Potential research participants included successful directors and Vice-Presidents in Shiraz University and colleges with ten successful managers of the ten first considerations using targeted sampling approach. Then, using snowball sampling technique and considering the findings’ saturation criteria, another 5 people were added to determine the sample adequacy. Furthermore, semi-structured interview tools were used to gather the research data and then, the interview results were analyzed; that is, firstly open coding and then axial coding were performed to achieve the basic, the organizer and the comprehensive themes. Results: The findings of the current study showed that, from the primary 188 codes, the authentic leadership pattern of the education administrators involves 83 basic themes and four personal, interpersonal, organizational, and intra-organizational organizer themes in order to achieve the inclusive themes of academic authentic leadership. Conclusion: Paying attention to this leadership style and investment in enhancing this particular model by educational leaders help them to do their tasks effectively toward all the stakeholders in a moral manner and improves managers’ insights in developing strategies when dealing with challenges and issues ahead. In conclusion, according to the findings of the study, the following suggestions, divided to functional and research, are being provided.