An Exploratory Study on Authentic Leadership Concept in Fostering Training Effectiveness in Commercial Banks of Bangladesh

To train an organization’s staff results in qualified and knowledgeable performers and make them organizational assets by generating excellent leadership in the long run. A bank manager or leader understand the training gap of an employee and do the assessment according to the training need. Therefore, it is vital to pinpoint the training needs and ensure training effectiveness more than contemporary leadership behavior of bank managers and trainers also. This study was conducted in the banks of Bangladesh to examine employee’s perception of the authentic leadership style of bank managers or senior officials, to evaluate the relationship between leaders (bank managers) &amp; followers (bank employees) and relationship between authentic leadership style &amp; training effectiveness. This is an exploratory research using qualitative approach with a sample size of 69 employees from commercial banks of Bangladesh. The study found that an authentic leaders or managers are more concern about training budget and training transfer than generic leaders.

Published by SCHOLINK INC. describes the relationship of a leader with others in work environment and a mode of influence in a form of leadership (Gill, Gardner, Claeys, & Vangronsvelt, 2018). Luthans and Avolio (2003) evidently defined Authentic Leadership (AL) as "a process that results from positive psychological capacities and a vastly developed organizational framework, which outcomes in both greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviours on the part of leaders and associates, fostering positive self-development". In 2004, Luthans, Avolio and Walumbwa define authentic leader as "those who are deeply aware of how they think and behave and are perceived by others as being aware of their own and others' values/moral perspectives, knowledge, and strength and also aware of the context in which they operate and who are confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient and of high moral character.
Authentic Leadership can strengthen an organization's HR system and it helps HRM attain more authenticity and credibility in the organization. Authentic leaders convey clear messages to employees about organizations value and rewards (Gill, Gardner, Claeys, & Vangronsvelt, 2018). According to Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing and Peterson (2008), authentic leaders are anchored by their own deep sense of self-awareness; they know where they stand on important issues, values, and beliefs and they are transparent with those they interact with and lead. Walumbwa et al. (2010) results suggest the "more leaders are seen as authentic, the more employees identify with them and feel psychologically empowered, are more engaged in their roles and demonstrate more citizenship-rated behaviours".  Overlap between Authentic Leadership.
Ethical behavior is mandatory part of the authentic leader.
Source: Adopted from Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing and Peterson (2008) Despite of criticism, hence, the theory of authentic leadership (AL) follows multi-dimensional leadership theory and therefore has similarities to transformational theory and several other leadership theories including ethical, charismatic, spiritual and servant leadership.

A Model of Authentic Leadership in Banks
Many scholars addressed that being authentic as a "person" and being authentic as a "leader" have a quantity of disparity in terms of their cognitive behaviours, which are vital component of formation of authentic leadership. As such the attributes of an authentic person are the author of own self (Schmid, 2001), prioritizes accountability to their self internal standards (Tedeschi, 1986), and aware about reflecting inner self thoughts and not biased from outside forces or surrounding social milieu ((Bowen,  Andersson, 2005;Lenton, Bruder, Slabu, & Sedikides, 2013). Sometimes makes the authentic person free from its institutions (Cohen, 2005). Neutrality is the key to the authentic person, even their decision regarded as bizarre in a crooked society" (Shi, 2007). Authentic person is a person who creates his/her own moral system rather than succumbing to the values of others (Nicholas, 2013).
According to Sidani and Rowe (2018), AL is legitimated by follower perception of a leader's authenticity through moral judgements and legitimacy with morality is a key pillar in Authentic Leadership (AL).

Effectiveness Adopted from Luthans and Avolo (2003); Sidani and Rowe (2018)
Commercial banks play a noteworthy role in a financial system of the economy. A traditional managerial role is not sufficient to operate the show. In Bangladesh, sixty numbers of private and public banks, which are highly required for genuine leaders-who are capable to lead with purpose, values, and integrity; leaders who build enduring organizations, motivate their employees to provide superior customer service (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), and assist to build the solid foundation of economy.They also proposed a need to focus on the root structure underpinning all beneficial management types and their growth, which we label as genuine leadership development (ALD).
AL measurement and modelling issues suffer from problems similar to those raised by Antonakis et al. (2016) in relation to charismatic leadership, and van Knippenberg and Sitkin (2013) in relation to transformational leadership. Table 1 shows that Authentic and ethical leadership have been proposed to share common features, yet the boundaries between them are still not clear Authentic and ethical leadership have been proposed to share common features (Neubert, Wu, & Roberts, 2013). To act authentic, leaders need moral characters which is key ingredients of AL process (May, Chan, Hodges, & Avolio, 2003;Gardner et al., 2005;May et al., 2003). Some researchers argue, authenticity is part of character but not sufficient condition of ethical leadership (Resick et al., 2011;Quick, Macik-Frey, & Cooper, 2007). Under this perspective, an authentic leader must need to act authentic (self values, self awareness, self regulation) and ethical (self moral system).When an authentic person emerges as leader, a relational aspect enters into the equation to interact and/or engage with subordinates. The framework briefly elaborates the role of the leader and the role of followers and the processes leading to the creation of AL and makes the training effective.