How authentic leadership impacts on job insecurity: The multiple mediating role of psychological empowerment and psychological capital

Abstract Previous studies have suggested that leadership style may have an impact on job insecurity among employees. Authentic leaders encourage the development of the people around them by practicing real values, beliefs and behaviours, being subordinate oriented and making honest evaluations of the behaviour and performance of employees. Authentic leadership, often considered the ‘root construct’ of other positive leadership forms, conforms to Chinese culture and hence, may be the most suitable leadership style for organizations following this culture. As the effect of authentic leadership on job insecurity is unclear, this study aimed to examine the mechanism between job insecurity and authentic leadership and further explore the mediating effect of psychological empowerment and psychological capital. The results of this study, involving 451 employees from 68 departments of a communications enterprise in China, revealed that authentic leadership has a cross‐level negative impact on employees' job insecurity. Moreover, psychological empowerment and psychological capital played a multiple mediating role between authentic leadership and job insecurity.