Authentic leadership and organizational synergy: Their combined effect on lecturer outcomes

Abstract

This research examines the influence of authentic leadership on lecturer performance within higher education, with a particular focus on the mediating role of perceived organizational support and the moderating role of organizational commitment. Employing a quantitative survey methodology, data were collected from 689 lecturers at both public and private universities in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Structural Equation Modeling using SmartPLS 4 revealed that authentic leadership significantly enhances lecturer performance both directly and indirectly through perceived organizational support. The study identifies perceived organizational support as a strong mediator, whereas organizational commitment did not exhibit a significant moderating effect. These findings underscore the importance of fostering academic environments that emphasize authentic leadership and institutional support to enhance teaching, research, and community engagement. Theoretically, the results contribute to the leadership literature by validating authenticity-based models, while practically, they provide insights for human resource policies and leadership development in universities. Future research should explore alternative moderators such as intrinsic motivation and work engagement to deepen the understanding of leadership-performance dynamics.