The Mediating Effect of mindfulness on the Relationship between Authentic Leadership and Self-leadership, Moderated by Gender
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Mindfulness has received increasing attention in leadership research. Yet, its potential to influence the leadership development process remains insufficiently explored. The aim of the study is to evaluate the mediating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between authentic leadership and self-leadership. Given the role of gender in shaping leadership behaviors and experiences, the study also explores the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between authentic leadership and self-leadership. To test the research hypotheses, the study employs partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in a sample of 208 participants from a developing country, Peru. The key findings are summarized as follows. Authentic leadership has a positive and significant effect on self-leadership and mindfulness, while mindfulness also has a positive and significant effect on self-leadership. Furthermore, mindfulness partially mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and self-leadership. Finally, the moderation role of gender is confirmed, revealing that the relationship between authentic leadership and self-leadership is stronger for women than men. The study not only expands existing knowledge but also offers actionable strategies to foster self-leadership through mindfulness, considering how gender influences the effectiveness of these strategies in organizational settings. Future studies could expand the research to include other factors that influence job performance, economic sectors, and other demographic and cultural variables.
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, authors shall transfer the copyright to the publisher. If the submitted manuscript is not accepted for printing by the journal, the authors shall retain all their rights. The following rights on the manuscript are transferred to the publisher, including any supplementary materials and any parts, extracts or elements of the manuscript:
- the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript in printed form, including print-on-demand;
- the right to print prepublications, reprints and special editions of the manuscript;
- the right to translate the manuscript into other languages;
- the right to reproduce the manuscript using photomechanical or similar means including, but not limited to photocopy, and the right to distribute these copies;
- the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript electronically or optically using and all data carriers or storage media, and especially in machine readable/digitalized form on data carriers such as hard drive, CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD), Mini Disc, data tapes, and the right to reproduce and distribute the article via these data carriers;
- the right to store the manuscript in databases, including online databases, as well as the right to transmit the manuscript in all technical systems and modes;
- the right to make the manuscript available to the public or to closed user groups on individual demand, for use on monitors or other readers (including e-books), and in printable form for the user, either via the Internet, online service, or via internal or external networks.
Authors reserve the copyright to published articles and have the right to use the article in the same manner like third parties in accordance with the licence Attribution-Non-Commercial-Non-Derivate 4.0 International (CC BY NC ND). Thereby they must quote the basic bibliographic data of the source article published in the journal (authors, article title, journal title, volume, pagination).
References
[1] Abolfazli, E., & Nourmand, A. (2016). The Role of Gender, Education Level and Academic Degree of the School Principals on Their Selected Styles of Leadership. Journal of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Education, (3–4), 102–116.
[2] Albaddawi, E. (2024). Advancing Women’s Empowerment: Influential factors in the educational sector of Jordan. Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education. https://doi.org/10.28934/jwee24.12.pp248-269
[3] Antonijević, M., Ljumović, I., & Ivanović, D. (2022). Is there a gender gap in financial inclusion worldwide? Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education, (1-2), 79–96. https://doi.org/10.28934/jwee22.12.pp79-96
[4] Avolio, B., Pardo-Piñashca, E., & O’Brien, J. (2024). Gender inequality in time allocation across life stages: a comparative study in a Latin American country. Community Work & Family, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2024.2413006
[5] Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
[6] Bazán, C., Tutaya, R., & Ortíz, D. (2024). La gestión del desempeño laboral: El efecto mediador del mindfulness entre el capital psicológico y el autoliderazgo. Contabilidad Y Negocios, 19(38), 10-35. https://doi.org/10.18800/contabilidad.202402.001
[7] Becker, J., Cheah, J., Gholamzade, R., Ringle, C., & Sarstedt, M. (2023). PLS-SEM’s most wanted guidance. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 35(1), 321-346. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-04-2022-0474
[8] Brabazon, T. (2014). Maybe He’s Just Better Than You”: Generation X Women and Higher Education. Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education, 3-4, 47-70.
[9] Brown, K. W., Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: mindfulness and role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822-848
[10] Chen, Z., & Zhang, X. (2022). The Relationship Between Mindful Agency and Self-Leadership of Chinese Private College Undergraduates: Mediating Effect of Metacognitive Ability. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.847229
[11] Conejero-Pérez, J., López-Verdugo, I., & Hidalgo, V. (2022). What makes a person a leader? The role of emotional intelligence, teamwork skills, and job satisfaction in authentic leadership. Psychology Society & Education, 14(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.21071/psye.v14i1.14187
[12] Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312
[13] Hair, J., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2022). A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). SAGE.
[14] Hendrawan, R., Nastiti, T., & Rosari, R. (2025). Two sides of the same coin: being emotionally intelligent and leading with authenticity while thinking critically. Journal of Management Development. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-06-2024-0193
[15] Henseler, J., Ringle, C., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115-135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
[16] Houghton, J., Dawley, D., & DiLiello, T. (2012). The Abbreviated Self-Leadership Questionnaire (ASLQ): A More Concise Measure of Self-Leadership. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 7(2), 216-232.
[17] Kim, K. N., Wang, J., & Williams, P. (2024). Self-leadership: a value-added strategy for human resource development. European Journal of Training and Development, 48(10), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-10-2023-0163
[18] Kotze, M. (2018). The influence of psychological capital, self-leadership, and mindfulness on work engagement. South African Journal of Psychology, 48(2), 279-292. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317705812
[19] Kotze, M. (2016). Self-leadership as an antecedent of authentic leadership: An empirical study among public sector employees. African Journal of Public Affairs, 9(2), 74-92.
[20] Kringelum, L. B., Mortensen, L., & Holmgren, J. (2023). Leading or being led: The authentic leadership dilemma. En R. V. Turcan, J. E. Reilly, K. M. Jørgensen, Y. Taran, & A. I. Bujac (Eds.), The Emerald Handbook of Authentic Leadership (pp. 417-438). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-013-920231019
[21] Lee, M., & Jung, M. (2022). The Mediating Effect of Empathy between Mindfulness and Self-Leadership in Female University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19, 15623. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph192315623
[22] Mikulić, J. (2022). Fallacy of higher-order reflective constructs. Tourism Management, 89, 104449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104449
[23] Novotney, A. (2023). Women leaders make work better. Here’s the science behind how to promote them. Available at: https://www.apa.org/topics/women-girls/female-leaders-make-work-better
[24] Prakash, D., Bisla, M., & Arora, T. (2023). Gendered aspect of entrepreneurial orientation: the role of mindfulness. Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education, 76–91. https://doi.org/10.28934/jwee23.pp76-91
[25] Rupprecht, S., Falke, P., Kohls, N., Tamdjidi, C., Wittmann, M., & Kersemaekers, W. (2019). Mindful leader development: How leaders experience the effects of mindfulness training on leader capabilities. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01081
[26] Sarstedt, M., Hair, J., Jun-Hwa, C., Becker, J., & Ringle, C. (2019). How to specify, estimate, and validate higher-order constructs in PLS-SEM. Australian Marketing Journal, 27(3), 197-211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2019.05.003
[27] Schoofs, L. K., Maunz, L. A., & Glaser, J. (2024). Multi-level effects of authentic leadership on self-actualization at work – the mediating roles of authentic followership and basic psychological need satisfaction. Current Psychology, 43, 14494–14505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05480-6
[28] Shahzad, K., Raja, U., Hashmi, S. (2020). Impact of Big Five personality traits on authentic leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 42(2), 208-218. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-05-2019-0202
[29] Shurab, W., Ibrahim, S., Abdelaalem, M., Gabal, S., & Abdelhady, T. (2024). Effect of authentic leadership and mindfulness educational program on nursing managers’ competencies: A quasi-experimental study. BMC Nursing, 23(342). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-01976-z
[30] Srivastava, A., & Dixit, S. (2024). Direct and indirect effects of authentic leadership and gender on occupational well-being: Mediating role of perceived barriers to career advancement. Journal of Management Development, 43(6).
[31] Tan, N., Peters, E. K., & Reb, J. (2023). Effects of a mindfulness-based leadership training on leadership behaviors and effectiveness. Mindfulness, 14(9), 2181–2194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02209-1
[32] Walumbwa, F. O., Avolio, B. J., Gardner, W. L., Wernsing, T. S., & Peterson, S. J. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34(1), 89–126. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-915
[33] Zhang, J., Song, L., Ni, D., & Zheng, X. (2020). Follower Mindfulness and Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Perceived Authentic Leadership and the Moderating Role of Leader Mindfulness. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00879
[34] Zhao, C., & Wang, Y. (2025). A comprehensive assessment of self-leadership among students in China’s ethnic regions: Insights and implications for higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 50(3), 615–637. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2349662