Authentic Leadership on Employee Coping and Its Impact on Psychological Vulnerable: Survey on Public Organization in Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

The study tested the preceding research model to develop theories regarding aspects of authentic leadership and employee coping in public organizations. Researchers conducted a survey on public organizations with 198 respondents whose task is providing services to the community. Researchers used the convenience sampling technique to take samples of respondents who work in public organizations in Bandung, Indonesia. To test the proposed research model, researchers used a non-parametric approach to predict the model of research. The result of this study indicates there is a connection between authentic leadership and psychological vulnerability mediated by proactive coping in uncertain situations, especially during COVID-19. The study result contributes to filling the research gaps, which shows the effectiveness of authentic leadership in encouraging proactive behavior of employees in dealing with stress and reducing the impact of psychological vulnerability on employees of public organizations. The research implication recommends that leaders of public organizations encourage the employees' proactive behavior by providing direct support. Thus, the employees can be more effective in dealing with uncertain situations to decrease the impact of psychological vulnerability.   Received: 17 April 2022 / Accepted: 19 August 2022 / Published: 2 September 2022