Differential Leadership Behaviors and Their Impact on Workplace Isolation:

The Interactive Role of Organizational Authenticity

(An Analytical Study of the Opinions of a Sample of Employees at the Presidency of the University of Kufa)

A Dissertation Submitted to the Council of the College of Administration and Economics / University of Karbala

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration Sciences

Written by

Amal Kadhim Mahdi Hameed Al-Tamimi

Supervised by	Second Supervision by
Prof. Dr. Mithaq Hatif Al-Fatlawi	Asst. Prof. Dr. Saleh Mahdi Al-Hasnawi

Abstract

    The study primarily aimed to understand the impact of differential leader behaviors on workplace isolation through the interactive role of organizational authenticity at the level of the University of Kufa Presidency. This study relied on a primary problem stemming from an intellectual motive related to the conceptual debate surrounding variables and a field-based motive. The organizational structure of the university presidency is characterized by the presence of multiple levels of employees, ranging from administrators to academics, allowing for observing the impact of leader behaviors on different groups. This problem was translated into multiple questions that encompassed the sum of the influential and interactive relationships between field variables. Among the most prominent questions the study sought to answer were: Does organizational authenticity play an interactive role in the relationship between differential leader behaviors and workplace isolation? To support these relationships intellectually, the study adopted the Chao (2020) model to measure differential leader behaviors with its dimensions of care and communication, promotions and rewards, and tolerance for mistakes, and the Orhan et al. (2016) model to measure isolation in the workplace with its dimensions of social isolation and organizational isolation, while the Maunz & Glaser (2022) model was relied upon with its dimensions of self-alienation, authentic life, and acceptance of external influence to measure organizational authenticity. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach in presenting and interpreting the study information, and used the questionnaire because it is the main tool for collecting data and information related to the study sample, which is a random sample represented by the employees of the Presidency of the University of Kufa, whose size reached (217) employees. For statistical analysis and processing, a set of statistical tests were used to verify the validity of the adopted measures, including confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson’s correlation, and structural equation modeling. A set of results was reached, the most important of which was that organizational authenticity represents an organizational factor with a dual effect. On the one hand, it contributes to establishing a work environment characterized by transparency and justice, which may limit the negative effects of differential leadership behavior. On the other hand, it may lead to increased employee awareness of discrimination, which exacerbates feelings of isolation among some employees. This disparity reflects the importance of the organizational and cultural context in determining the nature of the role played by organizational authenticity. Keywords: Differential leader behaviors, isolation in the workplace, organizational authenticity.