The effect of authentic leadership on trust in managers and job performance: A field study on non-governmental organizations

The purpose of this research has been determined as the effect of authentic leadership perception on trust in the manager and job performance. In accordance with the purpose of the study, questionnaire is preferred as quantitative research method and data collection method. Within the scope of the research, authentic leadership scale, which is consisting of 16 items, developed by Walumbwa et al (2008) and brought to the Turkish literature by Tabak, Polat, Coşar, and Türköz (2012), is used for measuring the perception of authentic leadership perception; the interpersonal trust scale, which is consisting of 11 items, developed by McAllister (1995) and whose validity and reliability study was conducted in Turkish by Arı (2003), is used for measuring trust in the manager; the job performance scale which is consisting of 4 items, developed by Sigler and Pearson (2000) and whose validity and reliability study was conducted in Turkish by Çöl (2008), is used for measuring job performance. The questionnaire prepared from these scales and demographic questions have been answered by 455 participants who worked either voluntarily or professionally in non-governmental organizations operating in Turkey for at least 1 year. T test, Anova analysis, correlation and regression analyzes were performed to test the hypotheses. According to the findings obtained from the research result, a strong and positive relationship is determined between the authentic leadership perception and the level of trust in the manager. Authentic leadership perception explains the level of trust in the manager by 53%. This strong relationship between authentic leadership perception and the level of trust in the manager matches up with other studies in the literature. In the analyzes carried out between the types of organizations, it is determined that the employees of the associations, whose legal regulations are more flexible, have higher authentic leadership perception levels than those who work in the foundation status. According to the findings, it is found that the perceptions of the volunteers in the dimensions of authentic leadership, trust in the manager and job performance are significantly higher than the full-time employees. According to the analysis result, no significant findings are found between authentic leadership perception and job performance as well as between trust in the manager and job performance.