In recent times authenticity has been high on the agenda in a professional sense.  For instance, on an individual level Deloitte revealed how having meaningful work was key to engagement, whilst a recent study suggested it was key to being mentally young and vibrant.

At an organizational level, a recent report from the CBRE and Genesis that explored the future of work suggested that authentic organizations were essential for future success.

The importance of authenticity

It shouldn’t come as any great surprise, as most of us want nothing more than to be true to ourselves and our values.  A recent study highlights just how important this is and reveals that when we don’t live in such a way, we often feel immoral and impure.

“Our work shows that feeling inauthentic is not a fleeting or cursory phenomenon — it cuts to the very essence of what it means to be a moral person,” the authors explain.

The authors contend that living in an inauthentic way can invoke similar psychological reactions as immoral actions such as cheating or lying.  They suggest that both are in reality a violation of truth, whether that’s being true to ourselves or to other people.

This can include faking excitement for something we don’t believe in, or even fitting into a crowd that don’t share our values.  The authors hypothesize that such acts of inauthenticity provoke feelings of impurity, with people likely to react by trying to ease their conscience in some way.

This matters for collaborative enterprises because people who felt inauthentic also rated themselves as both less generous and cooperative than their authentic peers, however their desire to purify their character did appear to prompt them to help others more frequently.

The authors contend that inauthenticity is particularly dangerous when it occurs in the workplace.

“In order to be responsive to various demands from customers, co-workers, and upper management, individuals may find themselves behaving in ways that are not consistent with their ‘true self.’ In the service industry, for example, service employees are asked to follow precise scripts and use recommended expressions regardless of their true cognitions and feelings,” they say.

It’s an interesting finding that certainly warrants further exploration.  It would appear to land credence however to the growing cacophony of calls for authenticity in the workplace.