A few years ago research highlighted the importance of feeling authentic at work, with those living in an inauthentic way reporting feeling almost immoral or 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.

Interpersonal conflict

Despite this clear desire, it’s not always something that occurs in our workplaces, and a paper from INSEAD argues that this may be due to the potential for interpersonal conflict generated by us being our authentic selves.

The authors suggest that the impact of us being authentic depends significantly on how much we feel we identify with our social environment.  In other words, when we feel closely identified with our colleagues, we feel free to be ourselves.  When we don’t, however, then our authenticity can result in conflict.

The rationale for this is that when we’re authentic, we clearly put our values on display, which makes it easier for any misalignment to present itself.  As such, for authenticity to be positive, it’s important that people in the workplace are aligned in terms of their values and norms.

Team performance

This has obvious implications in terms of the performance of teams and of organizations more broadly, as conflicts within teams are a clear dampener on the effectiveness of those teams.  The study found that while authentic behavior improves team performance when values are aligned, when conflicts emerge this was sadly not the case.

As such, the authors believe that while the desire for authenticity is often viewed, understandably, in a positive light, it does carry certain risks if the values of the team are not aligned.  This is likely to be especially so in teams that are self-selected as there is likely to be a greater desire for similarity and cohesion within the team.

So what can organizations do?  Obviously employing only those people with similarities to their existing workforce is dangerous due to the effect a homogenous team has on things such as innovation and creativity.  Instead, managers could work to show their appreciation for the diversity within their ranks while also highlighting the similarities that do bind people together.  This encouragement to appreciate the things that bind us together rather than what distinguishes us apart could help to achieve the benefits of diversity while retaining unity.