Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9675-4588

Date Available

5-1-2025

Year of Publication

2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Education Sciences

Faculty

Dr. Mary John O'Hair, Director of Dissertation

Faculty

Dr. Kristina Hains, Co-Director of Dissertation

Faculty

Dr. John Nash, Director of Graduate School

Abstract

Authentic leaders in nursing higher education significantly influence the organizational climate, fellow faculty members, and, ultimately, students. They develop in a climate of well-being, allowing them to reflect self-awareness, have a balanced approach to processing self-relevant information, have an internalized moral perspective, and have relational transparency. Positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment are the foundations of this climate. Moreover, authentic leaders grow through their supported Psychological Capacities (PsyCap) of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. Exploring the essence of developing into an authentic leader within an Egyptian nursing higher education context is addressed in this dissertation, which consists of three articles using three different approaches.

The first literature-based article outlines a conceptual framework for the development process of becoming an authentic leader. The second article uses an analytic autoethnography approach to illustrate the researcher’s personal journey toward becoming an authentic leader in the context of the Gouna Technical Nursing Institute in Egypt, bracketing out her experiences prior to engaging in the third descriptive phenomenological study. The third article explores the journeys of senior nursing faculty as they become authentic leaders, as well as the journeys of junior faculty as they develop their PsyCap. It highlights the impact of a positive well-being climate on these developmental journeys.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2025.24

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