Does the Perceived Authentic Leadership Have a Mediating Role in the Relationship Between Employees’ Emotional Intelligence and Self-Compassion?

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to evaluate whether perceived authentic leadership has a mediating role in the relationship between employees’ emotional intelligence levels and their self- -compassion perceptions. Design/methodology/approach: All data in the research were obtained from 175 employees in 12 different tea factories. In the study, in which the descriptive and cross-sectional method was followed, the analysis of the data was made with Hayes’ (2013) simple mediation analysis approach within the scope of structural equation modeling. Findings: The results of the analysis show that authentic leadership perceptions of employees are positively related to their emotional intelligence levels and self-compassion perceptions, and that perceived authentic leadership plays a mediating role in this relationship. Research limitations/implications: The research has some limitations. First, the findings obtained in the course of the analyses are not generalized to the whole population, as they are collected from a specific sample. It should be mentioned that the results were obtained from different institutions. It can be said that the perceived authentic leadership approach plays a role in the relationship between individual-oriented positive attitudes such as emotional intelligence and self-compassion. Therefore, it is anticipated that the results obtained from the study contribute to the literature. In addition, handling the statistical aspect of the research only with the mediation analysis approach constitutes a separate limitation. Different statistical approaches can be adopted for future studies. Originality/value: This study presents a fragment of the results of structural equation modeling conducted for tea industry employees in Turkey on the topic of authentic leadership.