Exploring the Meaning of Authentic Leadership Communication Among Millennials in Southeast Asian Technology Workplaces
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Abstract
Leadership communication is a critical area within organizational communication studies, particularly in understanding how interpersonal dynamics shape workplace culture and employee engagement. While prior research has explored authentic leadership, little is known about how millennial employees subjectively experience and interpret authentic leadership communication in culturally complex industries such as technology. The current literature lacks phenomenological insights into how authenticity is perceived from the employee’s perspective, prompting the question: how do millennial employees make meaning of authentic leadership communication in their everyday professional lives? This study adopts an interpretative phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of millennials working in Southeast Asian technology firms—specifically in Jakarta, Indonesia, between January and April 2024—and provides an in-depth answer to this question. Semi-structured interviews with 12 participants from three major tech companies—each with distinct organizational cultures and leadership practices—were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic interpretation grounded in phenomenology. The findings reveal four key themes: perceived transparency, behavioral congruence, dialogic engagement, and emotional resonance, each contributing to a deeper understanding of how authenticity is constructed through daily leader-employee interactions. These insights illustrate that authentic communication is not merely a leadership trait but a relational process embedded in emotional and cultural contexts. A key limitation of this study lies in its small sample size and its focus on a specific regional and industrial context, which may affect the generalizability of the findings. The study expands our understanding of authentic leadership by emphasizing employee meaning-making and offers a foundation for future inquiries into leadership communication as a lived organizational phenomenon.
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