Abstract: Authentic leadership was brought up by leadership Scholars due to the increasing societal challenges as well as the recent corporate scandals and management malfeasance. It is defined as a process that draws from both positive psychological capacities and a highly developed organizational context. In this paper, the concept and characteristics, as well as the measurement of authentic leadership were introduced, and then the differences and relationships between authentic leadership and several other kinds of leadership were compared. After that, the effectiveness of authentic leadership in organizations was analyzed. Finally, the comment on the new leadership theory and some research orientations were provided

Key words: authenticity, authentic leadership, positive psychological capacities