Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore whether authentic leadership in hospitality is composed of four distinctive but related substantive components (i.e. self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, and internalized moral); the impact of authentic leadership on employees’ organizational commitment (OC); the impact of employees’ OC on their turnover intention (TI); and the indirect effect of authentic leadership on employees’ TI via OC. Design/methodology/approach – The authors tested a sample of 236 students working as employees in hospitality in the USA, on the idea that authentic leadership increases OC which in turn decreases TI. The participants were asked to rate the manager’s leadership style and the frequency of their leadership behavior. Findings – Results of structural equation modeling provide support for the positive effect of authentic leadership on OC in the hospitality industry, and suggest that OC mediates reduced TI. Practical implications – The findings in the present study are extremely useful to managers, human resource managers, and organizations as a whole. Practitioners looking to increase employee OC and decrease TI can do so by augmenting the authentic leadership qualities of managers. Originality/value – The results of this study suggests a variety of significant theoretical contributions as well as critical leadership and organizational implications. The effects of authentic leadership were empirically tested on employees’ OC and the effects of that OC on TI.