PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The transformation of traditional leadership in rural societies has become increasingly significant in the post-industrial era, yet limited attention has been given to how authority is reconfigured within customary institutions. This study examines the transformation of traditional leadership among four ethnic communities in South Sulawesi, Indonesia—Bugis, Makassar, Mandar, and Toraja by analysing how digitalisation, information openness, and shifting social expectations reshape authority and power. Using a qualitative approach with an embedded single-case study design, data were collected through observation, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and document analysis. The findings reveal that traditional authority is not diminishing but being reconfigured into a hybrid form that combines inherited legitimacy, formal-legal positioning, and recognition-based authority grounded in competence and adaptive capacity. Comparative analysis shows differentiated patterns: adaptive hybridisation among Bugis and Makassar leaders, contextual flexibility among Mandar leaders, and selective conservatism among Toraja leaders. This study argues that authority transformation in the post-industrial era is not a linear shift from ascribed to achieved status, but a dynamic process of reconfiguration shaped by digital change, community participation, and sustainability concerns. These findings contribute to the literature by advancing a hybrid perspective on authority in non-Western rural contexts.