Are You a Caring Leader? (1)
Are you a caring leader? If so, do you care about? Or do you care for? Or do you care with? Can a caring leader be an effective leader? Is the idea of a caring leader incompatible with leading formal organizations, especially businesses? Is an ethic of care viable in our current society and polity?
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted me to examine the nature of caring leadership. Unlike other adjectives, like heroic, or authentic, or transactional, or transformational, one seldom sees the adjective caring modifying the noun leadership. Even the adjective relational, as in relational leadership, does not approach the nature of caring leadership although relationships are very important to caring.… Read the rest
Caring Leadership 3A
This is the first of several posts on caring leaders. It follows the previous post that centered on caring management. The literature on caring leaders seems more limited than the even relatively small literature on caring management. At the same time, the literature on caring leaders seems broader, less focused than that of caring management.
I have divided the post into two parts. Part A deals with caring leadership as expressed by Yiannis Gabriel. Part B covers my attempt to use Gabriel’s paper to determine how Trump’s followers may view him as a caring leader.
Care and leaders
To an extent, the issue of a caring leader connects with the issue of a moral leader.… Read the rest
Trump as a Caring Leader? (3B)
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted me to delve deeper into care ethics. I wanted to understand the extent to which our society was a caring society and if we as a nation could become a more caring country. Consequently, I started this series of blog posts. More basic, I started this blog to help me determine how and why Donald Trump was elected president. Also, I wanted to understand how he would perform as a leader, how he would govern our country. I now turn to this point by asking how Gabriel’s paper may be applicable to Trump.
It is impossible for me to see Trump as a caring leader.… Read the rest
Leadership and the ethics of care – a philosophical analysis (4A)
This two-part post continues the series of posts on caring leadership by focusing on a paper by Tomkins and Simpson titled “Caring Leadership: A Heideggerian Perspective.” A philosophical perspective requires leadership studies to examine what happens “when there is no functionalist blueprint, no clear sense to be made, no comfort in transparency.”
The authors suggest that caring leadership is largely practiced in one or the other of two modes of intervention. One mode is a “leaping-in” intervention and the other is “leaping-ahead” intervention. Overall, the authors posit that much of the care ethics literature provides “too tempting a recipe to follow.”
The first part of this post discusses the paper.… Read the rest
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