Leadership and the Ethics of Care

Ciulla, Joanne B.

doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0105-1

Cited by 73 publications

(60 citation statements)

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“…It is in this context that theories of servant (Greenleaf 1977) and caring leadership (Ciulla 2009;Gabriel 2015;Tomkins and Simpson 2015) developed, drawing sometimes on the emerging philosophy and psychology centering upon the ethics of care and compassion. The underlying concept of caring here is not a generalised attitude, as in ''I care about the future of the planet'' or ''I care about the condition of prisons'', but a direct emotional engagement with people for whom the leader feels directly responsible and whose well-being he/she sees as a priority.…”

Section: Leaders and Moralitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral Emotions and Ethics in Organisations: Introduction to the Special Issue

2016

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The aim of our special issue is to deepen our understanding of the role moral emotions play in organisations as part of a wider discourse on organisational ethics and morality. Unethical workplace behaviours can have far-reaching consequences-job losses, risks to life and health, psychological damage to individuals and groups, social injustice and exploitation and even environmental devastation. Consequently, determining how and why ethical transgressions occur with surprising regularity, despite the inhibiting influence of moral emotions, has considerable theoretical and practical significance to management scholars and managers alike. In this introduction, we present some of the core arguments in the field; notably, the effect of organisational life and bureaucracy on emotions, in general, and moral emotions, in particular; the moral standing of leaders, managers and followers; moral challenges raised by obedience and resistance to organisational power and ethical blindspots induced by what may appear as deeply moral emotions. These issues are explored by a collection of geographically diverse articles in various work contexts, which are thematically organised in terms of (i) moral emotions, ethical behaviour and social pressure, (ii) moral emotions and their consequences within/across levels of analysis, (iii) psychoanalytic perspectives on the management of moral emotions, (iv) virtue and moral emotions and (v) moral emotions and action tendencies. We end by suggesting certain avenues for future research in the hope that the endeavour initiated here will inspire improved practice at work.

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Section: Leaders and Moralitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral Emotions and Ethics in Organisations: Introduction to the Special Issue

2016

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“…Seeing leadership this way counterbalances the traditional focus in organizational research which has side-stepped the present in its emphasis on learning from the past and planning for the future (Simpson and French, 2006;Tomkins and Eatough, 2013b). Thus, caring leadership intersects with discussions on leadership as being present (Ciulla, 2009) and the related notion of presence (Fairhurst and Cooren, 2009 'Leaping-in' is, therefore, only experienced as care if it moves beyond displacement and substitution and into reinstatement or restoration, that is, if it balances immediacy of need with concern for the future. We think this chimes with our everyday experiences of being the recipient of leadership intervention: We may feel relief and gratitude if our leader steps in to direct a particularly difficult task or answer a particularly difficult question on our behalf, but these feelings will be short-lived if no further tasks or questions are directed our way.…”

Section: Caring Leadership As 'Leaping-in'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Caring Leadership: A Heideggerian Perspective

Tomkins

Simpson

2015

Organization Studies

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This paper develops the idea of caring leadership based on Heidegger's philosophy of care.From this perspective, caring leadership is grounded in the practices of 'leaping-in' and 'leaping-ahead' as modes of intervention in the affairs of the world and the efforts of others.This involves gauging and taking responsibility for the ramifications of intervention, balancing the urge for certainty of outcome and visibility of contribution with the desire to encourage and enable others. Our analysis suggests several twists to contemporary leadership debates. We argue that the popular models of transactional and transformational leadership are to be critiqued not for their over-reliance, but rather, their under-reliance on agency. This is a different kind of agency to that of heroic or charismatic models. It involves tolerance of complexity and ambivalence; a rich sense of temporal trajectory; concern for one's presence in the world; and crucially, the ability to resist the soothing normativity of 'best practice'. From this position, we argue that the problem with the growing scholarly interest in an ethic of care is that it provides too tempting a recipe to follow. In a Heideggerian view, caring leadership has little to do with compassion, kindness or niceness; it involves and requires a fundamental organization and leadership of self.

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“…Giving feedback based on a genuine attempt to engage with the Other rather than rely on the narcissistic comforts of familiarity casts leadership in terms of a concern for one's presence in the world (Ciulla, 2009). This kind of leadership requires a commitment to engaging in intersubjective, rather than narcissistic, recognition.…”

Section: Implications For the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Narcissism Undermining Critical Reflection in Our Business Schools?

Tomkins

Ulus

2015

AMLE

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This paper connects with claims that our students are struggling with critical reflection. We propose that hampering critical reflection is a form of narcissism, which we define using Ovid's classical myth. Narcissus' errors highlight the risks of non-critical reflection, involving the deceptions of familiarity and the appropriation of meaning. Narcissus' journey from reflection to critical reflection triggers an ethical crisis; but for us, such a journey can be a spur to reflexivity, emphasising the contingency of our knowledge claims and the ethics of our presence in the world.Woven through our discussion is the theme of power. Narcissus' initially na ïve reflection incorporates the power to control meaning, and he proves incapable of relinquishing control over others to develop greater control over himself. We call for a softening of the distinctions in the management literature between (individual/psychological) reflection and (relational/political) critical reflection, arguing that our exploration of narcissism reveals the political-in-the-personal. We present practical suggestions for the classroom, including how to explain critical reflection to students and what pitfalls to avoid when reviewing and giving feedback on the work of others. These ideas have particular applicability to peer learning approaches, but also have relevance for the teaching and role-modelling of leadership.

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Leadership and the Ethics of Care

Abstract: care, crisis, duty, leadership ethics, leaders’ presence, Nero,

Cited by 73 publications

References 0 publications

Moral Emotions and Ethics in Organisations: Introduction to the Special Issue

Moral Emotions and Ethics in Organisations: Introduction to the Special Issue

Caring Leadership: A Heideggerian Perspective

Is Narcissism Undermining Critical Reflection in Our Business Schools?

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