IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmerit/v3y2023i2p23-414d1161400.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Engaging “Care” Behaviors in Support of Employee and Organizational Wellbeing through Complexity Leadership Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Merike Kolga

    (Garnet Learning Solutions, Vancouver, BC V6C 1H2, Canada)

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the attributes of nurturing, empathy, and relating rather than directing moved into the spotlight as important skills for leadership. These skills are representative of the concept of “care” that is often associated with women’s or feminine leadership. The importance of care as a component of leadership had not received significant attention in the leadership literature until the pandemic brought the need for care onto center stage. This article argues that care will continue to be an important attribute of leadership and an essential attribute of an androgynous leadership style—that includes behaviors typically classified as male and those behaviors typically classed as female—that is needed to navigate the increasing complexity of the world most effectively. The article further argues that complexity leadership theory provides the most appropriate leadership approach through which complex adaptive organizations can initiate and foster the development of “care” behaviors as part of an androgynous approach to leadership which produces system-wide benefits in complex systems more capable of addressing the global challenges of the climate crisis and increased environmental disasters, future pandemics, local wars, terrorist attacks, and other phenomena.

Suggested Citation

  • Merike Kolga, 2023. "Engaging “Care” Behaviors in Support of Employee and Organizational Wellbeing through Complexity Leadership Theory," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-10, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmerit:v:3:y:2023:i:2:p:23-414:d:1161400
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8104/3/2/23/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8104/3/2/23/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holly Blake & Mehmet Yildirim & Ben Wood & Steph Knowles & Helen Mancini & Emma Coyne & Joanne Cooper, 2020. "COVID-Well: Evaluation of the Implementation of Supported Wellbeing Centres for Hospital Employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Maria Laura Ruiu, 2020. "Mismanagement of Covid-19: lessons learned from Italy," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7-8), pages 1007-1020, August.
    3. Louise Metcalf & Sue Benn, 2013. "Leadership for Sustainability: An Evolution of Leadership Ability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 369-384, February.
    4. Jessica Nicholson & Elizabeth Kurucz, 2019. "Relational Leadership for Sustainability: Building an Ethical Framework from the Moral Theory of ‘Ethics of Care’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 25-43, April.
    5. Jean-Alain Héraud & Fiona Kerr & Thierry Burger-Helmchen, 2018. "Creative Management of Complex Systems [Management créatif des systèmes complexes]," Post-Print hal-02189769, HAL.
    6. Joanne Ciulla, 2009. "Leadership and the Ethics of Care," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 3-4, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chris T. Cartwright & Maura Harrington & Sarah Smith Orr & Tessa Sutton, 2023. "Women’s Leadership and COVID-19 Pandemic: Navigating Crises through the Application of Connective Leadership," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-21, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chirag Dagar & Ashish Pandey & Ajinkya Navare, 2022. "How Yoga-Based Practices Build Altruistic Behavior? Examining the Role of Subjective Vitality, Self-transcendence, and Psychological Capital," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 191-206, January.
    2. Barbara W. Altman & Louis W. Fry, 2024. "Global Leadership for Sustainability: Essential Competencies for Leading Transformative Multi-Sector Partnerships," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-24, July.
    3. Claire Doussard & Emmanuelle Garbe & Jeremy Morales & Julien Billion, 2024. "Universal Design for the Workplace: Ethical Considerations Regarding the Inclusion of Workers with Disabilities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(2), pages 285-296, October.
    4. Louis W. Fry & Eleftheria Egel, 2021. "Global Leadership for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-25, June.
    5. Jane Boeske, 2023. "Leadership towards Sustainability: A Review of Sustainable, Sustainability, and Environmental Leadership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.
    6. Irene Chu & Mai Chi Vu, 2022. "The Nature of the Self, Self-regulation and Moral Action: Implications from the Confucian Relational Self and Buddhist Non-self," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 245-262, September.
    7. Margaret Oppenheimer & Helen LaVan & William Martin, 2015. "A Framework for Understanding Ethical and Efficiency Issues in Pharmaceutical Intellectual Property Litigation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 505-524, December.
    8. Nektaria Nicolakakis & Maude Lafantaisie & Marie-Claude Letellier & Caroline Biron & Michel Vézina & Nathalie Jauvin & Maryline Vivion & Mariève Pelletier, 2022. "Are Organizational Interventions Effective in Protecting Healthcare Worker Mental Health during Epidemics/Pandemics? A Systematic Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-18, August.
    9. Matata Ponyo Mapon & Jean-Paul K. Tsasa, 2021. "Leadership and Institutional Reforms," Papers 2101.08702, arXiv.org.
    10. Lavanya Vijayasingham & Uma Jogulu & Pascale Allotey, 2018. "Enriching the Organizational Context of Chronic Illness Experience Through an Ethics of Care Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 29-40, November.
    11. Nicos A. Scordis & Yoshihiko Suzawa & Astrid Zwick & Lucia Ruckner, 2014. "Principles for Sustainable Insurance: Risk Management and Value," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 17(2), pages 265-276, September.
    12. Hong, Paul & Jagani, Sandeep & Kim, Jinhwan & Youn, Sun Hee, 2019. "Managing sustainability orientation: An empirical investigation of manufacturing firms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 71-81.
    13. Alice Klettner & Thomas Clarke & Martijn Boersma, 2014. "The Governance of Corporate Sustainability: Empirical Insights into the Development, Leadership and Implementation of Responsible Business Strategy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 145-165, June.
    14. George Papamichail & Alessandro Rosiello & David Wield, 2023. "Addressing Public Policy Implementation Challenges in Lagging Regions Through the Analytical Lens of Smart Specialisation," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(1), pages 356-381, March.
    15. Jeff Everett & Constance Friesen & Dean Neu & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2018. "We Have Never Been Secular: Religious Identities, Duties, and Ethics in Audit Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1121-1142, December.
    16. Turgut Karakose & Ibrahim Kocabas & Ramazan Yirci & Stamatios Papadakis & Tuncay Yavuz Ozdemir & Murat Demirkol, 2022. "The Development and Evolution of Digital Leadership: A Bibliometric Mapping Approach-Based Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-26, December.
    17. Olivier Boiral & Charles Baron & Olen Gunnlaugson, 2014. "Environmental Leadership and Consciousness Development: A Case Study Among Canadian SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 363-383, September.
    18. Andreana Drencheva & Wee Chan Au, 2023. "Bringing the Family Logic in: From Duality to Plurality in Social Enterprises," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 77-93, January.
    19. Carlos Fernandez-Llatas & Niels Martin & Owen Johnson & Marcos Sepulveda & Emmanuel Helm & Jorge Munoz-Gama, 2022. "Building Process-Oriented Data Science Solutions for Real-World Healthcare," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-5, July.
    20. Anne Antoni & Haley Beer, 2024. "Ethical Sensibilities for Practicing Care in Management and Organization Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(2), pages 279-294, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmerit:v:3:y:2023:i:2:p:23-414:d:1161400. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.