EXPRESS: From Empathic Leader to Empathic Leadership Practice: An Extension to Relational Leadership Theory

Does empathy merely take place in leaders’ mind? How does it help us better understand and practice leadership? In the past, entitative relational leadership studies have mainly drawn on a mind-based understanding of empathy and focused on the association between individual empathy trait and leader emergence and effectiveness. Such an approach overlooks leadership practice of empathy as a constructive process. By integrating emerging research from diverse disciplines from philosophy to communication, the paper first offers a constructionist view of empathy, based on which empathic leadership practice is conceptualized. The paper explicates how leadership practice of empathy construction is rooted in relational ethics and takes place in both synchronic dyadic interaction through conversation as well as diachronic narrative practice with a collective other. By conceptualizing empathic leadership practice through a social constructionist approach to empathy, the paper makes significant contributions to our understanding of relational leadership.

Development and Validation of an Empirical Model to Study the Mediating Role of Empathic School Leadership in the Motivation of High School Students in India

Emotionally fragile organizations like schools require human elements to be treated with utmost care. Most schools in India are managed by a strictly hierarchical organizational structure with the head of the school at the top. In such organizational structures, the head decides the design, nature, and direction of the various school processes. It is within this context that this study explores the two important dimensions of leadership and empathy in conjunction with each other. While the capability to feel and share the feelings of others has been regarded as an essential leadership quality, school leadership brings forth a unique and potent dimension to the concept of empathic leadership. This study explores the role of empathic school leadership in motivating students. A random sample of 297 students was administered a questionnaire. The results were analysed and a model with empathic–leadership as a mediator for student motivation was developed and validated using path analysis. Further, the instrument used was validated with confirmatory factor analysis for use as a tool to measure empathy-driven leadership in Indian schools. This instrument might help in introducing the concept of leadership–empathy audit in Indian schools.

Cultivating Connection

Student leadership is an increasingly utilized tool on college campuses for welcoming and supporting new students as they transition to college. In our various experiences as previous student leaders turned student affairs professionals, we found a common thread in our work which made a tremendous difference in the development of student leaders and the students they served—the ability to create and maintain meaningful empathic connections. This paper will provide structure for orientation, transition, and retention (OTR) professionals to cultivate empathy in student leaders who may use those skills to build stronger and more authentic connections as they welcome and help students successfully navigate their transition to college. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in empathic leadership development and its potential to positively impact the transition and retention of new students.

When Caring Leaders Are Constrained: The Impact of LMX Differentiation on Leader Empathic Concern in Predicting Discretionary Work Behaviors

Empathic leaders often create high-quality relationships with their subordinates, and these relationships are suggested to increase several beneficial outcomes for employees and organizations alike. Yet leader–member exchange (LMX) theory suggests that leaders do not have such high-quality relationships with each of their subordinates, leading to varying levels of LMX differentiation. We examine how leaders’ empathic concern, a trait-based assessment of leader empathy, may incite additional discretionary efforts in the form of assisting coworkers with interpersonal facilitation and taking on additional tasks with job dedication. However, we suggest that when these empathic leaders are constrained, it reduces their ability to form high-quality relationships with all of their subordinates, resulting in high LMX differentiation. This LMX differentiation is expected to influence empathic leaders’ ability to motivate their followers to engage in altruistic behaviors. In a field study of workplace groups, we find that leader empathic concern positively affects interpersonal facilitation and job dedication only when LMX differentiation is low, providing support for our contention that the effects of empathic leadership may be situationally constrained. Findings and future directions are discussed.