Paradox and Power in Caring Leadership

Hardback

Paradox and Power in Caring Leadership

Critical and Philosophical Reflections

9781788975490 Edward Elgar Publishing
Edited by Leah Tomkins, Independent Scholar, Visiting Professor, University of the West of England, and former Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford, UK
Publication Date: 2020 ISBN: 978 1 78897 549 0 Extent: 256 pp
Why does it matter that our leaders care about us? What might we reasonably expect from a caring leader, and what price are we prepared to pay for it? Is caring leadership something ‘soft’, or can it be linked to strategy and delivery? International scholars from the fields of ancient and modern philosophy, psychology, organization studies and leadership development offer a strikingly original debate on what it means for leaders to care.

Copyright & permissions

Recommend to librarian

Your Details

Privacy Policy

Librarian Details

Download leaflet

Print page

More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
More Information
Why does it matter that our leaders care about us? What might we reasonably expect from a caring leader, and what price are we prepared to pay for it? Is caring leadership something ‘soft’, or can it be linked to strategy and delivery? International scholars from the fields of ancient and modern philosophy, psychology, organization studies and leadership development offer a strikingly original debate on what it means for leaders to care.

At a time when the challenges of leadership are rarely out of the headlines, this ground-breaking work takes us beyond the demand that leaders should be competent at what they do, and into the moral and emotional politics of their influence on others. Debates include the costs of caring both too much and too little, the connections between care and feelings, how care affects the self, and caring leadership as collective responsibility.

A key resource for scholars and practitioners in leadership and management, cultural studies, sociology and politics, this book offers an exciting, multi-disciplinary perspective on one of the most fascinating topics in contemporary leadership debates.
Critical Acclaim
‘This sparkling collection puts care where it always should have been – at the forefront of leadership studies. Drawing on a wide variety of perspectives it encourages us to think afresh about why leadership really matters and how it should be practised. It is a gem.’
– Dennis Tourish, University of Sussex, UK

‘Leadership can be brutally self-assertive – or it can be pastorally tender: this is just one of the many paradoxes teased out and explored by the editor and her top-class team of 22 genuine collaborators, in a beautifully produced and critically sophisticated volume that never wearies and genuinely stimulates and inspires.’
– Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge, UK

‘A very welcome collection examining an often-neglected side of leadership, and one that does so with remarkable intellectual range. It draws not only on psychology and philosophy but also on literature and evolutionary theory; on classical and contemporary traditions; as well as on thinkers as diverse as Keats and Arendt. What readers will appreciate most, though, is the balanced—and sometimes critical—approach many of the essays take.’
– Terry L. Price, University of Richmond, US
Contributors
Contributors: G. Abreu Pederzini, C. Atack, V. Bigo, P. Bloom, J.B. Ciulla, A.L. Cunliffe, M. Eriksen, Y. Gabriel, R.A. Gardiner, L. Gloyn, J. Jones, D. Ladkin, M. Lowrie, I. Munro, H. Mussell, B. Sawyer, L. Sawyer, P. Simpson, A. Sinclair, T. Thanem, L. Tomkins, C. von Bülow

Contents
Contents:

Introduction 1
PART I SETTING THE SCENE: POWER, PRIVILEGE AND DISADVANTAGE
1 Leadership, care and (in)justice 16
Leah Tomkins

PART II THE ROOTS OF CARE: KINSHIP, FEELINGS AND BODIES
2 Do leaders need to have tender hearts? Emotion and the duty to care 29
Joanne B. Ciulla
3 The caring leader: an exploration of family archetypes 40
Yiannis Gabriel
4 Magically horrific: caring leadership and the paradoxical evolution of parenthood 52
Gerardo Abreu Pederzini
5 Leading with embodied care 63
Amanda Sinclair and Donna Ladkin

PART III THE RISKS OF CARE: DEPENDENCY, EXPLOITATION AND VULNERABILITY
6 The shepherd king and his flock: paradoxes of leadership and care in classical Greek philosophy 75
Carol Atack
7 Leadership and the fiduciary: addressing asymmetrical power by caring well 86
Helen Mussell
8 Leadership in the ancient and modern military: carelessness and moral injury 98
Liz Sawyer and Ben Sawyer
9 A metamorphosis for leaders: caring in good faith 109
Jen Jones

PART IV THE CARING LEADER AT WORK: SECURITY, SACRIFICE AND SELF
10 Care and security in Vergil’s Aeneid: an analysis of the politics of empire 121
Michèle Lowrie
11 Negative Capability and care of the self 131
Charlotte von Bülow and Peter Simpson
12 Pater figure: leaders, emperors and fathers in Seneca and Stoicism 142
Liz Gloyn
13 Through the prism of Sartre: taking care of our existential freedom 153
Peter Bloom

PART V RESHAPING THE CONTOURS OF LEADERSHIP: RELATIONSHIP, COMMUNITY AND DEMOCRACY
14 Educating caring leaders: a paradox of collective uniqueness 163
Ann L. Cunliffe and Matthew Eriksen
15 Caring leadership as collective responsibility: a dialogue with Arendt and Heidegger 175
Rita A. Gardiner
16 Caring leadership as radical ontology: Eastern philosophies of non-separation 186
Vinca Bigo
17 Care without leaders: the collective powers of affective leadership 198
Iain Munro and Torkild Thanem
18 Caring beyond kinship: applying Jane Addams’ social ethic to the organizational domain 210
Donna Ladkin

Index 222
eBook for individuals
978 1 78897 550 6
From $40.00
Click here for options
eBook for library purchase
978 1 78897 550 6
View sample chapter and check access on:
eBook options

Available for individuals to buy from these websites

Or recommend to your institution to acquire on Elgaronline
  • Buy as part of an eBook subject collection - flexible options available
  • Downloading and printing allowed
  • No limits on concurrent user access, ideal for course use
My Cart