Understanding Kindness – A Moral Duty of Human Resource Leaders

The role of leaders in the modern organization has evolved as scholars and practitioners have recognized that a key element to long-term profitability is the creation of high trust and high commitment work systems that treat employees as valued partners (Kim & Wright, 2011; Block, 2013; Beer, 2009; Caldwell & Floyd, 2014). Effective leaders create aligned organizational cultures with systems, processes, practices, and programs reinforcing the organization’s espoused values in achieving its mission (Schein, 2010). Human resource professionals (HRPs) play a critical leadership role in ensuring that human resource management (HRM) cultural elements are properly integrated, communicated effectively to employees, and followed in a manner that builds trust and increases commitment (Lengnick-Hall, 2009; McEvoy, et al., 2005). The purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of kindness as a moral duty of HRPs in serving their organizations and the employees within them. As HRPs perform their strategic and operational roles in the modern organization, properly understanding the nature of kindness is an important factor in carrying out HRM roles. This paper begins by defining kindness and its specific application to HRPs — equating the definition of kindness as a leadership trait with six elements of kindness and seven kindness-related ethical perspectives. The paper concludes with a summary of its contribution for HRP practitioners and scholars in understanding the nuances of kindness as a morally-and ethically-related HRM leadership virtue

“I See You!” – The Zulu Insight to Caring Leadership

Although the role of leaders in building relationships with team members has been well-established as a foundation for improved performance (Beer, 2009), the complex challenges in directing the modern organization in a highly competitive global marketplace often mean that leaders of organizations are more focused on tasks rather than people. Nonetheless, a growing body of research about the importance of leader-member relationships confirms that leaders who demonstrate a caring commitment to the welfare of organization members also create organizations that are more profitable, more innovative, and more effective at meeting customer needs (Cameron, 2003; Kouzes & Posner, 2012)

Humility, Forgiveness, and Love -- The Heart of Ethical Stewardship

The purpose of this paper is to identify the nature and importance of ethical stewardship as a powerful contributor to the trustworthiness of leaders – focusing on humility, forgiveness, and love as three leadership qualities that are at the heart of ethical stewardship. We begin by defining ethical stewardship and equating it with Six characteristics of personal trustworthiness. Following that introduction, we explain why humility, forgiveness, and love are vitally important leadership qualities essential to becoming an effective ethical steward and include six propositions relating those three qualities to ethical stewardship. We then offer six insights about humility, forgiveness, and love that can assist those who wish to improve their ability to become ethical stewards to improve their success. We conclude the paper with a challenge to leaders to adopt ethical stewardship as their leadership paradigm

Human Resource Professionals as Strategic Leaders — A Behavioral Opportunity for Improving Information Management

Human Resource Management is an often overlooked and underutilized strategic tool that has the potential to shape organizational objectives. Authors Caldwell and Ndalamba attempt to identify when, where, and in what fashion HR sources can be more fully utilized to coordinate and fully develop an entity’s interlinking structure to achieve a successful, common purpose

A Muslim Perspective of Leadership – Insights from Oman

This paper presents a Muslim perspective of leadership as viewed from observing leaders in Muscat, Oman – the capital city of the Middle East country that has grown at the rate of just under 4% per year since 2000 and is awash with residents from places throughout the world. With this rate of growth and rich diversity, leadership designed to make an equitable impact is required to govern

Book Review: It\u27s the Manager: Moving from Boss to Coach

Authors: Jim Clifton & Jim Harter Publisher: Gallup Press Original Release Date: 2019 (448 pages) ISBN:1595622241 (ISBN13: 9781595622242) Reviewer: Cam Caldwel

Addressing the Well-Being Problem – A “Fundamental State of Leadership” Approach

The message of Jon Clifton’s (2022) new book, Blind Spot, is that the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous context of business has created enormous pressures on the modern employee with 28% of employees exhibiting chronic depression, extreme sadness, or other mental health problems. Those conditions negatively affect employee commitment and engagement and hamper the ability of organizations to succeed in a highly competitive global environment. The root cause of this “well-being problem” is the convergence of a multitude of economic and social problems that challenge the best efforts of even the most capable leaders

Humility, Forgiveness, and Love -- The Heart of Ethical Stewardship

The purpose of this paper is to identify the nature and importance of ethical stewardship as a powerful contributor to the trustworthiness of leaders – focusing on humility, forgiveness, and love as three leadership qualities that are at the heart of ethical stewardship. We begin by defining ethical stewardship and equating it with Six characteristics of personal trustworthiness. Following that introduction, we explain why humility, forgiveness, and love are vitally important leadership qualities essential to becoming an effective ethical steward and include six propositions relating those three qualities to ethical stewardship. We then offer six insights about humility, forgiveness, and love that can assist those who wish to improve their ability to become ethical stewards to improve their success. We conclude the paper with a challenge to leaders to adopt ethical stewardship as their leadership paradigm

University Professors as “Transformative Leaders”

University professors have a moral obligation to be ethical leaders in guiding their stewards. Transformative Leadership, a concept identified in both the educational and business leadership literature, provides a valuable model for university professors to consider as they interact with students and help them to learn and to prepare for the challenges of the modern world. This paper integrates the education and business leadership perspectives of Transformative Leadership and identifies the contributions that this leadership model can contribute to the effectiveness of university professors who adopt its principles

Moral Identity, Self-Improvement, and the Quest for Greatness: A Leadership Responsibility

The focus of this paper is on explaining how leaders can follow the path of self-improvement by more fully understanding their moral identity. We begin by briefly reviewing excerpts from the literature about personal development and self-awareness to lay a foundation for the importance of leaders seeking to achieve their optimal effectiveness. Following that introduction, we introduce a new definition of moral identity that builds upon identity theory as developed by Peter Burke and Jan Stets (2009). We then identify nine traits that link moral identity and leadership. Integrating moral identity with the pursuit of personal excellence, we identify twelve insights about the leader’s responsibility to honor moral duties owed to those individuals whom they serve. Following that review, we then suggest six significant contributions of this paper for both academic scholars and individuals who seek to become more honorable leaders and conclude the paper with suggestions about opportunities for additional research about moral identity and its importance for leaders