Compassionate Leadership Research Articles

Integrative Leadership in a Bachelor of Science in Nursing–Integrative Health Program

Integrative nursing leadership blends appreciative, relational, authentic, mindful, transformational, and compassionate leadership styles. Integrative nursing leadership comprises the following 7 tenets: beginner’s mind, meaningful relationships, authenticity, role modeling, gratitude, whole-person and whole-team care, and the use of team integrative modalities. Clinical nurse leaders may want to consider adopting integrative nursing leadership to adequately lead a nursing workforce interested in transforming health care into a more holistic (bodymindspirit) interprofessional care model. Integrative nursing leadership blends appreciative, relational, authentic, mindful, transformational, and compassionate leadership styles. Integrative nursing leadership comprises the following 7 tenets: beginner’s mind, meaningful relationships, authenticity, role modeling, gratitude, whole-person and whole-team care, and the use of team integrative modalities. Clinical nurse leaders may want to consider adopting integrative nursing leadership to adequately lead a nursing workforce interested in transforming health care into a more holistic (bodymindspirit) interprofessional care model. Nancy Baumhover, PhD, RN, CCRN-K, CNE, is clinical associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Nursing in Tucson, Arizona. She can be reached at [email protected]

Handling concerns raised about doctors: time for local changes

NHS organisations must be assured that appropriate protections and support are in place for their employees, especially when incidents occur or concerns arise. These assurances are an essential part of fostering a just and inclusive culture under an overarching banner of compassionate leadership, while also ensuring that any concerns are properly investigated. In mid-2019, the General Medical Council published their Hamilton review into Gross Negligence Manslaughter. As a result, NHS Improvement wrote to NHS trusts about managing local investigation processes for disciplinary investigations of all types. Employers and educators of healthcare professionals have a responsibility to consider how they will put these recommendations and requirements into practice, yet there is currently no clear implementation guidance. The authors make implementation recommendations that should be considered by NHS organisations and Health Education England as part of their compassionate leadership and just culture processes.

A report on a quality improvement initiative to increase midwives' confidence in attending home birth

Since the dissolvement of the ‘supervisor of midwives’ role, NHS England has introduced a new midwifery role: the professional midwifery advocate (PMA) via the advocating for education and quality improvement (A-EQUIP) model. The author undertook the long course PMA study, which is a six-month module. A requirement of the module was to implement a quality improvement project within the student PMA NHS Trust. As part of a wider project under the ‘Better Births Maternity Transformation Programme’ (2016) to increase the home birth rate for the trust, the author chose to implement a quality improvement project to improve the (shared) home birth equipment available to community midwives, aiming to increase midwives’ confidence in attending home birth. Through the use of quality improvement tools and utilising a compassionate leadership model, the project aim was met: 75% of midwives reported they felt increased confidence in attending home birth with the new equipment offering.

Mixed perceptions of women on care in maternal and child healthcare settings in Lilongwe, Malawi

BackgroundThis paper reports findings of a study which was conducted in response to a plethora of negative patient/client experiences which occur in various clinical settings in Malawi and are commonly reported in the media. The study was aimed at embedding compassionate care in selected maternal and child healthcare settings where the study was conducted. Research methodologyThe study employed a qualitative methodology which utilized an exploratory-descriptive qualitative design. However, this was part of a larger Participatory Action Research Study (PAR). In-depth exit interviews were conducted with women who were discharged from postnatal ward and women whose babies or children were discharged from nursery and paediatric ward respectively. The study had a sample of 30 participants who were purposively selected. Thematic analysis was conducted. FindingsThe findings revealed the perceptions of women of the care rendered in the maternal and child health care settings where the study was conducted. The study revealed mixed perceptions of the women on the care. More commonly, the women perceived that the care was good. However, some women perceived that the care was poor. Three main themes emerged from the data and these include: women’s perception of good care in maternal and child healthcare settings; women’s perception of poor care in maternal and child healthcare settings and Perceptions of women on personnel and healthcare facility factors essential for improved care. ConclusionThe study revealed positive caring encounters and this implies that nurses and midwives in Malawi can still care. It is therefore argued that caring is not completely a lost virtue. Mentorship through a compassionate leadership strategy is proposed to enhance the delivery of compassionate care.

Compassionate leadership: does it really give nurses a voice?

The new style of leadership in healthcare is ‘inclusive’ and ‘collective’. But is it ushering in a kinder world for front-line nurses – and have leaders rooted in a hierarchical style had their day?

Adapting the Social-Ecological Framework for Chronic Pain Management and Successful Opioid Tapering.

In 2015, Solano County's Medi-Cal insurer implemented a new policy to taper patients using high-dose opioids (≥120-mg morphine equivalent dose) to a safer level to follow best practices to address the opioid epidemic. To evaluate the effect of the 2015 Solano County Medi-Cal prescribing policy, gain insight into the patient experience of undergoing opioid tapering, and generate hypotheses for further study. Using a case series approach, researchers completed medical record reviews of affiliated clinical records, Solano County Vital Statistics, and California's prescription monitoring program in 2018. After exclusions, eligible patients were asked to participate in a comprehensive qualitative interview. Medical record reviews of 38 patients found the majority were not using opioids using them at a morphine equivalent dose of 90 mg or less. The reviews also found that mental illness and obesity prevalence were higher than Solano county baseline levels. Furthermore, naloxone was not prescribed to any of the 38 patients. Researchers reached 15 of the 38 patients by phone, and ultimately 6 completed the interview process. Themes and emergent concepts from interviews identified a lack of empathetic connection with health care professionals, poor understanding of overdose risks, persistent pain, and confirmed naloxone underuse. Safer prescribing policies may take multiple years to fully implement and need to be employed across the jurisdiction to minimize doctor-shopping and adverse effects on patients with chronic pain. Approaching pain management through the social-ecological model can address potential root causes of addiction and establish a framework for doctors to provide compassionate care, community leadership, and advocacy for these patients.

The Effects of CEO’s Compassionate Rationalism Leadership Strategies on Innovation Activities and Business Performance in SMEs

Domestic SMEs play a key role in production and employment, accounting for 98.9% of total enterprises, 74.4% of employment, 50.8% of production, and 49.0% of value added (as of 2016). However, they are faced with difficulties of survival because of continuous decrease in profitability, shortage of funds and manpower, insufficient accumulation of technology, minimum wage increase, and 52-hour workweek. In order for SMEs to continue to develop in such a difficult environment, we must constantly innovate our organization by making full use of our knowledge, information, experience and ability. To do this, CEO (management) leadership is very important to ensure that the best people are focused on the organizational innovation and management performance without moving the company. In this study, we wanted to establish empirically how the newly emerging compassionate rationalism leadership of SMEs business managers affected the innovation activities and management performance of companies. Research has shown that management’s compassionate rationalism leadership has a positive and significant causal relationship with the innovation activities and management performance of the enterprise. Therefore, SMEs managers need to learn the bottom eight strategic factors of compassionate rationalism leadership and use them strategically to make efforts to create positive emotions for the organization so that members can be immersed in innovative activities and management performance creation.

A focus on culture and leadership.

Sam Foster, Chief Nurse, Oxford University Hospitals, discusses 'compassionate leadership', an approach that aims to allow staff to provide the best care for patients by listening to and acting on staff concerns.

Mutual respect will bring mutual rewards

Compassionate leadership and collaborative working create benefits for staff, organisations and patients

Does Compassion Matter in Leadership? A Two‐Stage Sequential Equal Status Mixed Method Exploratory Study of Compassionate Leader Behavior and Connections to Performance in Human Resource Development

AbstractThe transformative power of compassion is critical to leader performance and has garnered increasing interest in business settings. Despite substantive contributions toward the conceptual understanding of compassion, prior empirical work on the relationship between compassion and leader performance is relatively limited. This article presents compassionate leader behavior as a conceptualization of a new leadership construct. A two‐stage, sequential, and equal status mixed method research design was utilized to develop and validate a measure of compassionate leadership. Study 1 used a phenomenological approach to understand how leaders engage with compassion and how their experiences and behaviors associated with compassion affect performance within the context of their leadership. Findings indicated that when leaders focused on compassionate behaviors during routine and focal events in the organization, six distinctive themes—integrity, empathy, accountability, authenticity, presence, and dignity—emerged as individual‐level building blocks of compassionate leadership behavior. In Study 2, we developed and validated a Compassionate Leader Behavior Index (CLBI) based on the six emergent behaviors and found general support for compassionate leadership for both practice and research. Implications of study findings and directions for future research in human resource development (HRD) are discussed.

GP–consultant liaison Southampton 2018

BackgroundCollaborative working across primary and secondary care is crucial to providing quality, safe care.AimImprove professional understanding, foster deeper partnership, ignite opportunities for innovation and quality improvement (QI) with co-owned local solutions.MethodFifty-nine consultants and GPs were strategically paired to enhance working relationships. Pairs hosted and visited each other’s workplace. Anonymous reflections were analysed for common themes and celebrated in an evening of shared learning where the focus was on compassionate leadership and next steps.ResultsFeedback from 71 (60%) participants was scaled from 1 (least likely) to 6 (most likely). Individuals supported a regular primary–secondary care forum; weighted average score of 5.25, found the scheme useful (4.59), likely to take part again (4.83), consider new ways of working (3.85). Production of leaflets on psychological support for patients in hospital consequent to insight obtained from primary care were produced, directories of primary care secretary’s were shared and outpatient clinic letters to state ‘For Information Only’ or ‘GP Action Required’ were restructured resulting in substantial time and cost savings. The liaison improved morale and insight and built better relationships. Common themes from reflections revolved around compassion, collaboration, complexity, efficiency, and education.ConclusionThis scheme was an easy and enjoyable way to reconnect individuals and allowed professionals to learn about challenges we face within the NHS. As QI activity, the scheme resulted in simple local solutions for patients. It is a low-cost intervention that can be replicated within any organisation in the NHS. It needs a motivated and persistent individual driving the project forward.

Developing culturally competent and compassionate healthcare leaders: A European model

Objective: This paper aims to describe the development of a European model that refers for healthcare leadership. The model promotes the values of cultural competence and compassion.Methods: The development of this model is part of the IENE 4 EU funded project with participating countries: United Kingdom, Spain, Cyprus, Romania, Italy, Denmark, Turkey. Its development is based on a) a needs assessment survey among healthcare leaders in the partner countries (N = 199), b) two round Delphi study with 14 experts and c) a focus group with healthcare leaders after the development of the model.Results: The components of this model include the basic principles, values and skills that a health care leader should have as a role model and a coach of his/her staff in delivering compassionate and culturally competent care. This model was further used within the IENE 4 project, as a tool for creating learning tools, aiming to improve the quality of care within a cultural framework. Fourteen such learning tools were developed and piloted in all partner countries.Conclusions: Health care leaders need to guide, mentor and support their staff and collaborate among them and with patients and families, as to provide quality care within a safe, compassionate and culturally appropriate environment. This model highlights the key principles of culturally competent and compassionate health care leadership.

Boardroom Culture: An Argument for Compassionate Leadership

In this paper I present an argument for introducing compassion into the boardrooms of large corporations. A series of corporate scandals and failures have led the UK’s government to investigate what has been going wrong in some large corporations. These investigations have identified destructive corporate cultures emanating from greedy and self-serving leaders in boardrooms. Problems in the economic and corporate system in which lack of trust is paramount point towards a need for change. Our economic landscape has also shifted from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy bringing about changes from industrial models and economies of scale towards a global, digital and more creative and changing economy that focuses on continuing innovation. The old ways of running a company are no longer appropriate and we require different skills and characteristics in our CEOs. Increasingly, it is becoming necessary to adopt a more compassionate way of running businesses. CEOs need to be more emotionally and socially intelligent. Compassion is a potentially progressive way forward in the world of business. It is already recognised in the medical world – the NHS has an embedded culture of compassion. Corporate actors might also learn from feminist ideals of caring and compassion that could provide direction for developing compassionate leadership models. Some progressive corporate leaders have shown the potential for successful alternatives. Already in law there is a recognised role for compassion in numerous fields which may signal some new approaches to be adopted in the company law and corporate governance context.

Compassionate leadership in palliative and end-of-life care: a focus group study.

The purpose of this study was to explore compassionate leadership with those involved in leading system-wide end-of-life care. Its purpose was to: define compassionate leadership in the context of palliative and end-of-life care; collect accounts of compassionate leadership activity from key stakeholders in end-of-life and palliative care; and identify examples of compassionate leadership in practice. Four focus groups involving staff from a range of healthcare organisations including hospitals, hospices and community teams were conducted to access the accounts of staff leading palliative and end-of-life care. The data were analysed thematically. The themes that emerged from the data included: the importance of leadership as role modelling and nurturing; how stories were used to explain approaches to leading end-of-life care; the nature of leadership as challenging existing practice; and a requirement for leaders to manage boundaries effectively. Rich and detailed examples of leadership in action were shared. The findings indicate that a relational approach to leadership was enacted in a range of palliative and end-of-life care settings. Context-specific action learning may be a means of further developing compassionate leadership capability in palliative and end-of-life care and more widely in healthcare settings. This paper presents data indicating how compassionate leadership, as a form of activity, is envisaged and enacted by staff in healthcare.

Developing Compassionate Academic Leadership: The Practice of Kindness

This opinion piece paper argues that there is now a compelling need for compassionate academic leadership in our universities in both a national and international context. The premise of the paper is that universities are, or ought to be, ‘caregiving organisations’, because of their role and primary task of helping students to learn. However, the relentless neoliberal instrumentalisation and marketisation of higher education has eroded that premise. Yet universities still have a duty of care; a moral and legal obligation to ensure that everyone associated with the institution, whether this be students, employees or the general public, are fully protected from any personal physical and/or emotional harm. Care, kindness and compassion are not separate from being professional; rather, they represent the fundamentals of humanity in the workplace. Compassion is now a crucial and core concern in tertiary education. Arguably, in the future, universities that can demonstrate their compassionate credentials and pedagogy will be the successful universities, and this requires kindness in leadership and compassionate institutional cultures. Therefore, I argue that in order to nurture cultures of compassion, universities require their leaders – as the carriers of culture – to embody compassion in their leadership practice. However, this needs to be a shared approach, rather than a dominant, hierarchical top-down approach, and is characterised by openness, curiosity, kindness, authenticity, appreciation and above all compassion. The paper draws upon contemporary thinking and research around the role of kindness in leadership and the development of compassionate organisational values and cultures

Understanding the effects of perceived ethics failure, compassionate leadership, and communication strategy on anti‐government sentiment

This study conceptualizes anti‐government sentiment and tests the relationships between anti‐government sentiment and three antecedents (i.e., ethics failure, compassionate leadership, and communication strategy). An online survey (n = 1,112) was conducted in South Korea. Exploratory factor analysis with principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the measures proposed for anti‐government sentiment. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Results show that publics' perceptions of the government's ethics failure, lack of compassionate leadership, and use of a buffering strategy for communication are positively related to their anti‐government sentiment toward the incumbent government.

Are women business owners authentic servant leaders?

PurposeThe study of women business founders provides an opportunity to determine their unique leadership characteristics. Starting a business may be a way for women business owners to be authentic and create more people-centered businesses. Servant leadership’s gender integrative attributes where both agentic and communal behaviors are valued may be more congruent and reflective of the leadership behaviors of women entrepreneurs. Recently, the motivation of compassionate love was theorized to be an antecedent to servant leadership and, it is argued, exists in conjunction with authenticity. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate compassionate love, authenticity and servant leadership and determine whether they exist in the behaviors of founding female business owners.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative research study used summative content analysis of telephone interviews conducted with 12 women business owners of professional service firms in four US states to determine whether these women’s motivations, traits and behaviors were consistent with the compassionate love servant leadership model and whether authenticity was the cornerstone of servant leadership.FindingsThe analyses found that these women revealed a strong authenticity orientation as they enacted a compassionate love servant leadership style within their businesses. Themes that emerged from the study were agency, calling, humility, trust and respect, self-development, stewardship, authenticity and providing direction. The study revealed support for some of the characteristics associated with compassionate love servant leadership and two characteristics which were unique to this study.Research limitations/implicationsAs a qualitative study of 12 individuals, these findings may not be generalizable beyond the four US states of professional service enterprises of women business founders. Future research should test the full servant leadership model of women business owners on a larger group of business founders and the sub-themes where little support exists.Practical implicationsThe more gender integrative style of compassionate love servant leadership may be beneficial for women owners to employ as business leaders.Originality/valueThis research revealed support for a variation of compassionate love servant leadership model. The resulting servant leadership model herein was a mixture of agentic and communal leadership motivations, traits and behaviors useful to women business founders. Behaviors of authenticity were found to complement compassionate love. These women were able to extend the boundaries of what it means to be a leader and incorporate behaviors associated with both their gender and leadership roles, thus expanding their ability to successfully empower and equip themselves to navigate barriers unique to women leaders.

The Diversity Intelligent Servant Leader: Developing Leaders to Meet the Needs of a Diverse Workforce

The Problem The ability of organizations to realize diversity remains problematic. To meet the needs of the modern workforce, new diversity and leadership approaches are required. The Solution Diversity intelligence, a promising new human resource development (HRD) tool, leads to enhanced inclusion and equitable treatment in the workplace. Several propositions herein advance that diversity intelligence is an antecedent to the compassionate love servant leadership model. The author describes the potential value diversity intelligent servant leaders provide to society, organizations, leaders, and especially employees with protected class status. This article addresses the implications of the propositions to theory and explores the intersection of servant leadership and diversity and inclusion research streams, practice describes how organizations and HRD professionals can benefit from and implement these arguments, and social impact discusses the benefits society can accrue when all organizational members are engaged, productive and valued. The Stakeholders This article benefits organizations, leaders, employees, and HRD professionals as well as leadership and diversity and inclusion scholars and practitioners.

Love and Organization Studies: Moving beyond the Perspective of Avoidance

Despite its undoubted centrality in modern society, Love has not received the attention it deserves in the study of organizations. Among the reasons for this avoidance is the fact that love is passionate and not authoritative; personal and subjective but not public. To understand the way organizational research can incorporate love, I explore and discuss three interweaving constructs. Eros (or a tale of the self) calls for an expression of the individuality in organizations, in terms of creativity, sense making and experience. Philia (or a tale of trust) contributes to explore trustworthy relationships, welcoming the other and enabling individuals to flourish in the workplace. Agape (or a tale of compassion) refers to generalized love for humanity and opens to the understanding of compassionate leadership. In the discussion, I call for new directions in the study of love as the organization and the organization as love.

Using Schwartz Center Rounds to promote compassionate care in a children’s hospital

National Health Service (NHS) surveys have consistently shown that a considerable proportion of staff (more than 36% in 2016) report feeling ‘unwell due to work-related stress’.1 In addition, the General...