Thoughtful Leadership Research Articles

The Human Side of Generative AI: Creating a Path to Productivity

The rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents both opportunities and challenges for organizations. While generative AI offers transformative potential to boost productivity through new forms of data creation, its implementation also brings significant human impacts that require thoughtful leadership. This article explores the human side of generative AI from both theoretical and practical perspectives, focusing on change management, people-centered design, and responsible implementation. Key areas include managing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to AI-driven change, as well as fostering cultures of transparency, learning, and accountability. The article highlights best practices such as early stakeholder involvement, iterative evaluation, and robust governance to ensure generative AI aligns with human needs and ethical standards. Case studies, including Anthropic’s AI safety efforts, illustrate how leaders can promote responsible innovation by integrating human-centered practices throughout the technology lifecycle. By proactively addressing the human dimensions of AI adoption, organizations can achieve sustainable productivity gains while maintaining trust, well-being, and ethical integrity.

Changing Perspectives: Thoughtful Leadership for Shifting Mindsets

Changing Perspectives: Thoughtful Leadership for Shifting Mindsets

Effectively Communicating Practice Changes to Frontline Nurses.

Communication of practice changes to frontline nurses across an organization can be difficult. Frequent daily communication to all nursing staff can be ineffective and lead to email fatigue and information overload. The purpose of this article is to further describe the communication intervention developed to disseminate practice changes and the critical modifications made over time to ensure its continued success and sustainability. In 2019, this team from a multisite institution developed a monthly email correspondence, called the Evidence-Based Practice Update, sent to local leaders to disseminate important policy and practice updates and reminders to more than 3400 nurses. This strategy was initially successful in reaching the nurses yet lacked a method to ensure accountability that each nurse has read the content. A quick response code was added to track monthly readership, and clinical nurse specialists were leveraged to ensure practice changes reached, reviewed, and understood by nurses across the institution. Metrics were tracked for quick response code scans and demonstrated an increase in readership over time. By combining various alerts into the single correspondence, fewer daily notifications to staff were sent. The EBP Update email dissemination structure involving local leaders was well received. This article describes how a standardized communication strategy coupled with thoughtful leadership engagement improved uptake of important practice information by nurses across a vast institution.

Transforming construction: The growing role of mechatronics in building our infrastructure

Mechatronics, the synergistic integration of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control engineering, and computer science, is progressively transforming the construction industry. This paper explores how mechatronic technologies are being applied across the construction lifecycle to enhance productivity, quality, safety, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. Core mechatronic technologies changing construction include automated material handling systems, advanced construction robotics, sensor networks for monitoring, laser scanning for accurate modeling and control, and building information modeling (BIM) software. Mechatronics offers multifaceted benefits spanning from enhanced labor productivity and construction velocity to superior quality control, safety, and process optimization. However, realizing the immense potential of mechatronics in construction requires overcoming key challenges including high upfront costs, lack of technical skills, organizational resistance, integration difficulties, and reliability concerns. With thoughtful leadership and implementation, mechatronics promises to revolutionize construction, shifting it towards more automated, streamlined, and optimized techniques. This paper delineates the tremendous potential of mechatronics in construction regarding benefits, technologies, and challenges. The outlook is promising for intelligent mechatronic systems to profoundly enhance productivity, quality, and safety as construction progresses towards greater automation and optimization.

Komunikasi Krisis Dalam Organisasi: Analisis Naratif Tentang Pengelolaan Konflik Internal

This research aims to examine internal conflict management in organizations through narrative analysis of crisis communication. Qualitative methods were used to understand the causes of conflict, crisis management strategies, leadership roles, the impact of conflict, communication techniques used, and policies and procedures implemented in the organization. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and document analysis. The results revealed that internal conflicts are often caused by differences in interests, lack of effective communication, and organizational change. Effective crisis management strategies involve open communication, mediation, and a proactive approach. Responsive and thoughtful leadership plays a key role in conflict resolution. Poorly managed conflict negatively impacts productivity, employee morale, and team collaboration, and damages the organization's image. Communication techniques such as collaborative approaches and assertive communication are essential in managing crises. The practical implications of these findings are the need for the development of clear conflict resolution policies, conflict management training, promotion of open communication, and periodic evaluation of policy effectiveness. With a comprehensive approach, organizations can improve work dynamics and strengthen teamwork.

Community Engagement in Co-designing an Innovative Health Equity Program: A Case Report

INTRODUCTION Community-based interprofessional education is a promising strategy for socializing students into team-based care and centering the voices of community members in health equity-focused work. Particularly in resource limited areas, it is vital to collaborate across institutions, professions, and constituents to plan and implement interprofessional education offerings. However, little is known about the factors that support the process of co-designing an interprofessional health equity program centering the community. METHODS Using a convergent, case study framework, this mixed methods project used quantitative data (Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory) and qualitative data from working group feedback forms, to evaluate our collaborative process. RESULTS Quantitative analysis reveals collaborative strengths that include skilled leadership, unique group purpose, and mutual respect. Collaborative challenges include appropriate cross-section of members and sufficient funds. Qualitative themes (analyzed to further illuminate quantitative results) include sense of purpose, importance of thoughtful leadership, and community engagement. DISCUSSION Building sustainable academic-hospital-community relationships and centering the community in health equity work are keys to success in co-designing an interprofessional health equity curriculum. Committed funding also supports sustainability and sends an important message about the value of community members and community-based work. While these recommendations may be common sense, they are not yet common practice.

Advocacy: From the Patient to the Profession

It is well known that nursing comprises the largest segment of the health care industry at local, state, national, and even international levels. The United States has over 4 million registered nurses, and nursing has been voted the most trusted profession for the past 19 years. With such a vast representation within the health care industry, the nursing profession is well positioned to advocate for legislation that promotes safe and healthy work environments, as well as quality care delivery. Although we have many nurses that have provided insight and thoughtful leadership, we have a long way to go to ensure our voice is heard to create and support policy that is recognized at the same level as our national representation. Successful advocacy and the passage of legislation that promotes professional nursing and safe patient care is a multipronged approach. Establishing and fostering relationships in the political arena require a strong political action committee (PACs), coalitions, and active participation in advocacy efforts.

Managing physician conflict

Conflict is an intrinsic part of human experience. This article explores the distinction between cognitive disagreement and the emotional experience of conflict. It discusses the sensitivity of physicians to the perception of shame and the impact that shame can have on conflict behaviour. It offers a framework for conversations to navigate conflict and a number of simple strategies physician leaders may employ to work through conflict themselves and within their teams. Although some conflicts require the help of a skilled specialist, most can be facilitated with thoughtful and courageous leadership.

Optimizing the Value of Regulatory Medical Writers

An expanding need for clinical documentation and regulatory health authority interactions during drug development has drawn increased attention to the role of the regulatory medical writer. This role is frequently misunderstood and poorly recognized. The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) formed a working group in 2020 dedicated to defining the value that regulatory medical writers contribute. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the value that regulatory medical writers bring to the drug development and approval processes and to explore the ways in which efficiencies in regulatory writing can be increased. Current models for success provide guidance on training to help medical writers achieve their full potential, but obstacles and barriers to medical writing efficiency and document quality remain. Surveys developed by the AMWA working group revealed that (1) regulators who review clinical documents believed that regulatory writers improve document quality and (2) writers are frequently recognized for leadership and collaboration. Maximizing medical writing value requires thoughtful leadership and investment in training that includes both technical knowledge and soft-skill proficiency.

Put More Women in Charge and Other Leadership Lessons from COVID-19

COVID-19 teaches us lessons about leadership, the most important of which is to put more women in charge. This Article provides an interdisciplinary analysis of these lessons, which come at the very high price of many forever disrupted and lost human lives. COVID-19 is a global tragedy. COVID-19 can also be a cruel, relentless and unforgiving teacher of valuable lessons about leadership. During COVID-19, leaders had to quickly mobilize many resources and convince many people to change their established behaviors and familiar routines. Leaders had to rely on effective and persuasive communication to achieve buy-in and voluntary compliance by a diverse public. This is because enforcement of non-compliance is effectively infeasible. This Article introduces the phrase, thoughtful leadership, to describe such leadership and leadership communications. In response to COVID-19, some leaders have been compassionate, courageous, data-based, decisive, and kind. These leaders’ communications with the media and the public were calm, caring, clear, empathetic, honest, science-driven, and transparent. This Article applies to leadership mathematician Eugenia Cheng’s category-theory based notion of congressive qualities, such as being collaborative, communitarian, cooperative, curious, empathetic, inclusive, open-minded, modest, other-regarding, and prudent. This Article analyzes what leaders who were more successful during COVID-19 did and said. During COVID-19, women were many of the most admired and more successful leaders. These female leaders of cities, states and nations were exemplary. There were also some exemplary male leaders. This Article considers explanations and theories about why so many women leaders were among the most successful during COVID-19. This Article profiles in some detail three exemplars of leadership: New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, Secretary to the Governor of New York Melissa DeRosa, and New York state governor Andrew Cuomo. Finally, congressive and thoughtful leadership are also applicable to parenting and teaching.

Put More Women in Charge and Other Leadership Lessons from COVID-19

COVID-19 teaches us lessons about leadership, the most important of which is to put more women in charge. This Article provides an interdisciplinary analysis of these lessons, which come at the very high price of many forever disrupted and lost human lives. COVID-19 is a global tragedy. COVID-19 can also be a cruel, relentless and unforgiving teacher of valuable lessons about leadership. During COVID-19, leaders had to quickly mobilize many resources and convince many people to change their established behaviors and familiar routines. Leaders had to rely on effective and persuasive communication to achieve buy-in and voluntary compliance by a diverse public. This is because enforcement of non-compliance is effectively infeasible. This Article introduces the phrase, thoughtful leadership, to describe such leadership and leadership communications. In response to COVID-19, some leaders have been compassionate, courageous, data-based, decisive, and kind. These leaders’ communications with the media and the public were calm, caring, clear, empathetic, honest, science-driven, and transparent. This Article applies to leadership mathematician Eugenia Cheng’s category-theory based notion of congressive qualities, such as being collaborative, communitarian, cooperative, curious, empathetic, inclusive, open-minded, modest, other-regarding, and prudent. This Article analyzes what leaders who were more successful during COVID-19 did and said. During COVID-19, women were many of the most admired and more successful leaders. These female leaders of cities, states and nations were exemplary. There were also some exemplary male leaders. This Article considers explanations and theories about why so many women leaders were among the most successful during COVID-19. This Article profiles in some detail three exemplars of leadership: New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, Secretary to the Governor of New York Melissa DeRosa, and New York state governor Andrew Cuomo. Finally, congressive and thoughtful leadership are also applicable to parenting and teaching.

The Economics Scholars Program: Creating a professional economics research conference for undergraduate students

Whether pursuing immediate professional careers or preparing for graduate research, for many students the opportunities to conduct original research as undergraduates can be formative, creating a valuable differentiating factor on their resumes. The Economics Scholars Program builds an environment where undergraduate students can conduct economic research and then follow with another facet of the research experience, namely, presenting at a professional conference. Due to a collaborative effort between Austin College and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the conference helps create research opportunities for undergraduates. The partnership enhances the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’s commitment to thoughtful leadership in economics and building relationships. Entering its 14th year, the conference has grown from 23 participants in 2007 to over 300 participants from 36 schools in 2018.

Intentional interprofessional leadership in maternal and child health.

This paper aims to describe an interprofessional leadership training program curriculum implemented by a new maternal and child health leadership training program, its collaboration with a well-established leadership consortium, the measures taken to evaluate this training and implications for other leadership programs. The intentional leadership program weaves together the complementary core threads to create strong sets of skills in the areas of personal leadership, leading and influencing others and creating effective interprofessional partnerships with others around women and children's health. The strong emphasis on the incorporation of leadership competencies coupled with evidence-based leadership training strengthens students' clinical skills, enhances workforce development and increases interdisciplinary health care practices. The findings presented in this paper are limited to self-reported changes in understanding components of leadership skills for self, others and the wider community and attitudes and beliefs related to interdisciplinary training and interprofessional team decision-making. The in-depth focus on one's self, teams and on the wider community enhances each individual's grasp of how people and organizations approach women and children's health challenges and strengthens their ability to negotiate among the diverse disciplines and cultures. This paper details the intentional incorporation of leadership skill development throughout an academic program and brings to focus the importance of thoughtful leadership development to prepare participants to anticipate, manage and take advantage of changes in knowledge and health care delivery systems.

Towards Thoughtful Leadership through an Arendtian Perspective

Leaders’ ethical transgressions have come to light as corporate scandals. Pressure for performance, speed of information flow and turbulent organizational environments have increasingly become the causes which corporate executives blame their unethical acts on. Two ontologically grounded moral orientations have dominated academic literature regarding leadership: Lawrence Kohlberg’s ethic of justice and Carol Gilligan’s ethic of care. Building on these approaches, the idea of an ethic of thoughtfulness, based on Hannah Arendt’s conceptual insights on the banality of evil, is developed. Even when there has long been a widespread understanding of the fundamental importance that ethical leadership has in organizations, the relevance of thought and human agency have not yet received enough attention. Thus, the ethic of thoughtfulness entails conscious thought, caring about the outcomes of decisions and engendering transformative change.

Obtaining Resources for Your Kinesiology Department

ABSTRACTHigher education governance today is a complex endeavor that demands dynamic, creative, and thoughtful communication, actions, and leadership. Given the continually diminishing level of state funding for higher education, leaders at all levels should be equipped to generate and lobby for funds internally (within their university) and externally (with external donors and stakeholders). The purpose of this article is to outline some principles of effective internal and external resource generation (e.g., submitting requests with data, developing short speeches or written documents about your primary initiatives, thinking like an entrepreneur, and utilizing committee expertise). Focusing on fundraising can augment departmental resources to help its programs, people, and initiatives. The article is divided into three important sections: (a) the changing landscape of American higher education and how this “brave new world” has led to the need to generate additional funding, (b) strategies for generating internal resources (i.e., within your university), and (c) strategies for generating external resources (i.e., fundraising). Expanding your knowledge base about ways to increase revenue for your unit is one leadership skill that will serve you well throughout your administrative career—regardless of your level of leadership.

Leadership Process Models: A Review and Synthesis

In organizational research, studying “processes” is important for uncovering and understanding the underlying causal mechanisms in a predictor-mediator-outcome logic. Processes answer “how” and “why” questions and provide more complete explanations about phenomena. Our focus in this review is on studies of leadership processes, which we systematically analyze to report on the state of the science. In doing so, we present a two-dimensional target-centric taxonomy to integrate previous research: The taxonomy distinguishes the target’s level (i.e., individual follower, team, organizational, and extraorganizational) as well as the type of leadership processes that affect either the target’s development or leverage of resources. Our review indicates that the predominantly studied leadership “meta” process model looks at the effect of leader traits or behaviors on performance-related outcomes through cognitive, affective, or behavioral leveraging factors. This “meta” model points to several important and understudied processes, including a leader’s influence on the target’s development or work context. We also identify two largely overlooked yet critical issues for leadership process research: modeling the role of time and that of multiple processes through which leadership effects manifest themselves in organizations. Using our taxonomy, we provide several reflection points that can guide the development of genuine and thoughtful leadership process theories. We conclude by urging future leadership process research to embrace multiprocess, multilevel, and time-sensitive models.

Offline: Brazil—the unexpected opportunity that Zika presents

Brazil is (understandably) upset. At WHO's Executive Board meeting last month, one Geneva official told me that the country's delegation was refusing to back resolutions it might otherwise have supported because the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs opposed the World Bank's country rankings. Brazil is classified by the Bank as an upper-middle-income country, along with its near neighbours Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. Unfortunately for the Bank (and WHO), Brazil doesn't see itself as a middle-income nation. It has higher aspirations. Adding further insult, in 2015 the Bank promoted Brazil's rivals, Argentina and Venezuela, to high-income status. A high-income country is defined by a gross national income per person equal to or above US$12 736. Brazil falls just short at $11 530 (2014). Brazil has long been sensitive to the judgment of others. When WHO published its World Health Report in 2000, the government and country's health leadership were hurt and outraged. WHO ranked Brazil 125th out of 191 nations (Venezuela was placed 54th and Argentina 75th). Brazil can certainly be proud of its progress towards better health. But in his history of infectious diseases, Epidemics Laid Low (2006), Patrice Bourdelais argues that a high-income country is one that has succeeded in conquering epidemics—which is why Brazil's “public health emergency of international concern” is not only a national tragedy, but also an international humiliation. President Dilma Rousseff has issued statements of defiant resistance. But Zika arrives at a perilous moment for Brazil. The country's economy is shrinking, while unemployment and inflation are rising. These pressures have further threatened an already fragile health system. Writing in The Lancet in 2011, Mauricio Barreto and colleagues identified dengue as a major “failure” in Brazilian public health. The main vector of dengue, Aedes aegypti, is also the vector for Zika. Persistent past failed efforts to control dengue in Brazil mean that the likelihood of controlling Zika quickly today is low. But, with thoughtful leadership, Brazil can turn this epidemic into a force for advantage. At moments of epidemic danger, one naturally focuses on the actions of nations to control the outbreak. But turn that question around: what are the likely actions of an epidemic on a nation? Epidemics change governments. Political leaders could have no clearer signal that it is their responsibility to protect the health of their people (governments, not doctors, defeat epidemics). Those leaders understand that their nation's political, economic, and social stability depends on health. This realisation has consequences. Laws are enacted to protect health. New investments are made into medical science (political progress depends on scientific progress). New institutions are created to channel the best scientific advice to decision makers. Universal free and high-quality health care becomes a public priority. And leaders understand that securing and sustaining public trust is essential for public order. Epidemics change the relationship between doctors and the state. The number, income, status, and power of doctors (and their institutions) are enhanced. Doctors sharpen their demands—and they seek (and usually win) greater input into political decisions. Epidemics change the public conception of disease. Diseases are no longer seen as pathologies of the body. They also become pathologies of the environment. Health is no longer a quality within the pure control of the individual. It is something that depends on the organisation of society. Epidemics reshape knowledge. Reliable data assume supreme political importance. Politicians demand instant access to these data. Research becomes a vital tool to improve political judgment. New fields of knowledge are created. Rapid and transparent communication of new findings becomes a necessity. Epidemics change publics. Public expectations rise. People welcome strong government action, but they become wary of the state's coercive power. The public is less tolerant of those thought to harbour disease (or the risk of disease). Stigma flourishes. Health becomes a public obsession. People lobby governments to take health more seriously. Quacks and charlatans prosper. Epidemics change societies. Epidemic disease precipitates a political crisis. Society is restructured and reformed. The idea of progress is redefined (reversals are possible). A consensus builds around the right to health. In sum, epidemics can accelerate as well as destroy human development. Zika will only be one moment in the long struggle to advance the health of those nations currently affected. But that moment is an opportunity that should not be lost.

Identifying operational improvements during the design process of costing system based on time-driven ABC (TDABC)

Time driven activity-based costing is a new way to overcome the problems in the traditional ABC, where the first stage of the allocation of resources is removed and used resources are expressed by the time equations. The present research focuses on the behavioral aspects (staff public participation and leadership style) of system design and shows that how behavioral aspects can lead to operational improvements during the design process of time driven activity-based costing. In this study, two types of costing system are examined by reviewing and analyzing the case study used by Hozee and Bergman about setting up the costing system in various warehouses of a company in Belgium. In the first type, the participation of all members of the organization, especially at low levels, has led to discussions about the input parameters in the costing model and when this group discussions about costing data are driven by aware responsible (people-centered management style), operational improvement will be appeared. In the second type, the operational staff in the design process are not participated and are intimidated of the new costing system and have perforce implemented the system that finally no operational improvements have been reached. Hence, the findings of the research show that the staff public participation and appropriate management styles (Thoughtful leadership style - based on participation rather than absolute - authoritarian leadership style ) are unavoidable to achieve operational improvement during the design process of Time Driven Activity-based costing system, increase the chances of system success and finally lead to operational improvements.

Foreword

We are very pleased to present this annual conference issue of JELS. For this issue, JELS editors and reviewers selected for publication eight of the papers presented at the Eighth Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, held at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, October 25–26, 2013. The conference was organized by Penn Law and the Society for Empirical Legal Studies. As in past years, the conference consisted of presentations of original empirical legal scholarship. Conference acceptance was determined through a peer-referee process, and it was quite competitive; only 113 papers were accepted for presentation out of a total of 406 submissions. Many people contributed to the success of the Eighth CELS. Co-presidents of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies David Abrams, Ted Ruger, and Tess Wilkinson-Ryan received generous support and assistance from the entire SELS board: Jennifer Arlen, Bernard Black, Shari Diamond, Ted Eisenberg, Valerie Hans, Michael Heise, Daniel Ho, Geoffrey Miller, Anne Joseph O'Connell, and Eric Talley. We are grateful to them, and to all the presenting authors and discussants, for their contributions. Most importantly, with this foreword, we face the terrible and unexpected task of saying goodbye to Ted Eisenberg, who passed away this spring. Ted was the editor of JELS from 2004 to 2014, and a founder not only of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies and this journal, but of the broader empirical legal studies movement in legal academia. His own cutting-edge work defined a field, and his thoughtful leadership and vision shaped an intellectual movement. And, as so many of us know personally, he was an indefatigably generous mentor and friend. We are the fortunate beneficiaries of his dedication to his profession, and we thank him.

Vitamin A supplementation: is it worth a shot?

Department of Newborn Medicine Department of Nursing Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, Massachusetts Disclosure: The author has disclosed that she has no significant relationships with, or financial interest in, any commercial companies pertaining to this article. The author thanks Christopher McPherson, PharmD, at Brigham and Women's Hospital, for his thoughtful leadership of the Case Discussion on Vitamin A.