Exploring caring leadership through a feminist ethic of care: The case of a sporty CEO

Abstract

This work critiques the normative construction of ethical leadership and contributes to understanding the ethics of care in leadership from a lifestyle and embodied perspective. Drawing on feminist notions of ethics of care, we question the ethicality of the practices of a sporty and health-oriented leader who claims to transform his attempts at self-care into care for others through role-modelling lifestyle behaviours. We explore inherent moral dilemmas in connecting a seemingly creative self-care project with well-intentioned practices of caring for others. We highlight the need to question persistent masculine rationalisations in ethical leadership, and to engage in and encourage, organisational and relational interactions that take account of specific employee needs. We argue that the leaders’ claiming to care for others by insisting on particular lifestyle behaviours and role-modelling aesthetic bodily ideals introduce new managerial norms in the organisation. The Instrumental intentions come to hamper an ethical care for the well-being of employees, whilst demonstrating the power of the leader to influence employees both inside and outside the organisation.

Constructing a ‘Different’ Strength: A Feminist Exploration of Vulnerability, Ethical Agency and Care

“…In this paper, we address this gap by building on existing work on the micro-politics within diversity management (Zanoni & Janssens, 2007;Zanoni et al, 2017). We delve into the notion of vulnerability and draw on feminist ethics of care (Johansson & Edwards, 2021;Nicholson & Kurucz, 2019;Simola, 2015)-an embodied, ethical approach focusing on the formation of reciprocal, empathic and responsive relations (Borgerson, 2007;Gotsis & Kortezi, 2012)-to explore the strengths of being 'different' in the context of diversity management. We focus on how individuals negotiate the embodied sense of being 'different' and centralize their feelings about being outsiders, deviant from the overtly emphasized organizational norms and bodily ideals.…”

“After All, No One Is Superhuman Here”: An Analysis of the Perceived Effects of Managerial Athleticism

“…Nevertheless, this study does not dispute the results of previous studies but seeks to combine different views to present a more holistic picture of the issue. The intention was not to downplay the risks of a dedication to exercise, and as highlighted in the interviews, the interviewed leaders shared the same concerns about extreme cases as reported in some of the previous studies (e.g., Thanem 2013;Johansson et al 2017;Johansson and Edwards 2021;Bardon et al 2021). However, while any form of extremism is always dangerous, there is also a danger in lending too much weight to individual extreme cases.…”

“…Additionally, Thanem (2013) writes of monstrously transgressive leadership in the context of the promotion of health at work (see also Costas et al 2016;Johansson and Edwards 2021). The study exemplifies how a leader's overly passionate relationship with physical fitness may have negative effects in the organization such as finger-pointing and employees feeling discouraged and de-motivated.…”

“…First, the more optimistic quantitative research (e.g., Limbach and Sonnenburg 2015;Dong et al 2019) overlooks the negatively perceived effects of corporate athletes on the organization and society, such as the excessive idealization of the fit body and the implications of that idealization. Second, the critical leadership studies related to managerial athleticism (e.g., Thanem 2013;Johansson et al 2017;Johansson and Edwards 2021;Bardon et al 2021) appear to highlight extreme cases, where a leader's relationship with exercising is more obsessively than harmoniously passionate (see Clohessy et al 2020), and consequently, for the most part, neglect to acknowledge the possible benefits of balanced and healthy exercise for the leader and the organization.…”

“…The first is quantitatively oriented and seeks to find positive connections between physical activity and managerial performance: That stream has already produced interesting preliminary results (e.g., McDowell-Larsen et al 2002;Limbach and Sonnenburg 2015;Burton et al 2012;Dong et al 2019). The second is qualitatively oriented and approaches the theme more critically, for example, by scrutinizing masculine connotations and heroic individualism as they relate to managerial athleticism (e.g., Meriläinen et al 2015;Johansson et al 2017;Ghin 2019;Johansson and Edwards 2021;Bardon et al 2021).…”