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The Role of Empathy in Developing Ethical Leadership: Neurobiology and Video-based Approaches

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Ethics and Human Resource Development

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss the role of empathy in ethical leadership development. Empathy as a social practice deeply relates to ethics. Particularly three ethical concepts including generosity, care, and responsibility have a strong link with empathy in leadership practice. Generosity forms the ethical basis that enables individuals to be open and recognize others’ emotional states, as opposed to being self-centered. Caring about and feeling responsible for others motivates leaders to share others’ emotions and empathize. Concerning empathy as a critical building block of ethical leadership, we introduce two methods for human resource development (HRD) scholars to examine empathy in ethical leadership. One is electroencephalography from a neuroscience perspective. The other is video-based methods with the use of AI-enabled verbal and non-verbal emotion expression analysis. The recent advancement of technology has enabled researchers to investigate neurobiological aspects of empathy and its relationship with ethics. Furthermore, a video-based AI-enabled method can help examine people's interactions with a focus on empathy. Using neurobiological and video-based social cognition approaches, we discuss how leaders can develop empathy that leads to ethical leadership. We conclude the chapter with future research and practice recommendations.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Yoshie Tomozumi Nakamura, Human and Organizational Learning Department, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, The George Washington University, 2134 G St., NW, Washington, DC 20052, United States. Phone: 917-623-5644 Email: yoshienakamura@gwu.edu

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Correspondence to Yoshie Tomozumi Nakamura .

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© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Nakamura, Y.T., Hinshaw, J., Yu, D. (2024). The Role of Empathy in Developing Ethical Leadership: Neurobiology and Video-based Approaches. In: Russ-Eft, D.F., Alizadeh, A. (eds) Ethics and Human Resource Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38727-2_23

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