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Nurturing students to be caring service leaders

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Published/Copyright: September 17, 2015

Abstract

Caring behavior is very important for an effective service leader. To help students recognize the importance of caring behavior and become caring service leaders, one lecture on caring behavior was designed for the subject “Service Leadership” at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This article consists of two parts. The first part is on the concepts and theories of the topic, and the second part is on the detailed content of this lecture. In the first part, three primary elements of care (i.e. love, listening, and empathy) and the relevant skills of improving caring behavior in practice are firstly discussed. Next, the relationships between caring behavior of service leaders and positive outcomes of care for different stakeholders including leaders, followers, and organizations are examined. Finally, discussion and reflection on caring service leaders are summarized. In the second part, the corresponding lecture contents are presented, including two activities which are designed to facilitate students’ active learning and deep understanding concerning caring behavior.


Corresponding author: Daniel T.L. Shek, PhD, FHKPS, BBS, SBS, JP, Chair Professor of Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Room HJ407, Core H, Hunghom, Hong Kong, P.R. China, E-mail: ; Centre for Innovative Programmes for Adolescents and Families, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, P.R. China; Department of Social Work, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P.R. China; Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau, Macau, P.R. China; and Division of Adolescent Medicine, Kentucky Children’s Hospital, Kentucky University, Lexington, KY, USA

Appendix 1

THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES

APSS2820 Service Leadership

Lecture Thirteen: Becoming a caring service leader

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

You just watched a video. Please discuss with your group members and answer the following questions based on your reflection. You could incorporate the three elements of care when you answer these questions.

Appendix 2

THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES

APSS2820 Service Leadership

Lecture Thirteen: Becoming a caring service leader

Role play: How to be a caring person?

Each group is required to draw one element from the three elements of care (i.e. love, listening, and empathy), and then do a role play on how to show this element in a certain scenario imagined by students themselves after group discussion.

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Received: 2014-4-22
Accepted: 2014-6-23
Published Online: 2015-9-17
Published in Print: 2015-11-1

©2015 by De Gruyter

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