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.
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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©2015 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Service leadership curriculum and higher education reform in Hong Kong
- Reviews
- Character strengths and service leadership
- Character strengths in Chinese philosophies: relevance to service leadership
- The role of a caring disposition in service leadership
- Factors leading to the creation, development, and maintenance of positive social relationship
- The role of self-leadership in service leadership
- Leadership and mentorship: service leaders as mentors of the followers
- Nurturing students to be caring service leaders
- Focus group evaluation of a service leadership subject in Hong Kong
- General education program in a new 4-year university curriculum in Hong Kong: findings based on multiple evaluation strategies
- Original Articles
- Subjective outcome evaluation of a university subject on service leadership
- Evaluation of an innovative leadership training program for Chinese students: subjective outcome evaluation
- Evaluation of a general education program in Hong Kong: secondary data analyses based on student feedback questionnaires
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Service leadership curriculum and higher education reform in Hong Kong
- Reviews
- Character strengths and service leadership
- Character strengths in Chinese philosophies: relevance to service leadership
- The role of a caring disposition in service leadership
- Factors leading to the creation, development, and maintenance of positive social relationship
- The role of self-leadership in service leadership
- Leadership and mentorship: service leaders as mentors of the followers
- Nurturing students to be caring service leaders
- Focus group evaluation of a service leadership subject in Hong Kong
- General education program in a new 4-year university curriculum in Hong Kong: findings based on multiple evaluation strategies
- Original Articles
- Subjective outcome evaluation of a university subject on service leadership
- Evaluation of an innovative leadership training program for Chinese students: subjective outcome evaluation
- Evaluation of a general education program in Hong Kong: secondary data analyses based on student feedback questionnaires