Indicators for Empathetic leadership in Private School Administrators : A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the indicators for the empathetic leadership among the private educational administrators.  This study applied qualitative method which included two phase. The first phase conducted extensive literature with employing content analysis to propose the framework for empathetic leadership. The second phase conducted in-depth interviews with experts. They were seven informants including educational administrators, leadership’s expert, educational psychology’s scholars, educational background doctors, self-development moderators/facilitators, private schools’ administrators.   The interviews resulted tonine-indicators for empathetic leadership including 1) self awareness 2) self regulation 3) articulation of self values and vision 4) empathetic communication 5) compassionate collaboration 6) inspiration 7) empowerment 8) social empathy  9) experiential based-lesson. Such indicators reflected leadership that acquired the individual quality as from inside to outside. The explanation of such indicators followed the transformational leadership theory which focused on the horizontal relationship, especially the context of private school that were sensitive to change. With this said, empathetic leadership was significant in the private school administration. The result also revealed that each single research factor cannot stand without others. It suggested that the quality of administrative evaluation required self-assessment. The contribution of this research project will be used as information for doing research focusing on leadership and applied as guidance for empathetic leadership development for private school administrators or leaders working in other organizations.