Benevolent leadership within the context of management education : content areas for inclusion in curricula

Abstract

Benevolent leadership has shown great promise in supporting employees wellness, whilst addressing societal and environmental ills. This study sought to explore the extent to which benevolent leadership was considered in management education and to gather data related to which specific content areas need to be included in a course on benevolent education. Through the use of professional contacts, 350 managers with benevolent leadership qualities, were invited to participate in the study, by completing a self-administered survey questionnaire. After 314 questionnaires were received, the data was analysed using a quantitative statistical analysis package (SPSS) to analyse the data. The study found a significant gap related to the inclusion of benevolent leadership in management education. It further found huge support for the development of a course that would cover benevolent leadership in education. Specifically, there was significant support for aspects such as ethical decision making, personal and organizational integrity, corporate sustainability and work and family to be included in the design of this module.