Week4: My Research Proposal

My Research Proposal: Empathy as a Leadership Skill in Global Context

              “Empathy is the ability to see the world as another person, to share and understand another person’s feelings, needs, concerns and/or emotional state.”-SkillsYouNeed. Many of us are taught and are encouraged to empathize with others. However when we think about a leadership skill, it seems that the notion of empathy is likely to be underestimated or even ignored. Empathy, in fact, is one of the important leadership skills. This paper will examine how and why empathy is required for a successful leader, especially in today’s global context. It would appear that leaders need to not only have an empathy but also have a “cultural” empathy in recent world’s circumstances, where many people from various cultural backgrounds work together. Roig’s article and Mahsud, Yukl, & Prussia’s essay suggest the connection between an empathy and an effective ledership (Roig 2015; Mahsud, Yukl, & Prussia 2009). Goleman’s essay and Pedersen & Pope’s analysis introduce the importance of the cultural empathy in globalization as a leadership skill (Goleman 2004; Pedersen & Pope 2010). Wan’s paper compares the impact of empathy on leadership skill in United States with in Malaysia (Wan 2012). These sources seem to be validate the thesis of my essay at this stage in my research.

I guess it is better to mention the reason why I chose this topic, so that I am stating why I decide to write about “empathy” as my research topic.

 I am often said that I have an empathy with others (I do not why but I am), but I did not expect that empathy could be related to the leadership skill until I took this this course. I came to be interested in empathy as a leadership skill and this is why, I decided to write an essay on this topic.

              As I conducted research on this topic, I found the idea of “cultural empathy”, means like an empathy for other culture or for those who from other different cultural backgrounds. I, as majoring in intercultural communication, found that the “cultural empathy” is really fascinating, so that I am willing to examine how and why this can be worked in business world, especially in, so called, “global firms”. This is the reason I chose this topic, and from now I have to work hard…oh!