A grounded theory of building capacity in organizational leadership through the cultivation of awareness, attention, and caring

Trying to bring effective solutions to complex organizational realties is a challenge for organizational leaders. Analytical modes of addressing these problems based on Cartesian-Newtonian approaches have frequently been found to be ineffective in responding to organizational issues. New ways of thinking are needed to explore how to respond to these pressing issues. Emerging perspectives from holistic and spiritually oriented organizational leadership approaches may be instrumental in providing new leadership tools. The purpose of the study was twofold: (a) to elucidate the experiences and consequences of organizational leaders integrating principles derived from Buddhist theory and practice in organizational settings and (b) to generate a systematically developed and inductively derived theoretical framework that explains how the principles and practices derived from Buddhist theory and practice are being integrated in organizations by organizational leaders and the consequences.The Glaserian approach to grounded theory methodology was used to study this new substantive field, utilizing theoretical and criterion-based sampling of organizational leaders. Interview data were collected from a sample of 19 organizational leaders.The theory that emerged from the data was The Grounded Theory of Building Capacity in Organizational Leadership Through the Cultivation of Awareness, Attention, and Caring. The theory conceptualizes a three-stage process with a critical juncture that changes the way that organizational leaders engage work. Building capacity emerged as the core category and a basic social psychological process. The three stages of the theory describe a dimensional range of ways that organizational leaders can build capacities for (a) being, (b) relating , and (c) engaging skillfully at work.At each stage, building capacity is characterized as being achieved through a concurrent sub-core category process, which is cultivating the skills for awareness, attention, caring. These skills and capacities are reinforced and improved over time through meditation. Some organizational leaders eventually build the capacity to engage skillfully in organizations as a result of developing these skills and unfolding capacities in wider and wider application areas. Building capacity has implications for individual, interpersonal, and organization function. Awareness, attention, and caring represent a new type of skill set.