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Cited by 237Public Relations and Crisis CommunicationLeadership, Behavior, and Decision-Making StudiesJob Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior

A Blessing and a Curse: How CEOs’ Trait Empathy Affects Their Management of Organizational Crises

König, Andreas, Graf-Vlachy, Lorenz, Bundy, Jonathan, Little, Laura M.·2020·Academy of Management Review
DOI 10.5465/amr.2017.0387
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Abstract

How does CEOs’ trait empathy affect their management of organizational crises? So far, management scholars have highlighted mostly positive effects of CEOs’ empathy in the emotionally charged context of crises. We combine the emerging critical perspective on empathy with research on upper echelons and crisis management to provide a more balanced portrayal of the influence of CEO empathy on crisis management. Specifically, we argue that, on the one hand, highly empathic CEOs will recognize warning signs more quickly, have access to more crisis-related information, gain greater stakeholder appreciation via displays of compassion, and be more committed to healing the organization’s relational system. On the other hand, they also may be more predisposed to false alarms, more biased in processing crisis-related information, overinclined toward apologetic sensegiving, and less committed to repairing the organization’s operational system. Ultimately, we propose that CEOs’ empathy influences their effectiveness in the various tasks of crisis management in an inverted U-shaped pattern. Our theory offers an upper echelons view of organizational crises, particularly by illuminating the roles of empathy and emotions in executives’ crisis management. We also introduce a novel, “too-much-of-a-good-thing” perspective on CEO empathy, providing abundant opportunities for future research.

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  • The manner in which a leader and his/her organization manages a crisis is especially influenced by the leader's tendencies to perceiving and reacting to stakeholders' emotions.

    “The manner in which a leader and his/her organization manages a crisis is especially influenced by the leaders tendencies to perceiving and reacting to stakeholder’s emotions (König et al. 2020).”

    From Whither compassionate leadership? A systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as König et al. 2020

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Authors
König, A., Graf-Vlachy, L., Bundy, J., & Little, L. M.
Affiliations
  • University of Passau
  • Arizona State University (US)
  • University of Georgia (US)
ORCID
Venue
Academy of Management Review
Publisher
Academy of Management
Published
2020-01
Volume
45
Issue
1
Pages
130-153
ISSN
  • 0363-7425 (ISSN-L)
  • 1930-3807
DOI
10.5465/amr.2017.0387
OpenAlex
W2892418580
Cited by
237
References
177
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 1
FWCI
33.38
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Academy of Management Review (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Public Relations and Crisis Communication
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Leadership, Behavior, and Decision-Making Studies
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
Keywords
trait empathy, corporate crisis management, upper echelons, inverted U-shaped relationship, false alarms, stakeholder relations, sensemaking, too-much-of-a-good-thing effect

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