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Global Definitions of Leadership and Theories of Leadership Development: Literature Review

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Introduction

Issues of global leadership intrude on our lives everyday. Business, politics, and popular culture are on the world stage, a milieu of political, economic, and social changes. Our runaway world (Giddens, 2003) is out of control, filled with risks and culturally complex. Taking the lead has always required talent, skill, preparation, and practice. When the complexities and vagaries of a different culture are added to the mix, the leader must expand his or her leadership repertoire. How then do we prepare future leaders for the global theatre? In this article, I address six premises of Western leadership theories derived from history and culture that present potential obstacles to leadership in non-Western cultures. These premises join with research findings on cross-cultural interaction to form a theoretical framework for the study of global leadership.

Literature Review

In surveying the literature, I noted three relevant themes. The first was the nature of globalization and its ramifications for individuals and societies. Second was how societal history and culture shape global differences. The third theme encompassed the common threads or premises that give leadership theories their Western identities and constrain them in their global application.

Globalization

The works of Giddens (2003), Hofstede and Hofstede (2005), and The GLOBE Study (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004) provided complementary perspectives on issues of globalization. Giddens’ short treatise on the transformative aspects of globalization presented a succinct definition and addressed issues of national entrenchment. While Hofstede and Hofstede countered Giddens’ arguments that a new world order is inevitable, they concurred with his views on entrenchment, emphasizing the importance of national identities to cross-cultural interactions. Dorfman, Hanges, and Brodbeck (2004) in The GLOBE Study supported Hofstede and Hofstede’s conclusions on the importance of cultural identity, urging adaptation of leadership style to meet societal demands.

History, Culture, and Leadership

Geert Hofstede (1980) opened the eyes of the business world to the importance of culture to management almost 30 years ago. More recently, The GLOBE Study (House, et al., 2004) has expanded and refined the implications of culture for leadership. Brodbeck, Hanges, Dickson, Gupta, and Dorfman (2004) concluded from The GLOBE Study that societal values were the most important influence on desired leadership within organizations. This conclusion supported the Wren and Swatez (1995) conceptual model that embedded elements of the immediate or organizational context within the larger contexts of history and culture. Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) and The GLOBE Study further explained how history and culture shape leadership practices and follower expectations. Dorfman, et al. (2004) developed from The GLOBE Study results culturally endorsed leadership profiles to describe the leadership patterns of the study’s 10 cultural clusters. They demonstrated that the values, ideas, and beliefs of a culture or culture cluster determine its conception of effective leadership.

Premises of Western Leadership Theories

Findings of Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) and The GLOBE Study (House, et al., 2004) also demonstrated the discrepancies between Western leadership theories and non-Western leadership practices. GLOBE findings on power distance (Carl, Gupta, & Javidan, 2004), gender egalitarianism (Emrich, Denmark, & Hartog, 2004), humane orientation (Kabasakal & Bodur, 2004), performance orientation (Javidan, 2004), assertiveness (Hartog, 2004), individualism/collectivism (Gelfand, Bhawuk, Nishii, & Bechtold, 2004), and uncertainty avoidance (de Luque & Javidan, 2004) supported the presence of a Western, especially American, bias in contemporary theories that is ill-suited to most cross-cultural interaction. While Bass (1995) noted the universality of leadership, Komives, Lucas, and McMahon (2007) expressed its distinctive Western flavor in their generations and categories of leadership theories. A review of Yukl (2006) and Northouse (2007), standard texts in undergraduate theories courses, confirmed the Western premises of leadership theories as did Chemers’ (1995) work on modern leadership theories.

Global Leadership-Learning Pyramid

The literature leads us directly to the first three levels of global leadership study. The Global Leadership-Learning Pyramid (see Figure 1) rises from the broad foundation of the issues of globalization. Each subsequent category narrows the focus of study, preparing students to apply their knowledge and understanding of cross-cultural patterns to leadership.

Theory Limitations

Western Theory Premises

Historical/Cultural Influences

Issues of Globalization

• Extent • Entrenchment • Social Rules • Adaptation • Sensitivity

Wren-Swatez Model • Hofstede’s Value Dimensions

GLOBE Value Dimensions

Leader-Centered • Male-Dominated • Universal Traits • Task-Relationship Balance • Quantifiable

Performance • Individualistic

Leader-Centered • Male-Dominated • Universal Traits • Task- Relationship Balance • Quantifiable Performance • Individualistic

Cultural Patterns • Patterns’ Influences • Theory Adaptation

The Global Leadership-Learning Pyramid

Level 1. Issues of Globalization

Extent of Globalization . Globalization is a term that has almost sinisterly crept into our vocabulary, yet determining a universal meaning is as challenging as agreeing on one definition of leadership. Giddens (2003) provides the simplest characterization of globalization – there is now one economic and political world order. Skeptics, however, insist that the resultant loss of national influence is just talk. Like all controversial subjects, the truth most likely falls somewhere near the middle of the continuum of possible alternatives. Thus, the extent of globalization is an issue that students must address.

National Entrenchment . The implications of globalization extend far beyond economics and politics and not in the way one might surmise. While telecommunications has opened the world beyond national borders in ways never

imagined 50 years ago, they have not helped us surmount our differences (Giddens, 2003). If anything, we seek stability in the sphere of the familiar – the values, culture, and traditions that ground our society. So an unexpected consequence of globalization is local entrenchment that stands in opposition to the much ballyhooed global village. The rise of fundamentalist movements accentuates the tendency to cultural entrenchment in opposition to global forces. Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) note, “The software of machines may be globalized, but the software of the minds that use them is not” (p. 330).

Fundamentalism is thus another global issue for students to explore Social Rules . Even when culture adapts to external, global influences, the changes are often only cosmetic. Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) compare the expressions of culture to the layers of an onion. Even though the outer layers such as symbols, heroes, and rituals are fairly easily peeled away, the values that comprise a culture’s core remain virtually intact and unassailable. Hofstede and Hofstede liken culture to an unwritten rulebook that society imparts to its members. Students must understand the concept of a social rulebook and the importance of the rules of the social game.

Cultural Adaptation . Once students are comfortable with the idea of conflicting rules between societies, they must confront the issue of cultural adaptation. How must they modify their behavior to account for the different social rules, such as those that govern communication and other forms of social interaction? Averting or addressing issues of cultural confusion is paramount. Success in a multinational setting requires careful consideration of organizational design and appropriate leadership style (Dorfman, et al., 2004; Dorfman & House, 2004).

Cultural Sensitivity . Leadership in any venue is not just about style or learned skills. Perhaps of greater concern and less easily controlled are issues of cultural sensitivity. As the onion metaphor (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005) demonstrates, effective leadership requires more than observation and tolerance of cultural idiosyncrasies. Because they are products of long-held core values, students must delve deeply into the foundations of cultural practices and appreciate how these values influence the culture’s views and expectations of leadership.

Level 2. History, Culture, and Leadership

Empirical research (Dorfman & House, 2004) supports the assertion that culture influences such aspects of leadership as: societal requirements for holding a leadership position; leader power, influence, and privileges; extent to which social position influences elevation to a leader role; expected and preferred patterns of leader behaviors or styles; and response of followers to various leader behaviors. Brodbeck, et al. (2004) reach the compelling conclusion that societal values, not industry factors, are the strongest influence on an organization’s culture and desired leadership. The interplay of history, culture and leadership is complex, and understanding requires guidance.

Wren-Swatez Model . Wren and Swatez (1995) provide a visual model for students to conceptualize the relationship. Using concentric circles, they illustrate how leader-follower interactions occur within three distinct yet overlapping contexts – immediate, contemporary, and historical. The innermost circle is the immediate context. It is here that leaders and followers, with all of their idiosyncrasies, confront the micro factors of the leadership situation – organizational structure and goals, organizational culture, and specific tasks and problems. The immediate context sits within the contemporary context. This context includes the current societal factors, such as social values, cultural mores, and subculture norms that shape customs and traditions. It is the contemporary context that generates specific expectations of leader actions, behaviors, and styles. The outermost circle represents the macro factors or historical context, the long-term political, intellectual, economic, and social forces. These enduring influences shape the standards followers use to measure leader success. Successful leadership approaches correspond to the demands of the immediate context and the expectations of the contemporary context while recognizing these demands and expectations have their roots deep in a society’s past. History and culture surround the current leadership environment, molding and limiting leadership choices and potential solutions.

Hofstede’s Value Dimensions . For Hofstede & Hofstede (2005) a person’s country is the individual’s cultural home from which the person observes the rest of the world through a window. The unconscious programming or conditioning of the mind that defines national culture establishes societal rules for thinking, feeling, and acting. Cultural programming starts in the family at birth and continues first in school then at work. The fundamental cultural differences between nations are in their values. Hofstede & Hofstede describe five areas in which dissimilarities in values occur, resulting in a five dimensional model of differences between national cultures. These dimensions of differences are power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term versus short-term orientation. For each dimension, a country falls somewhere along a continuum from strong to weak as compared to other nations. In relation to these five dimensions of national culture, the United States is a low power distance, individualist, masculine, uncertainty accepting, and short-term oriented country. Using the United States as a benchmark, students can visualize the relation between their societal values and those of other nations as they inform leadership.

The GLOBE Study Value Dimensions . The GLOBE Study (House, et al., 2004), the most extensive to date on the cultural contingency of leadership, concludes that each society has culturally endorsed leader behaviors labeled leadership belief systems. To guide the research, the study (House & Javidan, 2004) developed the culturally endorsed implicit theory of leadership (CLT). The GLOBE Study (House, et al., 2004) resulted in nine dimensions of value differences between cultures: performance orientation, future orientation, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, power distance, humane orientation, and uncertainty avoidance. Here the United States is part of the Anglo cluster that includes Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa-White Samples. Agreement within cultures as to their beliefs about leadership is so substantial that significant differences between societies are evident. The GLOBE Study enables students to examine the cultural differences in leadership.

Level 3. Premises of Western Theories

The ideal American leader steps out of his or her leadership heritage as do leaders in all societies. If students are going to be successful cross-cultural leaders, they will likely need to reassess the trusted leadership theories learned in class. These theories have a very strong Western bias as to preferred leadership styles, behaviors, and methods for group or organizational success. In the preface to the GLOBE Study, House (2004) advises, “To date more than 90% of the organizational behavior literature reflects U.S.-based research and theory” (p. xxv). The premises of these theories are grounded in Western, specifically North American, ideas and experiences. If Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) are correct in their assumption that different societies and cultures generate different mental software for their members, thereby creating the desire for cultural congruence in the workplace (Dorfman & House, 2004), then the chances of our future leaders being out of step with a non-United States, especially non-Western, leadership environment are extremely high.

Although leadership research seems to be a Western phenomenon, ideas and philosophies of leadership are ancient and universal. Bass (1995) notes that concepts of leader, follower, and leadership were present 5000 years ago in Egyptian symbols as well as in the writings of Confucius and Lao Tzu. Western students of leadership, however, usually begin their study with the Greek philosophers, examining the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle on the ideal leader. From there, leadership study becomes a journey through Western civilization (Wren, 1995). Komives, et al. (2007) provide a concise outline of the generations of Western leadership theories. Beginning with the Great Man Theory and ending with current chaos or systems theories, they describe the evolution of leadership study and research from leader-centered (trait, behavior, and contingency theories), to leader-follower interaction (transaction/influence theories, reciprocal theories, etc.), to a post-industrial leadership paradigm for a chaotic world.

What Rost (1991) termed the Industrial Paradigm Model was often leader- dependent and male-dominated with an emphasis on management, control, goal- achievement, and personal self-interest. Post-industrial leadership approaches attack the industrial paradigm head-on. Examples include Wheatley’s (1999) chaos theory of leadership, SuperLeadership of Manz & Sims (1995), and the Relational Leadership Model (Komives, et al., 2007). Other post-industrial approaches have emerged from the remnants of industrial paradigm methods. Northouse (2007) notes the resurgence of interest in trait, transformational, charismatic and affective approaches to leadership. Along with transformational leadership, implicit leadership theory takes center stage in the GLOBE Study (House, et al., 2004). From the Komives, et al. (2007) outline and other sources such as Northouse (2007), Yukl (2006), and Chemers (1995), six premises of Western theories can be deduced. Students must recognize these premises as the next step up the learning pyramid.

Premise 1. Leader-Centered . The most obvious principle of the leader-centered approaches is the importance of the leader. Who the leader is (either through lineage or inherited traits), what the leader does, and when, where, and with whom the leader performs are central. Leadership and leader are one and the same. This idea persists throughout the evolution of Western theories. Even in leader-follower interaction and post-industrial approaches, we see the primacy of the individual leader as visionary, path-setter, meaning-maker, motivator, role model, and leader-maker of able followers. Only in Wheatley’s (1999) chaos theory does the leader appear less at the front and more as a part of the whole.

Premise 2. Male Dominated . The second premise that emerges is male- domination. As the Great Man Theory focuses on hereditary male leaders, trait theories posit leader characteristics observed more often in men than women – masculinity, dominance, assertiveness, drive, the need for achievement. While the idea of male ascendancy has been sorely tested in the last 30 or so years, women are still woefully underrepresented in the highest leadership positions (Hoyt, 2007). The equal presence of women in managerial and professional positions, however, indicates the erosion of this premise as do studies cited in Hoyt demonstrating the effectiveness of leadership factors more generally associated with women – participative style, caring orientation, interpersonal skills, and use of contingent rewards.

Premise 3. Universal Traits . Trait theories give rise to a third idea of Western leadership, the universality of effective leader qualities. Even though the exact relationship of traits to successful leadership has not been determined, our students probably can agree on a general list of desirable leader characteristics and assume that there will be little argument from anyone else. Northouse (2007) focuses on five of the most desirable traits: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability. Integrity, character, and ethics are notably emphasized in leader-follower interaction theories and post-industrial approaches. Implicit leadership theories remind us of the importance of beliefs and assumption to one’s recognition of leadership. Because these ideas are formed and shared by others in the culture the congruence of leader traits is understandable. It is not a difficult leap to assume universal agreement.

Premise 4. Task – Relationship Balance . Behavioral and contingency theories inform Western thoughts on the most effective leadership styles and actions. They speak to a fourth premise, the balance of task (directive/authoritative) and relationship (consultative/participative) behaviors. Interestingly, only in the United States does participatory leadership positively influence performance (Dorfman & House, 2004). Here we expect the leader to exhibit some mix of task- relationship behaviors, usually adapting to meet follower needs.

Premise 5. Quantifiable Performance . This leads to a fifth principle of Western leadership, its emphasis on quantifiable performance and outcomes. In most situations, measurable results determine leadership effectiveness. If the outcomes meet or exceed expectations, then we deem the enterprise successful. How we arrived at that point is not relevant. Effective leaders get the job done.

Premise 6. Individualistic . Leader-follower interaction and post-industrial theories illustrate a sixth premise, the primacy of the individual in the leadership process. Followers as well as leaders have specific wants, needs, drives, and ambitions. Affective factors, such as personal beliefs, values and assumptions, also come into play. Effective leadership results when a leader and follower form a unique and mutually satisfying relationship based on their individual characteristics and motives. This premise assumes that followers desire engagement or participation in the leadership process.

Level 4. Cultural Constraints on Western Theories

Such culturally-conditioned follower expectations and preferences for leadership are the sticking point for Western theories in non-Western cultures as they vary greatly across nations. Examining the aforementioned premises of Western theories in light of the cultural value differences noted above points out some theory limitations that students must acknowledge.

Limitation 1: Leader-Centered . Of the six premises of Western leadership theories discussed, leader primacy would seem the least contentious. It is, however, not without controversy in countries that place high priority on egalitarianism in terms of power. As noted previously, the United States is a relatively small power distance country (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005), but a leader-centered approach can run into problems in smaller power distance nations where followers prefer flatter organizational structures and power-sharing, expect equality and interchangeability of leader-follower roles, and presume at the very

least consultation in planning and decision making. Differences between countries on Hofstede & Hofstede’s Masculinity (MAS) Index also have consequences for leader-centered approaches. The United States ranked relatively high on the MAS Index (19 on the ranking of 74 nations), noting greater acceptance of distinctions in gender roles. Like small power distance countries, cultures that are more gender egalitarian also tend to expect more equality between leader-follower roles (Emrich, et al., 2004).

Limitation 2: Male-Dominated . The prevalence of masculine ideals and traits in American leadership theories clearly reflects the United States’ position on the masculinity v. femininity dimension (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). When working in a nation whose culture values “tender” or “feminine” attributes (i.e., intuition, compromise, consensus-building), using “tough” masculine traits, such as assertiveness and dominance, and directive, confrontational approaches may be less effective. Gender egalitarian cultures place greater emphasis on charismatic/value-based attributes (i.e., inspirational, motivating, self-sacrificing) and participative behaviors (Emrich, et al., 2004).

Limitation 3: Universal Traits . Apparently, then, masculine leadership traits are not universally valued. Other preferred Western traits (Northouse, 2007) suffer the same malady. Leader self-confidence, personal integrity, and sociability are not as highly valued in collectivist cultures as they are in the individualistic United States (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). In collectivist nations, individual traits are secondary to group roles and duties. The knowing and assuming of one’s designated role in the group is of more importance than intelligence and confidence in one’s ability. An individual accepts and performs the leader role because society has deemed him (usually male) worthy due to social position and/or in-group networks. Because of the priority placed on harmony in collectivist cultures, Western-style integrity also suffers. Hofstede and Hofstede note that honesty, for example, is less valued if it results in disruption of harmony, in-group shame, or loss of face. The emphasis on adaptation and networks in

long-term oriented nations results in bribery being an accepted part of doing business. The very strength of in-groups and networks in the workplace of collectivist cultures, often dictated by social norms, makes sociability moot. If one is a member of the in-group, then sociability is not necessary; if one is an outsider, then sociability is futile. Sociability is also not as highly valued in high uncertainty avoiding nations where structure and task take priority over relationships because of the desire to reduce ambiguity by controlling the environment.

Limitation 4: Task-Relationship Balance . Uncertainty avoiding countries also shatter the belief that a balance of task and relationship-oriented behaviors is desirable across cultures. Their desire for more structure and rules stems from an emotional need to feel in control, leaving nothing to chance (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). This often results in ritual behaviors and archaic regulations that may seem dysfunctional to the outsider but are necessary for the organization’s sense of security. Followers expect leaders to micromanage, providing precise tasks, and rules for performing these tasks. Followers in large power distance countries share this expectation of discipline and structure which is the consequence of long established and accepted hierarchical roles. The ideal leader is the benevolent autocrat. In such societies, the leader high in consideration may be viewed as weak (Carl, et al., 2004). On the opposite end of the spectrum, nations that place high priority on egalitarianism resent the discipline and directiveness of leader task behaviors. This is also true for countries that have a more feminine or less assertive orientation where there is more emphasis on caring, generosity and fairness than on authority, direction, task and results.

Limitation 5: Quantifiable Performance . Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) see task-orientation and performance orientation as decidedly masculine cultural values. Similar values are echoed in short-term oriented nations. Masculine countries with short-term orientation, such as the United States, are largely concerned with the bottom line. Rewards are based on performance, valuing meritocracy and delineation by abilities over economic equality. Cultures that have a long-term orientation conversely tend to place a greater emphasis on persistence in pursuit of goals rather than immediate returns. They are more likely to endure setbacks to reach long-term goals. Differences in performance orientation are especially noticeable in terms of individualism versus collectivism. In collectivist societies the leader meets societal obligations and performs specified duties in return for follower obedience and loyalty. Because loyalty and in-group preference are more important than follower performance, poor performance alone is not a justifiable reason for firing an employee. In large power distance countries, the leader is also impervious to the consequences of poor performance. Leaders are placed on a pedestal and highly respected, but there are seldom any performance expectations. Categorizing performance orientation as a separate dimension of culture, the GLOBE Study (Javidan, 2004) concluded that nations with low performance orientation are more focused on loyalty, tradition, and seniority than reaching high performance goals. Their communication styles are apt to be more subtle and indirect, leading to misunderstandings and confusion for the culturally uninitiated. Members of such cultures may also find more direct communication styles offensive. Here are definite pitfalls for the performance-oriented, straight-talking citizen of the United States of America.

Limitation 6: Individualistic . In the American way of thinking, along with quantifiable performance come contingent rewards for the individual. Encouragement and personal reward for innovation, high standards, and performance improvements are characteristics of a performance-oriented society (Javidan, 2004) that support an individualist culture’s emphasis on the importance of individual interests in the workplace. Individual performance and achievements are rewarded according to merit. The motivational aspects of Western leadership theories assume the primacy of individual self interest while leader-follower interaction and post-industrial approaches tout the importance of the relationship between leader and follower as unique individuals. The majority of the world, however, is collectivist (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). Here the emphasis is on group cohesion and loyalty, not personal achievement, merit, and reward. In societies with strong in-group affiliations, in-group may influence hiring. It is common and ethical for leaders to show preferences to family and friends. Management is of groups, not individuals, and workers usually do not seek individual recognition. They will more often act out of loyalty to group than personal self-interest.

In an attempt to overcome the constraints of Western leadership theories, the GLOBE Study (House, 2004) proposed an integrated theory of leadership that attempted to account for culturally-based differences in implicit views of leadership. Based on the CLT, the study (Dorfman, et al., 2004) found six globally desired leader behaviors: charismatic/value-based, team oriented, participative, humane-oriented, autonomous, and self-protective. But this theory also has limitations. The six rank uniquely within each country. The priority and weight assigned behaviors within a nation will greatly influence appropriate leadership actions, styles, and strategies. For example, Dorfman, et al. (2004) describes a universally accepted and effective leader as someone with the highest level of integrity. As noted above, the defining characteristics of integrity are culturally determined. Like any Western theory, the use of CLT is country specific.

Level 5. Country Analysis and Adaptation Project

Because of the country-specific nature of cross-cultural leadership, global leadership education necessarily culminates with a country cultural analysis. Through the country analysis, students apply cross-cultural models to determine implications for leadership. While country analyses of various types are available from scholarly sources (Hofstede, 1980; Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005; Chhokar, Brodbeck, & House, 2007) as well as various governmental agencies, such information is often incomplete and sometimes contradictory or biased. Direct analysis enables student engagement with the cultural data and more thoughtful consideration of societal patterns that influence leadership.

Students may analyze their chosen country through traditional research or a modified evaluative case study. Using a single case, embedded design and data triangulation (Yin, 2003) students are able to analyze their country in a systematic, information-rich way. Regardless of method, however, the project should challenge the student to discern cultural patterns, articulate the influence of these patterns on leadership, and generate recommendations for Western leadership theory adaptation. The analysis and adaptation aspects of the country project challenge students to apply cross-cultural models and confront the limitations of Western theories. Through direct application, the abstraction of models and theories become concrete. Students thus see the relevance of course information and understand how to use it.

While there is no substitution for experience, learning global leadership entirely through the school of hard knocks is painful and counterproductive. It is, therefore, critical to design effective global leadership courses. The Global Leadership-Learning Pyramid provides a framework for study that: integrates broad issues of globalization, history, culture and leadership; determines nation- state cultural patterns and implications for leadership; and adapts Western theories for cross-cultural use. Grounded in cross-cultural research, this framework marries theory and application to better prepare students for the complexities of global leadership.

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Handbook of Global Leadership and Followership pp 567–583 Cite as

Culturally Responsive Leadership: A Critical Review of Literature

Fei Wang 5 ,
Negar Khodarahmi 6 &
Hanh-Thi Hannah Nguyen 6
Reference work entry
First Online: 30 March 2023

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Long-standing efforts to introduce culturally responsive education (CRE) have failed to address the situations and structures that disadvantage culturally diverse students. Although a proliferation of literature emphasizes principals’ culturally responsive leadership (CRL) in influencing followers in positively transforming the reality for culturally diverse students, in many ways, the situations for these students remain the same or are worse off today than they were decades ago. CRL that collaborates with minoritized groups, drawing from student’s cultures and experiences, is believed central to achieving equity and inclusivity. However, research on CRL is still new and evolving. This chapter synthesizes literature on CRL and followership in the past 5 years and problematizes CRL studies that are mainly rooted in Western perspective on leadership. The review employs a decolonization lens to critically examine how CRL is conceptualized and implemented in research and practice and if CRL is producing intended results or simply rhetoric.

Culturally responsive education
Followership
Decolonization

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Wang, F., Khodarahmi, N., Hannah Nguyen, HT. (2023). Culturally Responsive Leadership: A Critical Review of Literature. In: Marques, J.F., Schmieder-Ramirez, J., Malakyan, P.G. (eds) Handbook of Global Leadership and Followership. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21544-5_35

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The global leadership capacity wheel: Comparing HRD leadership literature with research from global and indigenous leadership

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to examine the definitions of global leadership and indigenous leadership, identify leadership capacities inherent in human resource development (HRD) and determine relationships of the three as a means to develop a model to aid and guide opportunities for future research. Design/methodology/approach: Following a two-stage integrative literature review of HRD, global and indigenous leadership literature, the grounded theory constant comparative method established 31 positive and 1 negative leadership domains, and respective capacities, and compare domains from literature. Findings: The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel informs researchers of strengths and areas for additional research, has resulted in a more complete model of global leadership and calls for increased clarity for leadership capacity model development, especially for complex, global environments and local constructs and theories. Research limitations/implications: Although the literature had adequate representation in the business and organizational acumen and managing people and relationships central global leadership domains, more research and reporting is required for managing self and indigenous leadership capacity development subdomains. Practical implications: Leadership development is a high priority and core function of HRD. The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel provides a tool for scholars and practitioners to guide global leadership development programs and research. Social implications: Understanding the relationships of leadership capacities from global and indigenous perspectives is helpful to examine cultural, identity and macro-contextual dimensions and their influence on leadership. Originality/value: The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel provides a type of road-map, a holistic representation, in the context of developing global leaders in today’s complex environment.

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Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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10.1108/EJTD-07-2018-0061

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Human Resource Development Business & Economics 100%
Global Leadership Business & Economics 80%
human resources development Social Sciences 73%
leadership Social Sciences 38%
literature Social Sciences 24%
Leadership Development Business & Economics 16%
Self-leadership Business & Economics 10%
Comparative Method Business & Economics 10%

T1 - The global leadership capacity wheel

T2 - Comparing HRD leadership literature with research from global and indigenous leadership

AU - Turner, John R.

AU - Baker, Rose

AU - Schroeder, Jae

AU - Johnson, Karen R.

AU - Chung, Chih Hung

PY - 2019/2/20

Y1 - 2019/2/20

N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to examine the definitions of global leadership and indigenous leadership, identify leadership capacities inherent in human resource development (HRD) and determine relationships of the three as a means to develop a model to aid and guide opportunities for future research. Design/methodology/approach: Following a two-stage integrative literature review of HRD, global and indigenous leadership literature, the grounded theory constant comparative method established 31 positive and 1 negative leadership domains, and respective capacities, and compare domains from literature. Findings: The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel informs researchers of strengths and areas for additional research, has resulted in a more complete model of global leadership and calls for increased clarity for leadership capacity model development, especially for complex, global environments and local constructs and theories. Research limitations/implications: Although the literature had adequate representation in the business and organizational acumen and managing people and relationships central global leadership domains, more research and reporting is required for managing self and indigenous leadership capacity development subdomains. Practical implications: Leadership development is a high priority and core function of HRD. The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel provides a tool for scholars and practitioners to guide global leadership development programs and research. Social implications: Understanding the relationships of leadership capacities from global and indigenous perspectives is helpful to examine cultural, identity and macro-contextual dimensions and their influence on leadership. Originality/value: The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel provides a type of road-map, a holistic representation, in the context of developing global leaders in today’s complex environment.

AB - Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to examine the definitions of global leadership and indigenous leadership, identify leadership capacities inherent in human resource development (HRD) and determine relationships of the three as a means to develop a model to aid and guide opportunities for future research. Design/methodology/approach: Following a two-stage integrative literature review of HRD, global and indigenous leadership literature, the grounded theory constant comparative method established 31 positive and 1 negative leadership domains, and respective capacities, and compare domains from literature. Findings: The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel informs researchers of strengths and areas for additional research, has resulted in a more complete model of global leadership and calls for increased clarity for leadership capacity model development, especially for complex, global environments and local constructs and theories. Research limitations/implications: Although the literature had adequate representation in the business and organizational acumen and managing people and relationships central global leadership domains, more research and reporting is required for managing self and indigenous leadership capacity development subdomains. Practical implications: Leadership development is a high priority and core function of HRD. The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel provides a tool for scholars and practitioners to guide global leadership development programs and research. Social implications: Understanding the relationships of leadership capacities from global and indigenous perspectives is helpful to examine cultural, identity and macro-contextual dimensions and their influence on leadership. Originality/value: The Global Leadership Capacity Wheel provides a type of road-map, a holistic representation, in the context of developing global leaders in today’s complex environment.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058492804&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85058492804&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1108/EJTD-07-2018-0061

DO - 10.1108/EJTD-07-2018-0061

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85058492804

SN - 2046-9012

JO - European Journal of Training and Development

JF - European Journal of Training and Development

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Perspect Health Inf Manag
v.18(Spring); Spring 2021

An Exploration of Global Leadership Behavior and Job Satisfaction in Health Information Management

Health information management (HIM) professionals are a vital component of a global network of healthcare specialists who assure quality documentation, data governance, analysis of data, and medical coding of vital healthcare statistics. 1 These healthcare professionals make up a globally diverse community 2 which demands leaders with globally transferable leadership skills.

The goal of this study was to explore the application of Servant Leadership Theory 3 to job satisfaction through globally applicable and transferable leadership behavior. A case study approach of semi-structured interviews and blog posting entries were examined through the principles of a global mindset. 4. Results of this study are applicable to the community of practicing HIM professionals through the identification and examples of the application of effective and globally transferable leadership behavior.

Introduction

HIM professionals are a vital component of a global healthcare workforce who apply their expertise in governing and analyzing healthcare data for security, accuracy, and integrity. There are more than 200,000 HIM professionals in the United States 5 and over 32,000 in Canada. 6 Due to the globalization of healthcare, the outsourcing of HIM tasks has increased by 31 percent from 2011 to 2016 7 and international companies based in the United States are hiring HIM professionals from around the world. This has spawned a mosaic of ethnicities in HIM 8 who are at the forefront of a digital healthcare industry which has transformed from regional to global and consumed more than or $3.5 trillion, or 18 percent of GDP in 2017. 9

It's projected the United States will see an increase of more than 6,000 HIM positions per year, yet foresee only 2,000 annual graduates from accredited HIM programs. 10 In Canada, an additional 12,330 will be needed within the next few years. 11 The shift to a global workforce and the projected shortage of HIM professionals presents the importance of providing an organizational climate which promotes job satisfaction. When professionals compare the aspects of a job, allowances for pay and working conditions will be made, but recognition of personal and professional value won't be sacrificed. 12 Identifying globally transferable leadership skills which recognize and nurture the value of the employee is vital to the recruitment and retainment of qualified employees.

Job satisfaction is dependent on the communication and relationship 13 between an ethical leader 14 and follower. This provided the motivation to explore servant leadership theory through the application of a global leadership approach. Servant leadership behavior is comprised of conduct which “seeks to involve others in decision making, is strongly based in ethical and caring behavior and enhances the growth of workers while improving the quality of the organizational climate” 15 and exhibits the behavioral traits and characteristics of serving first and leading second. Yet, within the global society of HIM professionals, exhibiting these leadership traits are not enough; leaders must be able to apply global leadership skills in an environment of global diversity.

An effective leader of HIM professionals must have the ability to motivate a group of people, constructively seek a clear vision and foster growth while working within a globally complex frame of reference. 16 The ability to learn and understand at a global level (intellectual capital), the self-confidence to function in a cultural environment different from their own (psychological capital) and the ability to cultivate new relationships with individuals from diverse cultures (social capital) is crucial to serving first and leading second in global diversity. 17

Due to the crucial need of globally effective leaders, this research explored the effect of servant leadership theory on job satisfaction as applied through a global mindset of leadership behaviors. Canadian participants were included due to both the United States and Canada experiencing a shortage of HIM professionals and to give the research a global perspective. The context of this qualitative research was framed within the thematic description of 10 servant leadership characteristics 18 and the original servant leadership definition of, “The best test is: Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to be servants?” 19 and the merger of global mindset characteristics 20 demonstrated in Table Table1 1 .

Servant Leadership Characteristics and Global Mindset Equivalents

Note: Global Mindset Inventory Variables 21 associated with Servant Leader Behavior Characteristics. 22

The servant leadership traits of conceptualization, persuasion, building community, commitment to growth and foresight of the future 23 were also explored through a definition of global leadership 23 shown in Table Table2 2 . Please note the original theory of servant leadership was developed in 1970, and the bulk of research following took place within the first quarter century of development. Hence, you will find research and references within this research predominately from the time period of 1970s to the mid-1990s.

Global Leadership Definition 24 Mapped to Servant Leadership Characteristics. 25

Methodology

The multiple-case study and blog entry format utilized was based on a constructivist approach 26 and utilized the Interactive Model of Research Design 27 to explore the following questions:

How do HIM professionals describe the experience of job satisfaction in the United States and in Canada?
How do HIM professionals describe their job satisfaction experiences with leaders who exhibit servant leader and global mindset behavior?
How do leaders describe the role they play in the job satisfaction of HIM professionals?

As seen in Figure Figure1 1 , the Interactive Model of Research Design 28 intertwines the goal, conceptual framework, method, and validity with the research questions which allows continual assessment and comparison between each investigative component.

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Application of Interactive Model of Research Design 29

Similarities and differences were explored between participant responses from semi-structured interviews with currently employed HIM professionals in the United States and Canada and an additional cyber-artifact obtained from open forum blog entries. The use of blog entries provided a forum for anonymous participant participation and provided extensive data within a naturalistic context. 30 Blog entries also represented the “symbols” of the group and were used to “understand their beliefs, values, and behaviors.” 31

Blog entries further allowed a view of the everyday life of the blogger 32 with the additional ability of continuous access to data. Both participant interviews and blog entries were focused on the leader/follower perception of servant leadership, global mindset, and job satisfaction.

United States interview participants were procured from the eastern United States, while the interview participants from Canada were procured from both the eastern and western sections of northern Canada. Interview participants were chosen randomly from a request for participation from the website of three different professional organizations for HIM professionals.

Due to not knowing the number of interview participants and blog entries needed prior to beginning this qualitative/case study research, a prediction of ten participant interviews and cyber-artifacts was made. The exploration of data continued until saturation (each new unit of analysis produces very little new data) was reached 33 which resulted in conducting 11 extensive interviews. Blog entries of three HIM professional organizations were chosen for their focus population of health information professionals. Blogs were seeded (an initial post regarding general leadership behavior was posted to begin a conversation) and open forum blogs were monitored for 14 days.

Data analysis focused on coding and analyzing for the thematic presence of job satisfaction, servant leadership behavior and an attitude of global awareness within two recognized qualitative strategies- a categorizing strategy (coding) which disaggregated the data into substantive categories and an additional analysis of data by theoretical categories which allowed a comparison with previous leadership theory. 34 Substantive categories allowed “open coding” to be performed which permitted an exploration of general, overall concepts within the data while “theoretical propositions” 35 of Servant Leadership Theory 36 and a global attitude were analyzed. All interview participant and blog participant entries were coded utilizing the 54 codes listed in Table Table3 3 .

List of Thematic Codes by Category.

Due to the large scope of acquired data, in addition to manual coding, the qualitative cross-platform QDAS (qualitative data analysis software) system Dedoose™ was employed to code professionally transcribed interviews and blog entries. This provided the opportunity to “learn about the rich, complex and contextualized ways in which our research participants experience their lives” 37 which coincided with the qualitative focus of the study.

Each research question was analyzed for thematic presence of servant leadership behavior and included both interview and blog participant data. Job satisfaction task codes were used to determine the thematic presence of job satisfaction. (See Table Table4, 4 , Table Table5 5 , and Table Table6 6 .).

Research Question 1: How do leaders describe the role they play in the job satisfaction of health information management professionals?

Research Question 2: How do health information management professionals describe their experiences with the effect of the behaviors of a servant leader and job satisfaction?

Research Question 3: How do health information management professionals describe how they experience job satisfaction in the United States and in Canada?

The use of case description 38 was used in the interpretation of data to find the thematic presence of servant leadership behavioral characteristics and five characteristics of job satisfaction. 39 Figure Figure2 2 . shows a summation of thematic presence by listing the major themes found throughout the data by frequency of both interview and blog participant data.

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Theme Frequency.

Table Table7 7 . depicts the analysis of the 19 functional attributes of servant leadership, 40 with data disaggregated by interview and blog participants and was singled out for analysis due to its servant leadership inclusivity. 41 Figure Figure3 3 shows 91 percent (10 of the 11 participant interviews) and 100 percent of blog participant entries were coded for stewardship.

Application of 19 Aspects of Servant Leadership to Participants

Note: The stewardship parent code (inclusive of all child/meta-codes) included the 19 segments

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Application of Stewardship Parent Code to Participant Data.

Analysis of job satisfaction data included comparing coded results between interview and blog participant data for application of the five job characteristics of job satisfaction 42 and the servant leadership categorical, parent and sub-codes developed from the ten-servant leadership characteristics 43 are found in 100 percent of all participants. ( Figure Figure4 4 .)

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Analysis of Five Job Characteristics 44 and Compared to Interview and Blog Participant Data.

Throughout the data, servant leadership themes are dominant and perfectly associated with the presence of job satisfaction in both interview and blog participants.

Unlike quantitative research which has specific statistical calculations, “Theoretical generalization is the domain of case study as what statistical generalization is to the true experiment.” 45 This allowed the gleaning of conclusions from the application of “theoretical generalizations.” 46 Triangulation of data 47-49 was performed through the inclusion of the additional artifact of blog entries, 50 obtaining rich data through interviews and blog entries and performing respondent validation through comparison of both blog entries and participant interviews. 51

This study broke new ground within two areas of previously unexplored territory of global research through the exploration of servant leadership behavior and job satisfaction within a global mindset and via both interview and blog participant data. The comparison of interview and blog data is a relatively new area of research and provides an endless opportunity of global studies to occur from anywhere around the world via virtual interviews and blog posts.

Due to the non-existence of previous research on servant leadership through a global mindset and job satisfaction via the use of participant and blog data within the health information management community a limitation to this study is an inability to compare results with previous research for enrichment 52 or to determine replication for authenticity. 53 Currently, the only available comparison is research within other areas of servant leadership and job satisfaction. A systematic literature review of servant leadership and job satisfaction through both qualitative and quantitative means found a direct correlation between servant leadership behavior and increased job satisfaction 54-58 yet none of the previous results were attained from the diverse community of HIM professionals.

This research has shown an association of job satisfaction and servant leadership behavior within a global mindset of leadership which is applicable to the diverse community of HIM professionals. There are implications for immediate application within the global leadership and training of HIM professionals by the addition of servant leadership skills applied within a globally focused mental attitude. This research is also provides the stimulus for health information management education to include servant leadership training and application at both the associate degree and bachelor degree level.

This research provides a basis for further research:

A quantitative study on global leadership/servant leadership and health information management professionals
A quantitative/qualitative study on leadership behavior and job satisfaction of remote leaders of health information management professionals in the United States and globally
A mixed-methods study on global leadership mindset and job satisfaction within health information management professionals
A quantitative study using/comparing/obtaining data from blogs on job satisfaction in health information management professionals

“Leadership is the process of influencing others and a great organization consists of all leaders.” 59 To meet the demands of the growing and diverse community of HIM professionals, the future agenda of global leadership research must include the continuation and formalization of the application of globally transferable leadership skills which include the seven constructs of love, humility, altruism, vision, trust, empowerment, and service 60 and designates a globally aware servant leader as someone who “has an innate desire to lead by serving, serves to align own beliefs, and strives to meet the highest priorities of others.” 61

Author Biography

Patricia S. DeVoy, PhD, EdS, LPN, RHIA, CPC, CPPM, ([email protected]) is program director, health information management and technology, at the University of Detroit Mercy.

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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

The mindful leader: a review of leadership qualities derived from mindfulness meditation.

1 Business School, Nord University, Bodø, Norway
2 Medical Yoga Sweden of California, Bodfish, CA, United States

Mindfulness has been practiced by global leaders and companies as an efficient way to build effective leadership. Because of its popularity, plus the lack of a comprehensive theoretical framework that explains it in a leadership context, the research literature has called for a coherent account of the qualities that is derived by those leaders that practice mindfulness. Here, we aim to answer that call, by clarifying what leadership qualities can develop from practicing mindfulness . We report on a semi-systematic literature review of extant research, covering 19 research articles published between 2000 and 2021, plus other relevant supporting literature from the disciplines of leadership and neuropsychology. Our proposed framework consists of three main qualities of the mindful leader: attention, awareness, and authenticity. We call them the “three pillars of mindful leaders.” We also propose that mindfulness meditation must be integrated into our proposed framework, as we are convinced that leaders who hope to benefit from these qualities must integrate a regular mindfulness meditation practice into their daily leadership life.

1 Introduction

Many influential global leaders are now implementing mindfulness as a daily practice. Examples include Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, and Russell Simmons. Meanwhile, some major companies have begun implementing mindfulness meditation training in their leader-development programs. Examples are Google, with its “search inside yourself” program, and General Mills, with its “finding the space to lead” program.

Even the World Economic Forum has acknowledged mindfulness as a method for developing effective leaders. It now offers morning mindfulness meditations for leaders, typically attending in their black suits and dresses, at the Annual Meeting in Davos.

But while companies are popularizing mindfulness as a way to promote mindful leaders, the research community has yet to settle on a coherent scientific account nailing down the qualities leaders acquire from practicing mindfulness ( Brendel et al., 2016 ; Good et al., 2016 ; King and Badham, 2018 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ).

Whereas scholars have suggested compelling frameworks about the qualities leaders develop from mindfulness ( Brendel et al., 2016 ; Ehrlich, 2017 ; King and Badham, 2018 ; Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ), their very variety leaves us with conceptual inconsistency and ambiguity as to just what counts as “qualities of the mindful leader” ( Brendel et al., 2016 ; Van Dam et al., 2018 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ). That ambiguity might be explained by mindful leaders being a relative novel phenomenon within academic research ( Good et al., 2016 ).

The research community therefore is calling for more studies to help us agree on what qualities leaders supposedly develop from practicing mindfulness ( Brendel et al., 2016 ; Good et al., 2016 ; King and Badham, 2018 ; Daniel et al., 2020 ).

In this paper, we aim to propose a theory that helps to both identify and explain the qualities of the mindful leader. We therefore address the following research question: What qualities can leaders develop from practicing mindfulness? We have conducted a literature review of extant publications to reveal the qualities of the mindful leader ( Webster and Watson, 2002 ; Snyder, 2019 ). Our review resulted in 19 conceptual and empirical scientific studies. Based on these publications, we suggest and outline in this paper three main qualities that a leader can gain from a formal mindfulness practice: attention, awareness, and authenticity.

Furthermore, when we are engaged in mindfulness as a meditation practice, it lets us re-program both our “hardware” (i.e., our brain) and our “software” (i.e., our mind) ( Miyake et al., 2000 ; Herndon, 2008 ; Malinowski, 2013 ; Mohapel, 2018 ). Neuropsychology has made extensive contribution to unveil the benefits of mindfulness meditation on our brain and mind. As neuropsychology is the science of the relation between our brains function and our mind (i.e., cognition, emotions and behavior), we find it intriguing, interesting, and necessary to integrate a neuropsychological explanation for why these three leader qualities develops when practicing mindfulness as a meditation. Neuropsychology will therefore be woven into our discussions about the qualities of the mindful leader, as it gives us a richer backdrop about how mindfulness meditation can rewire our brain and mind, and thereby foster these qualities of the mindful leader. In our review, we therefore limit the phenomenon “mindfulness,” to be understood as a formal practice of mindfulness meditation.

First, though, we’ll offer a short overview of mindfulness from both a Buddhist and a Western perspective. Then, we’ll outline our methodology for theorizing about qualities of the mindful leader. Our findings about the three qualities of the mindful leader are then presented, and followed by a discussion and conclusion of our study.

2 Mindfulness

“I invite you to take a few moments to find a comfortable position on a chair, or in a cross-legged position on a meditation pillow on the floor. Sit with a straight back, your hands resting on your thighs and with both feet on the floor. Have your chin gently pulled in and the top of your head reaching toward the ceiling. Adopt a posture that can best support your intention to be awake and alert, but relaxed. Now, close your eyes, or, if you prefer, adopt a soft gaze, looking down toward the floor in front of you. Your spine is straight, but not stiff. Take the next few moments to notice your body’s sensation, like where you might feel ease, tension, tingling, or vibration… Now bring your awareness to your breath, wherever it feels the most prominent, perhaps at your nose, chest, belly, or somewhere else. Simply maintain this awareness of your breath, breathing in and breathing out. Without any judgment, simply watch your breath, breathing in and breathing out through your nose. There’s no place you have to go now, and nothing else to do; just be in the here and now, noticing your breath. Occasionally your attention may wander. When this happens, simply acknowledge where it went and then gently bring your attention back to your breath… In a moment or two, we will be coming to an end of this meditation practice. If you have closed your eyes, allow them to slowly open, or if you have softened your gaze, gently let yourself take in your surroundings in the room, and bring this awareness to your next few moments.”

The three-minute breathing meditation – scripted by the authors, inspired by scripts from Woods and Rockman (2021) , and Bob and Goldstein (2010) .

Mindfulness (Pali_ Sati) is a practice that originates from Buddhism. It aims to promote enlightenment—that is, a state of wisdom about existence, about the way reality appears to us, and the true nature of its appearances. Mindfulness seeks to liberate us from life sufferings that prevent us from reaching what’s understood as enlightenment ( Vu and Gill, 2018 ).

The Eastern Buddhist mindfulness practice began to spread to the West in the mid- 1970’s. Centers were established in the United States and United Kingdom, offering mindfulness programs ( Woods and Rockman, 2021 ) that introduced the practice as a way to promote positive psychological mental health and well-being ( Purser and Milillo, 2015 ; Vu and Gill, 2018 ). Although “enlightenment” is not the expressed goal of mindfulness training in the West, the aim is still to reach deeper insight into, and reflection about, our mind and how our surroundings appear to us, and to adjust those mental processes and behavioral patterns that are associated with “life sufferings.”

In Buddhism, meditation is far from a “woo-woo thing”; it is basically just a form of “mental training” that increases our capacity for enlightenment and fine-tunes our mental processes and behavioral patterns. There are many different types of meditation in Buddhism. In the present paper, we’ll be speaking about the meditation practice that is integrated in widespread mindfulness programs. Popularly called “mindfulness meditation.” It involves paying attention to experiences in the moment, with openness and acceptance, with less reactivity and judgment. This meditation practice is based on the Buddhist meditation practice called Vipassana.

Vipassana meditation uses the breath as an anchor in the practice. It’s practiced while lying on the floor, sitting on a chair, or simply while walking. But, most often, it is practiced while sitting cross-legged on the floor on a meditation pillow, with a posture that allows for being awake and alert, but relaxed, with your attention focused on your breath and the sensations in your body. The “three-minute breathing meditation” that we scripted to introduce this section is typical of Vipassana meditation.

In recent years, though, “mindfulness meditation” has also been augmented with mindful movements, singing tones (known as chanting), and finger movements (known as mudras), though it still uses the breath as an anchor.

John Kabat-Zinn was one of the early influential scholars that adapted Buddhist mindfulness in a Western academic and practice context. He defined mindfulness as “an awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose to the present moment and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” ( Kabat-Zinn, 2003 , p. 145).

Other influential scholars define mindfulness similarly, though with somewhat different phrasings. For example, Brown and Ryan (2003) define it as a receptive attention to, and awareness of, present events and experiences, while Bishop et al. (2004 , p. 323) define it as “a kind of non-elaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is.” Shapiro and Carlson (2009 , p. 556), meanwhile, define mindfulness as “the awareness that arises through intentionally attending in an open, caring, and discerning way.”

Leadership scholars depart from this accepted definition of mindfulness when they implement it in a leader context. Leaders who practice mindfulness apparently enjoy greater “cognitive and emotional resources that ensure resilience in the face of stress, and the flexibility of mind and learning skills to adapt to a fast-changing employment market and longer working lives” ( The Mindfulness Initiatives, 2015 , p. 6). There seems to be a widespread agreement that mindfulness can indeed develop particular qualities of the mindful leader ( Ehrlich, 2017 ; King and Badham, 2018 ; Mohapel, 2018 ; Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ).

Conceptual papers and empirical research have proposed various qualities developed by leaders who practice mindfulness. Brendel et al. (2016) , suggested that mindful leaders’ qualities are creativity, less trait anxiety, and reduced stress. For Ehrlich (2017) , meanwhile, mindful leaders’ have the qualities of spirit (knowing where one is going), emotion (staying with one’s feelings, and accessing the information they contain), mind (paying attention to one’s thinking), body (attending to one’s physical self), connecting (focusing on others), and inspiring (having a vision and passion that motivate others to join in).

King and Badham (2018) , meanwhile, contend that the enhanced leaders qualities are individual mindfulness (an increased capacity for being aware of, attentive to, and accepting of experience), individual wisdom (greater reflexivity, relationality, and compassion in adopting and pursuing individual and collective purposes), collective mindfulness (greater adaptability, reliability, and resilience in organizational cultures and systems), and collective wisdom (that enhances consciously responsible, collaborative, and sustainable forms of governance).

Stedham and Skaar (2019) , meanwhile, suggested that mindfulness promotes a host of leader qualities—attention, reperceiving, cognitive capacity, cognitive reflexivity, self-regulation of emotions, self-regulation of behavior, self-awareness, social awareness–as well as several leadership behavioral characteristics—empathy, humility, authenticity, transparency, standing back, positivity, and resilience.

While leadership scholars like these are proposing interesting insights into the qualities of mindful leaders, their variety leaves us with conceptual inconsistency and ambiguity as to just what counts as “mindful leaders” ( Brendel et al., 2016 ; Van Dam et al., 2018 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ).

Scholars therefore lament the lack of a comprehensive, well-accepted theoretical model that explains what is to be known as a mindful leader and what are their qualities, as it makes the phenomenon not only hard to grasp, due to the lack of an agreed-upon and precise conceptualization, but also difficult to apply in research that allows for methods that ensure validity ( Donaldson-Feilder et al., 2019 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ; Daniel et al., 2020 ). Scholars are therefore calling for more research on the topic in hopes of finally reaching agreement on exactly what constitutes mindful leaders as a novel theory in the leadership discipline ( Good et al., 2016 ; Lange et al., 2018 ).

In this paper, therefore, we aim to help answer that need. We have compiled and synthesized a vast corpus of current research on mindful leaders in hopes of proposing a convincing theory about the qualities associated with the mindful leader. In the following section, we outline our approach for building such a theory.

3 Methodology for building theory

When novel phenomena get implemented in practice, researchers typically seek to build convincing theories about them, both to explain them and to advance our scientific knowledge of them. Theorizing is often sparked by the lack of a coherent theory that explains practices in real life to help ameliorate real contemporary problems ( Wacker, 1998 ; Shepherd and Suddaby, 2017 ).

A theory is “ a statement of concepts and their interrelationships that shows how and/or why a phenomenon occurs ” ( Corley and Gioia, 2011 , p. 12). Theory, in short, is an abstraction and simplification of some observable phenomenon. A theory offers to define the phenomenon and its main concepts or variables and their relations with a set of circumstances where the theory is applied ( Wacker, 1998 ).

A strong theory typically develops over time, as the mounting scientific evidence associated with the phenomenon accumulates into an agreed-upon understanding. These emerging scraps of evidence and explanations posited about the phenomenon allow us to synthesize a coherent and convincing theory ( Wagner and Berger, 1985 ). Coherent theories enable a common understanding of the phenomenon, thereby providing a theoretical framework for still further scientific development that will continue to expand our understanding and effective implementation in practice ( Wacker, 1998 ; Webster and Watson, 2002 ; Weber, 2003 ).

When theories about a phenomenon are still in their infancy, theory development can be facilitated by comprehensive literature reviews that single out, and analyze, key scientific contributions that advance our knowledge of a phenomenon ( Webster and Watson, 2002 ). A “literature review” is a well-established research methodology for systematically collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing previous research on a given phenomenon in order to build theoretical models explaining contemporary problems ( Webster and Watson, 2002 ; Snyder, 2019 ).

Our own literature review, reported here, aims to study the extant knowledge and explanations of the qualities of a mindful leader in hopes to make a leap forward in developing a robust, coherent theory about mindful leaders. We have conducted a semi-systematic review, which normally suffices when one is mapping conceptual models, empirical evidence and theoretical explanations in order to get an overview of key concepts that, when synthesized, build a coherent theory ( Snyder, 2019 ). It also suffices when a phenomenon has been conceptualized differently and studied by various groups of researchers within diverse scientific disciplines ( Wong et al., 2013 ; Snyder, 2019 ).

We have followed peer-reviewed standards for conducting literature reviews—standards that have been accepted and applied in different academic disciplines ( Wong et al., 2013 ; Aguinis et al., 2017 ; Snyder, 2019 ).

We were particularly inspired by the method suggested by Aguinis et al. (2017) . Accordingly, in the first step of our review, we defined both its goal and scope , and decided on the inclusive and exclusive criteria for articles to review. As for our goal, we aimed to review extant literature discussing mindfulness in a leadership context, with the intention to develop a theory on the qualities that can develop from practicing mindfulness. As for scope, we restricted our review to articles focusing on mindfulness in a leadership context, which were published between 2000 and 2021, since mindfulness only started to emerge in the Western science community in the early 2000’s ( Baminiwatta and Solangaarachchi, 2021 ).

We included both conceptual and empirical articles that focused at least in part on leadership qualities promoted by mindfulness, but excluded articles that mainly focused on how mindfulness could benefit the leaders’ mental health and wellness, such as relieving stress, anxiety, and depression.

Next, as for which journals to scour, we started with the management journals listed in the ABS journal ranking (the Chartered Association of Business Schools). We searched for the words “mindful*,” “leader*,” and “management” in the article abstracts to identify articles for first-order selection. Since we got quite a few hits, we chose to broaden that search, sifting through three large databases: ScienceDirect, Emerald, and PubMed.

After reading the abstracts there, we had to decide whether the articles merited a second-order selection, based on our inclusion and exclusion criteria. When we landed on a pile of relevant articles, we sifted through them individually to remove any that did not meet our review’s goal. Our search left us with 19 research articles that met both our inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Then, using the NVivo program, we analyzed them to learn the main trending concepts that they discussed. Specifically, we ran a word frequency analysis . Here, we needed to remove some words that showed up in the list but did not refer to a leadership quality, such as “study,” “research,” “results,” “model,” “experience.” We did the same with words that were too alike—for example, keeping the word “leadership” while removing the word “management,” and also keeping the word “organizations” but removing the word “organization.” Table 1 shows our final analysis of the word frequency that provided us with initial ideas about the leadership qualities of mindful leaders discussed in the literature.

Table 1 . word frequency analysis of the 19 research articles reviewed in our study.

Following our NVivo analysis, we scrutinized each article included in our review, in light of the framework laid out by Luft and Shields (2003) . We analyzed each article with respect to four questions: What concepts and significant forces are investigated? What are the key findings and arguments? What theoretical approach underpins the study? What methodology is applied?

While compiling and synthesizing current research on mindful leaders, we identified three main qualities that is developed by leaders that practice mindfulness: attention , awareness , and authenticity . This allowed us to categorize the extant literature into three main concepts that explain the qualities typically developed when leaders practice mindfulness.

We then went back to NVivo to make a text-search analysis of the three main concepts appearing in the 19 articles. We separately searched for those three concepts, in a broad context, compiling individual documents of the concepts that collected all the texts in the literature mentioning the three concepts. This provided us with transparent, and easily accessible, text documents about the literature’s discussions of the qualities found in the mindful leader. In Table 2 , we show which of the main qualities that the articles have mainly covered in their discussions.

Table 2 . The main qualities addressed in the 19 research articles reviewed in our study.

Below, we’ll present the findings of our literature review, and we’ll structure our outline of the review, based on these three qualities marking the mindful leader.

4 Literature review

Our review of the 19 scientific conceptual and empirical articles on the qualities of mindful leaders shows that the leaders sharpen and sustain their attention, they enhance their level of awareness, and they bring authenticity into their leadership. When we in the following outline these qualities of the mindful leader, we also include other studies from disciples other than leadership to get greater support on our theoretical framework. In particular, we include studies from neuroscience on mindfulness meditation to explain how these qualities are developed.

4.1 Attention

Given the seemingly unlimited information and events calling for our attention, our capacity to attend to all of these competing triggers is naturally limited by our own powers of cognition. We are constantly choosing, consciously or unconsciously, between all the competing attention-triggers, and have to decide where and when to allocate a clear and vivid form of attention.

Our review of the literature shows that mindfulness enhances leaders’ capacity to be intentionally present to what is taking place in the moment, and to maintain a sustained attention over a significantly longer period of time, despite frequent distractions. In what follows, we will elaborate on these main qualities of attention.

4.1.1 Intentional presence

All any of us truly have is the present moment. When we are present in the moment, we inevitably achieve richer experiences because we are “ fully present to what is taking place ” ( Schuyler, 2010 , p. 21). But our mind tends to wander between the past and the future, drifting away from experiences in the moment. We replay and ruminate over previous experiences—wondering about what could have been, and what we could have done. We also imagine and plan for future scenarios—wondering about what might happen, and rehearsing how we might then respond. During half of our waking day, our mind typically wanders to places that are not strictly relevant to the situation or relation at hand ( Killingsworth and Gilbert, 2010 ).

We also let our attention get derailed by trivial interruptions in our surroundings. Ehrlich (2017) tells about how leaders at Microsoft regularly find themselves interrupted, indeed some 10–30 times an hour, often by mundane things like emails and instant messages. It would then take these leaders 10–25 min to get back on task, meaning that they were rarely fully intentionally present at the issue at hand.

When leaders mentally wander away like this, they risk missing out on important information and cues about what is occurring. Mind-wandering might lead to inappropriate and incomplete responses, and restrict their relational orientation due to the leaders’ semi-presence. When, on the other hand, leaders are fully present in whatever is taking place, they are better equipped to recognize, interpret, and act more appropriately to what is occurring.

Neuroscience informs us that how we attend to our life situations is governed by two neurological systems in our brain ( Weissman et al., 2006 ). One is the default mode network (DMN), it’s activated when we daydream, when our mind wanders, when we attend passively to what is occurring, and when we turn our mind inward to ourselves. The other, and higher, system is the executive control network (ECF), which needs to suppress the default DMN to be activated, so as to evoke an active, purposeful presence to what is occurring, as when we engage in cognitive-demanding reflections and regulations, and when we deliberately focus our mind on our surroundings.

Mindfulness is shown to help activate the ECF of the brain, thereby improving leaders’ capacity to be intentionally present in what we call the “ here and now ” ( Herndon, 2008 : 32; Mohapel, 2018 ). Our brain’s DMN, which tends to mindlessly wander away from the present, is therefore significantly reduced when practicing mindfulness ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ). Even so, our mind will still be inclined to wander, since the brain’s default mode keeps running to other places than the present. But mindful leaders are better equipped to control and regulate where their mind places its attention.

While neuropsychology convincingly demonstrates that mindfulness meditation practice helps us develop intentional presence to what is occurring, studies find significant variations in how much practice time is required. Baer et al. (2012) , for example, found that it typically takes 6 weeks of regular practice. Gao et al. (2018) , meanwhile, less optimistic, found that it takes 3 months. Lange and Rowald (2019) , for their part, found that these capacities can be developed after a seven-hour mindfulness intervention, followed by 5 minutes of mindfulness meditation practice each working day for 2–3 months.

Mindfulness meditation can also teach leaders to let thoughts and emotions arrive without reacting to them, getting carried away by them, or wanting to change them ( Vago and Silbersweig, 2012 ). This is achieved by better acknowledging that our emotions and “ thoughts are seen as passing events in the mind rather than as inherent aspects of self or as necessarily valid reflections of reality ” ( Teasdale et al., 2002 , p. 285). This response, or nonresponse, is called “non-reactivity.” It’s a central concept within both Buddhist and Western mindfulness; it explains our ability to allow our thoughts and emotions to arrive without any immediate reactions to them and without getting absorbed by them ( Bishop et al., 2004 ; Shapiro et al., 2006 ; Hölzel et al., 2011 ), and to allow external experiences to occur without our hastening to evaluate, control, and react to them ( King and Harr, 2017 ).

Thus, mindful leaders are able to detach themselves from their immediate interpretations and meaning-making of issues at hand ( Kabat-Zinn, 2003 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ). Their mindfulness training reduces their DMN’s automatic tendency to turn their mind inward, which would otherwise cause them to identify too closely to what is occurring. Instead by activating their ECF, they engage in everything with less ego involvement and ego defensiveness, both of which otherwise can quickly distort their experiences with subjective biases ( Verdorfer, 2016 ; King and Badham, 2018 ).

Significantly, these leaders are able to call upon a broader scope of potential responses, and then consciously choose how they react, thus making more informed choices ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ; Brendel et al., 2016 ; Chesley and Wylson, 2016 ; King and Harr, 2017 ). This comes in handy in virtually any leadership situations, as they are better equipped to mindfully evaluate the appropriate response before committing to it.

When we are intentionally present in the moment, we further develop an attitude of not judging our experiences. Non-judgment, like nonreactivity, is also a central concept within the Buddhist and Western mindfulness literature. Non-judgment allows for an open and curious approach to whatever leadership situations and relations we encounter ( Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ). Although we will still experience judgments, mindfulness makes us better at noticing when our judgmental mind runs our thoughts ( Brown and Ryan, 2003 ; Kabat-Zinn, 2003 ), since mindfulness meditation activates our mind’s engagement in cognitive reflection and regulations ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ; Mohapel, 2018 ).

Mindfulness ensures that leaders are more willing to allow for new understandings of situations and relations ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ), and to notice relevant information and cues that are available, and also to look for alternative ways of understanding their leadership experiences ( Chesley and Wylson, 2016 ).

Mindful leaders are less constrained by preconceived beliefs and biases, which inhibit growth and learning, and which can keep them from grasping how circumstances actually appear ( Kabat-Zinn, 2003 ; Shapiro et al., 2006 ; Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ). They are also more aware of how quick and reflexive judgments, aptly called “snap judgments,” can lead to inaccurate and incomplete interpretations of experiences ( Dane, 2011 ; Hafenbrack et al., 2014 ).

Neuroscience demonstrates that mindfulness meditation can help reduce the DMN’s tendency to automatically engage in reactive and judgmental thoughts and behavior; it does so by turning our mind away from internal ego-centered events, and by then evoking an intentional presence with curiosity toward one’s surroundings. Studies show that when we engage in various breathing techniques based on Vipassana meditation, such as abdominal breathing, nostril breathing (single, alternate, or double), or forceful or vocalized breathing, we gently bring our mind to the issue at hand, and reduce reactive and judgmental responses, at any time, immediately ( Zaccaro et al., 2018 ).

When we practice abdominal breathing, with anything from a 10-min session of deep breathing—being 4–10 breaths per minute, compared to the normal range of 10–20 breaths per minute—to just a short, 2-min session of deep breathing ( Zaccaro et al., 2018 ), we bring our mind back to what is occurring in the moment, with the presence of curiosity, with less reactive and judgmental thoughts and behavior.

In summary, the literature informs us that mindfulness practice enhances leaders’ capacity for being intentionally present to whatever is occurring in the moment, and with the healthier attitudes of non-reactivity and non-judgment.

4.1.2 Sustained attention

“Sustained attention” denotes the ability to focus on specific stimuli over a longer period of time. More precisely, it is “ the ability to self-sustain mindful, conscious processing of stimuli whose repetitive non-arousing properties would otherwise lead to habituation and distraction ” ( Robertson et al., 1997 , 747). Recall that we all face seemingly unlimited triggers competing for our attention. But our cognitive capacity restricts us from attending to all or even most of those triggers. Mindfulness, however, builds our capacity for sustained attention when necessary, ignoring information and events that have nothing to do with the issue at hand, but still recognizing when triggers ought to be brought into attention.

While neuropsychology informs us that mindfulness meditation practice enhances our sustained attention ( MacLean et al., 2010 ; Malinowski, 2013 ), studies again find variations in how much practice time is required. MacLean et al. (2010) , for example, studied participants in a 3-month-long retreat at the Shambhala Mountain Center who practiced Shamatha meditation (akin to vipassana meditation) for 5 hours a day, and found that their sustained attention was strengthened. Moore et al. (2012) , meanwhile, found that a 3-h introduction to mindfulness meditation, followed by 10 min of breathing meditation at least 5 days every week for 16 weeks improved participants’ sustained attention.

Even given such variations in the frequency of mindfulness meditation, leaders who practice it can expect to enhance their ability to self-sustain mindful focus on the tasks at hand ( Robertson et al., 1997 ). Mindfulness meditation is most often practiced longer than the “three-minute breathing meditation.” Indeed, the practice can last 20–50 min. One example of a longer meditation technique is the “body scan meditation.” It’s performed while lying on a floor on a soft yoga mat, using the breath to direct one’s focus on various body parts, and noticing whatever thoughts and sensations then arise, but still maintaining focused attention on the breath and the body to sustain attention on what is occurring internally ( Bob and Goldstein, 2010 ; Woods and Rockman, 2021 ).

Practicing sustained attention, such as the “body scan meditation,” teaches leaders to maintain their attention on the issues at hand, and to create for themselves undisturbed moments of concentration, with a deep focus on what is to be accomplished, by “tuning out” triggering events that aren’t relevant to accomplishing the given tasks. They build the capacity to deliberately sustain attention by maintaining vigilance over time, despite interruptions and changing conditions ( Barel and Tzischinsky, 2020 ).

Meanwhile, mindful leaders also develop the capacity to be simultaneously alert to triggers that stem from their own thoughts, or from their surroundings, even while in deep focus. Neuropsychology shows that mindfulness meditation improves our ability to notice and evaluate triggering information and events even while upholding a sustained attention, and to choose when, and when not, to react to the competing triggers ( Miyake et al., 2000 ; Malinowski, 2013 ). The improved function of the ECN also enhances our capacity to switch between multiple tasks—particularly, to switch between a shallow attention on the frequent fragmentation of triggers, and a deep, sustained attention on our primary tasks at hand ( Miyake et al., 2000 ).

Mindfulness, therefore, improves leaders’ capacity to switch their attention spontaneously to triggers that require their immediate, if brief, attention, before returning to a deep focus on the primary issue ( Farb et al., 2007 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ). In today’s work environment, leaders constantly need to shift their attention and respond to short and often random events that requires a response ( Ehrlich, 2017 ). That requires a heavy energy consumption by our ECN neurons as we need to “light their fire.” When these neurons are repeatedly exposed to significant levels of stress, “their fire can burn out.” Prolonged stress over time, and even a mild, brief stress situation, can cause a rapid and dramatic loss in the function of these ECN neurons ( Arnsten, 2009 ).

When any of us feel overwhelmed by such stress, it leads to a “flight or fight” response that activates our sympathetic nervous system (SNS); this in turn causes further ripple-effects in our body—with increased secretions of our adrenaline glands (adrenaline and noradrenaline) that release catecholamine, leading to high blood pressure, disrupting our homeostatic mechanisms by increasing our heart rate, tightening our muscles, and making our breath quicker and more shallow, all of which finally reduce our function of the ECN, hence cripple our capacity to pay attention ( Soares et al., 2013 ).

Neuroscience shows that mindfulness meditation reduces our stress response ( Hölzel et al., 2011 ) by strengthening the activity in our parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which guides our response to “rest and digest” when triggering events bombard us. That reduces our adrenaline glands’ activity, which will lower our blood pressure, slow our heart rate, relax our muscles, and make our breath both slow and deep, all of which enhance our attention surplus ( Soares et al., 2013 ). Hölzel et al. (2011) , for example, found that participants in an 8-week MBSR program improved the neural activity in their PNS, thereby reducing their stress level; these researchers explained that the “body scan meditation” in particular reduced the participants’ stress. Wasylkiw et al. (2015) , meanwhile, found that participants attending a 1-week mindfulness-based intervention reduced their stress level, and were also able to sustain that low 8 weeks later.

The research informs us that mindfulness practice enhances leaders’ capacity for sustaining their attention over time, for being alert to spontaneous triggering events that require immediate response, and for making good choices as to which triggers to respond to, while also being able to return to those tasks that require a deep focus with sustain attention over a longer period of time.

4.2 Awareness

“Awareness” denotes heightened insight and clarity, making for a broader overview and deeper understanding of the complexities, contradictions, and challenges of whatever is taking place. Awareness provides us insight into our own thoughts and feelings, behaviors and emotions, and toward the multiple dimensions of our surroundings. Awareness is our capacity to present to what is taking place in the moment.

Our literature review found that mindfulness builds leaders’ capacity to engage in slower, reflective, conscious mind processes about their leadership, while being aware of their tendency to engage in faster, automatic subconscious processes. It also builds their capacity to engage in metacognitive processes that let them revise their thinking and behaving in leadership. In the following, we will discuss these two main qualities of awareness.

4.2.1 Conscious mind

Neuroscience explains that our level of awareness occurs at one of two levels, namely, our conscious and subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind operates fast, mainly from instinct and intuition, with a low awareness and effortless cognitive processing of experiences. Subconscious responses to experiences are automatic, habitual, and associative, dispensing with any further reflections and interpretations of the appropriate way of thinking and behaving; all of that is governed by regions in our DMN. Our conscious mind, meanwhile, operates much more slowly, making critical analyzes and rational and logical interferences from our experiences, all of which make higher demands on our cognitive processes. A conscious response to experiences is reflexive, controlled, and dissociative, with deep reflections and interpretations requiring that we activate regions in our brain’s ECN.

Our subconscious mind will have built a web of beliefs about how best to lead in any given situation. How we perform our role and responsibility will typically draw on unquestioned beliefs that are stored in memory and retrieved when we encounter familiar and associated experiences. Our programmed beliefs shape how we act and behave in both small and big leadership experiences. In sum, they make our leadership instinctive, automatic, and habitual.

But the subconscious mind, being ever so efficient, might be effective during times of stability, it will not necessarily function well in times of change and transitions. Certainly, leaders often encounter novel problems that cannot be solved with already established beliefs ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ). Leaders who mindlessly interpret and react to novel problems from automatic and habitual patterns can apply maladaptive solutions when these patterns no longer fit the novel conditions of the current problem ( Baer et al., 2006 ; Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ). Relying on automatic and habitual patterns also reduces leaders’ capacity for innovation, as it reduces reflexivity and critical interpretations and approaches to experiences that diminish their perception of possibilities and responses. In such cases, like everyone else, they are limited by their settled beliefs.

The research literature shows that mindful leaders can significantly improve their capacity for awareness—that is, their insight and understanding about themself, including their habitual and automatic patterns of thinking and behaving ( Moore and Malinowski, 2009 ; Lippincott, 2018 ; Mohapel, 2018 ).

Neuroscience informs us that when we are reflecting on ourselves in present-moment experiences, including self-evaluation, self-regulation, and self-knowledge—that is, engaged in experiential self-awareness —we activate regions in the ECN of our brain ( Schmitz et al., 2004 ). When, on the other hand, we reflect upon past experiences, of episodic memories from the personal past, that stand as important in our life, and when we construct an autobiographical self, based on the past and the imagined future—that is, engaged in narrative self-awareness —we activate regions in the DMN of our brain ( Newen and Vogeley, 2003 ; Lieberman and Eisenberger, 2005 ; Tacikowski et al., 2017 ).

Studies within neuropsychology, by among others, Farb et al. (2007) , found that participants attending an 8-week MBSR program strengthened their experiential self-awareness, with improved capacity to monitor, and to create, knowledge about the self during momentary experiences. It also strengthened their narrative self-awareness, with greater insight into their automatic and habitual sense of self, including their trait adjectives—that is, their consistent personal characteristics that span across time and space. The program also improved participants’ recognition of when they engaged in experiential versus narrative self-awareness. Lutz et al. (2016) , meanwhile, found that experienced meditators, with at least 3 years’ experience, and with a minimum of 1 year’s practice of Vipassana mediation, who practice a minimum of 1 h per week, enhanced their experiential self-awareness, while at the same time reduced their tendency for abrogating narrative self-awareness.

The conceptual papers by Schuman-Olivier et al. (2020) and by Vago and Silbersweig (2012) , for their part, particularly emphasize that mindfulness meditation promotes self-awareness—specifically, greater insight into our web of beliefs, and also into our automatic and habitual subconscious thoughts and behavior, which further helps to reduce our often distorted and biased beliefs.

Mindful leaders engage in reflections and observations about their ways of thinking and behaving in leadership ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ; Seitz and Angel, 2020 ), aiming to gain insight into the origin of their subconscious web of beliefs that fashion how they perform leadership in any issue at hand ( Bishop et al., 2004 ).

Mindful leaders are both curious and careful about how they perceive and interpret experiences, and challenge themselves to explore alternative and novel points-of-view that reduce their automatic, habitual beliefs and biases in their leadership, all of which bring them closer to the actual realty of their experiences ( Bishop et al., 2004 ; Lange and Rowald, 2019 ). These leaders are able to draw on a greater spectrum of possibilities for how things appear to them; that frees them to let go of any settled expectations of how things should be and to put aside their automatic, habitual subconscious leadership ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ; Decuypere et al., 2018 ; Lange and Rowald, 2019 ).

In sum, mindful leaders are capable of noticing their subconscious leadership style—namely, their automatic, habitual way of thinking and behaving during momentary experiences—by being conscious of how their web of beliefs and biases, which they have narrated over time based on the past and imagined future, might restrict their performing more efficiently in their everyday leadership experiences.

4.2.2 Metacognition

Metacognition is a higher order of thinking. It’s a cognitive process where we lift our thoughts and feelings, behavior and emotions, to a meta, or higher order, of reflection that goes beyond our immediate observations of the self. While “cognition” refers to the mental processes of perceptions, interpretations, and reasoning, “meta” means “beyond” or “behind,” referring to our way of “ thinking about thinking ” ( Flavell, 1979 , p. 906).

Metacognition involves, then, our knowing about own cognitive processes and our capacity to regulate and change our basic mental models and beliefs ( Flavell, 1979 ). Metacognition is a supremely self-conscious, self-critical way of learning and transforming, involving our ability to know how to analyze, to draw conclusions, to learn from, and to put into practice what we have learned. Metacognition, then, lets our conscious mind overrun our subconscious automatic and habitual way of thinking and behaving.

Mindfulness meditation gives leaders insight into themself, with the ability to change their web of beliefs and biases about leadership, and to gain broader, more accurate, and more sophisticated world views ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ; Good et al., 2016 ). Mindful leaders are therefore better equipped to view their own beliefs as just that—as subjective, constructed notions—rather than as beliefs reflecting some objective reality or truth ( Ehrlich, 2017 ).

Metacognition opens leaders’ awareness to multiple points-of-views and possible interpretations of experiences ( Dane, 2011 ; Hafenbrack et al., 2014 ), to include, and process, more relevant, accurate, and objective information for interpretation ( Herndon, 2008 ; Karelaia and Reb, 2015 ). Leaders thus become better at drawing inferences from broader available data about what is occurring, thereby limiting the loss of potentially relevant data and the likelihood of misinterpretations, without being misled by their biased mental models and beliefs ( Herndon, 2008 ; Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ). From broader scanning of information, we gain greater context-relevant interpretation of experiences that result in appropriate adaptive responses to what is actually occurring in the moment ( Baron, 2016 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ; Reitz et al., 2020 ) This helps ensure that leaders make fewer perceptual failures, since they now realize that “ the distinction between actual events and the interpretation of events is not always obvious” ( Chaskalson, 2011 , p. 95).

Mindfulness meditation teaches leaders to “ take a few moments. ” That entails a mental pause allowing for a breathing space between interpretations and responses to our leadership experiences. This mental pause improves our capacity to reflect upon ourselves during momentary experiences—that is to say, experiential self-awareness ( Schmitz et al., 2004 ). It also helps to draw inferences between the momentary reflections of experiences, and the leadership stories we tend to build on our web of beliefs and biases—that is to say, narrative self-awareness ( Newen and Vogeley, 2003 ; Lieberman and Eisenberger, 2005 ; Tacikowski et al., 2017 ).

The metacognition developed from mindfulness meditation allows for a space between stimuli and response, which in turn allows for a better assessment of experiences with cognitive flexibility—i.e., “the human ability to adapt cognitive processing strategies to face new and unexpected conditions” ( Moore and Malinowski, 2009 , 177)—allowing leaders to choose interpretations and responses from a broader repertoire ( Moore and Malinowski, 2009 ; Brendel et al., 2016 ; Decuypere et al., 2018 ), and to develop new, more sophisticated beliefs about leadership ( Shapiro et al., 2006 ; Jankowski and Holas, 2014 ; Verdorfer, 2016 ; Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ).

Mindfulness meditation equips leaders with the capacity for receptiveness and openness to spontaneous, ongoing, and changing circumstances in their surrounding environment ( Bishop et al., 2004 ; Brown et al., 2007 ). They are curious to explore different points-of-view and interpretations about what is occurring, thanks to their greater acceptance of ambiguity and complexities, and enjoy the meta-cognitive capacity to change their own sedimented beliefs about issues at hand ( Chesley and Wylson, 2016 ).

In sum, the literature informs us that mindful leaders reflect and interpret at a meta level, giving them greater flexibility in how they both think and behave as leaders, and to make necessary and sustainable changes in how they perform their leadership.

4.3 Authenticity

Authenticity denotes our integrity, which involves acting true to our true core beliefs and values. Authentic persons have learned to accept themselves, and thus they enjoy the comfort and courage to act from their true-self in all their varied experiences ( Avolio and Gardner, 2005 ). Authenticity is a deeply embedded construct that unfolds itself over time, imparting a feeling of freedom, autonomy, and spontaneity. Authenticity in leadership is formed by the many situations and relations we have encountered in life and leadership, especially by those key crucible events that have made a deep impact on who we are and how we believe we ought to perform as a leader ( Avolio and Gardner, 2005 ).

Our review shows that mindfulness enhances leaders’ insight into their own core beliefs and values , and strengthens their integrity in leadership. It also promotes greater empathy and compassion toward both ourselves and our organizational relations.

4.3.1 Beliefs and values

Our beliefs represent our deepest assumptions about ourselves, others, and the wider world that we are a part of. Beliefs are our enduring and unquestioned views of reality and our primary convictions about our thoughts and feelings, as well as our perceptions and interpretations about our experiences ( Connors and Halligan, 2015 ). They are regarded as subjective constructs that create a coherent and consistent representation of how we perform our leadership.

Values, meanwhile, refers to what we prefer and regard as meaningful in our life. They motivate and justify our attitudinal and behavioral standpoints and decisions ( Rohan, 2000 ; Schwartz, 2012 ). Our values transcend the various situations and relations we encounter, creating a sense of continuity and stability in otherwise complex and chaotic leadership experiences. They become our internal compass that guides our actions and behaviors, having a significant impact on how we lead and navigate through leadership experiences.

Our beliefs and values are sedimented into our subconscious mind ( Bargh et al., 2001 ; Seitz and Angel, 2020 )—that is, narrated as a meaningful part of our autobiographical self, based on our past experiences and expected future scenarios ( Newen and Vogeley, 2003 ; Lieberman and Eisenberger, 2005 ; Tacikowski et al., 2017 ). They govern our responses to internal and external experiences, and often appear in our neural and physiological reactions to experiences ( Namkung et al., 2017 ; Chen et al., 2021 ).

Neuropsychology shows that mindfulness strengthens our interoception of our authentic self, including our sedimented beliefs and values—interoception being our brain’s ability to catch and process neural and physiological signals ( Farb et al., 2007 ; Donaldson-Feilder et al., 2019 ; Schuman-Olivier et al., 2020 ). Interoceptive signals flow to our brain from a host of diverse neural pathways, such as the sympathetic nervous system, the vagus nerve, and the insular cortex, all of which allow us to sense, interpret, and regulate signals from within ourselves ( Craig, 2002 ; Chen et al., 2021 ). Mindfulness meditation is shown to awaken our interoception to our neural and physiological states of the body, thus giving us greater insight into the self, in response to internal and external experiences ( Farb et al., 2007 ; Schuman-Olivier et al., 2020 ).

The “ three-minute breathing meditation, ” for instance, often guides us to notice our own pulse; when resting quietly but awake on a meditation pillow, we can feel the sensation of our pulse creating movement in our body—narrowing our sensations of the pulse in our chest, and then to broaden our sensation of the pulse in our whole body ( Bob and Goldstein, 2010 ; Woods and Rockman, 2021 ). This practice teaches us to notice interoceptive signals in our body that flow to our brain, informing us about our bodily state in our daily experiences ( Farb et al., 2007 ; Schuman-Olivier et al., 2020 ).

When leaders gain greater interoception to neural and physiological reactions to experiences, they are better equipped to notice their immediate responses, and to then control, regulate, and refine their actionable intentional responses to their leadership experiences ( Karssiens et al., 2014 ). Mindfulness meditation teaches leaders to regulate neural and physiological reactions to experiences—for instance, when confronting a situation that triggers a fight-or-fight response, the introspective insight allows the leader to control their immediate bodily responses, perhaps by using the breath to lower their heartbeat, thereby withdrawing the bloodstream from their muscles, which activates their parasympathetic nervous system for a more rest-and-digest response to the experience ( Hölzel et al., 2011 ; Soares et al., 2013 ).

Mindfulness is found to promote greater authenticity in leaders ( Baron, 2016 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ), and to achieve particular insight into their embedded beliefs and values, thanks to their introspection ( Brown and Ryan, 2003 ; Baron, 2016 ; Verdorfer, 2016 ; Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ; Nübold et al., 2020 ). These leaders translate their beliefs and values into how they perform their leadership—how, for example, they make judgments, evaluations, and decisions ( Rokeach, 1973 ); how they respond to situations and relations at hand ( Rohan, 2000 ).

Mindful leaders prove more attentive and accepting, with the courage to act in congruence with their true self ( Brown and Ryan, 2003 ; Nübold et al., 2020 ). With such a high integrity to own convictions, mindful leaders ensure a greater predictability in how they perform their role and leadership priorities, with transparent intentions ( Baron, 2016 ; Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ). While, over time, we all grow, hopefully improve, and change as individuals, we nonetheless have an authentic self that remains at least slightly consistent all the while ( Walumbwa et al., 2008 ; King and Harr, 2017 ).

Although mindful leaders demonstrate high integrity toward their embedded beliefs and values, they still have the cognitive flexibility to change their convictions ( Vago and Silbersweig, 2012 ). Mindfulness makes leaders question their own embedded assumptions and convictions, reducing the trap of being misled by those embedded beliefs and ways of perceiving and interpreting leadership experiences ( Walumbwa et al., 2008 ; Vago and Silbersweig, 2012 ). Mindfulness can help reduce our often distorted, dysfunctional beliefs about what we experience, and help us recognize our own creative fantasy ( Vago and Silbersweig, 2012 ). Mindfulness reduces our continuing reinforcement of our automatic cognitive schemas, making possible a more accurate interpretation of ongoing experiences.

In sum, the literature informs us that mindful leaders are authentic, which is to say always true to their own beliefs and values, yet with sufficient integrity and courage to be willing to challenge their convictions.

4.3.2 Empathy and compassion

Empathy in leadership denotes a leader’s sensitivity to others’ feelings and emotional states, and the ability to fashion an appropriate response to those same feelings. Compassion, meanwhile, is empathy combined with the desire to help and act on others’ behalf, so as to relieve their struggles and suffering. Both psychological concepts are rooted in the leader’s desire to mindfully relate to, and understand, others’ perspectives and experiences.

Neuropsychology informs us that empathic and compassionate behavior toward ourselves and others is linked to the activity in the insular cortex in our brain. It is triggered by interoceptive signals from our bodily state, raising emotional awareness in our mind that enhances our empathic and compassionate responses to the situation or relation at hand ( Craig, 2002 ; Namkung et al., 2017 ). Mindfulness is found to strengthen our activity in the insular cortex, which strengthens our emotional awareness and leaves us with improved empathy and compassion for ourselves and others. Studies by Farb et al. (2007) , plus Shapiro et al. (1998) , showed that participants at an 8-week MBSR program increased their activation in the insular cortex, resulting in a significantly improved capacity for empathy and compassion.

The “ three-minute breathing meditation ” often guides us to focus on the sensations from our surroundings, and then to focus on the sensations of our body, our breath, and our mind, before extending our attention to the surroundings again, and finishing the practice by “taking in the surroundings of the room, bringing this awareness to your next few moments.” ( Bob and Goldstein, 2010 ; Woods and Rockman, 2021 ). This movement of our attention, between ourselves and our surroundings, teaches us to be observant and present in both our relationships and our further surroundings. Our introspection to the authentic self is not occurring in a capsule apart from our social world; it occurs in relation to the social world that we are a part of. Mindfulness meditation reduces our egocentric tendencies and opens our attention and awareness toward others, helping to create transparent relationships ( Good et al., 2016 ; Verdorfer, 2016 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ; Kersemaeker et al., 2020 ; Reitz et al., 2020 ).

Mindfulness fosters a genuine and pure empathy for ourselves and others in our leadership, all of which build transparent, quality relationships in the organization ( Good et al., 2016 ; Lippincott, 2018 ; Lange and Rowald, 2019 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ). Mindful leaders are empathic and compassionate toward organizational relations by being open and aware of others’ states of being, thinking, and feelings ( Shapiro et al., 1998 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ; Reitz et al., 2020 ). They are mindful observers and listeners, without judgment and reactivity, and calming the need to react and express their own perceptions and interpretations of issues at hand ( Arendt et al., 2019 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ).

Mindful leaders’ attention and awareness toward others allows for a more accurate and unbiased understanding of their points-of-views, and their embedded beliefs and values ( Verdorfer, 2016 ; Arendt et al., 2019 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ; Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ; Nübold et al., 2020 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ). These leaders are open toward conflicting perceptions and interpretations of issues at hand due to fundamental variations in others’ understanding of reality, and appreciate differences in order to make richer and more accurate decisions and actions in leadership ( Wasylkiw et al., 2015 ).

Mindful leaders are also compassionate toward organizational relations ( Bishop et al., 2004 ; King and Badham, 2018 ). They are able to identify with, and serve, others when needed on their own terms, and to adjust their own behavior to the needs of others ( King and Badham, 2018 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ; Burmansah et al., 2020 ; Nübold et al., 2020 ). They show a readiness to respond when they sense that others are struggling, and they seek, without egocentric intentions but with genuine interest, to help heal the struggles and suffering of others, and to allay their fear of rejection ( King and Badham, 2018 ; Burmansah et al., 2020 ). Mindful leaders have a greater interpersonal attunement to understanding others’ internal state, thoughts, and feelings ( Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ), making them better at guiding others through difficult periods ( Ehrlich, 2017 ; Rupprecht et al., 2019 ).

In summary, the literature informs us that mindful leaders show empathy and compassion for themselves and others, building transparent and trust-based relationships.

5 Theoretical framework: the three pillar of the mindful leader

In our literature review, we have sought to offer a theory about the qualities of the mindful leader. Our proposed theoretical framework consists of three main concepts that explain the qualities of mindful leaders: attention, awareness, and authenticity. Inspired by those concepts, we coined our suggested theoretical framework on mindful leaders as “the three pillars of the mindful leader”—a metaphor explaining the three main concepts recurring in the extant research literature explaining the qualities of leaders who regularly practice mindfulness.

As research from the discipline of neuropsychology shows how the benefits of formal meditation as a mindfulness practice can rewire our brain and mind, we believe it is inevitable to integrate mindfulness meditation into our proposed theoretical framework. This has also been acknowledged by other scholars within the discipline of leadership (e.g., Brendel et al., 2016 ; Kersemaeker et al., 2020 ; Reitz et al., 2020 ). We therefore suggest that meditation as a formal practice is the grand foundation of “the three pillars of the mindful leader.”

We summarize and model our proposed theoretical framework on the qualities of the mindful leaders in Figure 1 . In the following section, we’ll discuss the contributions of our literature review to the leadership discipline on mindfulness.

Figure 1 . Theoretical framework on the qualities of the mindful leader.

6 Discussions and conclusion

We have striven here to answer the call for a strengthened theoretical foundation of the qualities of the mindful leader as a research phenomenon. Our hope was to reduce the inconsistency and ambiguity on our understanding about the qualities that are likely to develop when leaders practice mindfulness.

Our study is premised on the conviction that any theorizing about a novel phenomenon ( Wacker, 1998, Shepherd and Suddaby, 2017 ) requires a literature review to identify, and analyze, all significant scientific contributions ( Webster and Watson, 2002 ) that have accumulated over time and that offer emerging pieces of evidence and explanations about the phenomenon ( Wagner and Berger, 1985 ), all of which can be synthesized into a convincing theory ( Wagner and Berger, 1985 ) that proposes a framework consisting of the theory’s main concepts and circumstances ( Wacker, 1998 ).

Thus far, previous contemporary studies that have proposed a theoretical framework about mindful leaders have answered the call for greater understanding about qualities that are nurtured by practicing mindfulness. But these studies have documented variations in the qualities developed, and we have therefore been left with an inconsistent and ambiguous understanding about the phenomenon.

These previous studies have also adopted different methodological approaches, many of which often are not grounded in a scientific assumption for building theories, making them appear merely as personal notions of their authors. Some of the studies only offer a conceptualization of mindful leaders’ qualities, without building a theoretical framework that includes main concepts and circumstances ( Mohapel, 2018 ; Donaldson-Feilder et al., 2019 ). Other studies build a theoretical framework, but does not systematically review and integrate previous studies into their proposed framework ( Hunter and Chaskalson, 2013 ; Ehrlich, 2017 ; King and Badham, 2018 ; Mohapel, 2018 ; Stedham and Skaar, 2019 ). Contemporary studies therefore do not build a strong theoretical foundation that explains mindful leaders as a phenomenon, which in turn makes it difficult for later studies to be grounded on the extant research literature, to promote further understanding of the phenomenon.

We believe that our own approach more fully answers the call in the literature. At its heart, our review applies a well-established research methodology for theorizing, as we have conducted a well-considered literature review ( Webster and Watson, 2002 ; Wong et al., 2013 ; Snyder, 2019 ). Having identified, analyzed, and synthesized the relevant conceptual models, empirical evidences, and theoretical explanations, we have built a theory about the qualities of the mindful leader that we believe expands our scientific knowledge of the novel phenomenon, and that can be effectively implemented in practice ( Wacker, 1998 ; Webster and Watson, 2002 ; Weber, 2003 ) as a solution to real contemporary leadership problems that rest on the constant context in chaos ( Wacker, 1998 ; Shepherd and Suddaby, 2017 ).

When integrating mindfulness meditations as the foundation of our theoretical framework, we implicitly entangle mindfulness as a formal practice that can be applied as a meditation form. Our view differs from some earlier work on the phenomenon, that assume that “mindfulness” is a personality trait of the leader (e.g., Verdorfer, 2016 ; King and Harr, 2017 ; Decuypere et al., 2018 ; Arendt et al., 2019 ).

Based on the neuroscientific evidence of positive influence of mindfulness mediation on our brain’s default mode network (DMN) and our executive control network (ECF), and on our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), and the interoceptive signals flowing from our body to the brain. We are now convinced that, in order to acquire the three main leader qualities, that we associate with the mindful leader, leaders must employ a formal mindfulness meditation practice.

We hope that now that you have read our article, you “ take a deep inbreath, softly let your belly, lungs and chest expand… and on the outbreath, slowly let the breath leave your body through your nose… feel the sensations arising in your body and mind… calm your mind… We invite you to bring this calmness and clarity to your next few moments. ”

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

JD: Writing – original draft. HL: Writing – original draft.

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank John Trimble for his linguistic brush, painting our ideas and complex concepts into a harmonious symphony of words. For his creativity that helped us craft a narrative tapestry that captivates the reader’s imagination.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: mindful leader, leadership, mindfulness, meditation, neuropsychology

Citation: Doornich JB and Lynch HM (2024) The mindful leader: a review of leadership qualities derived from mindfulness meditation. Front. Psychol . 15:1322507. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1322507

Received: 16 October 2023; Accepted: 29 January 2024; Published: 05 March 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Doornich and Lynch. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: June Borge Doornich, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing: A systematic umbrella review

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Roles Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Laura Jane Brubacher,
Laura Peach,
Tara Tai-Wen Chen,
Sheri Longboat,
Warren Dodd,
Susan J. Elliott,
Kaitlyn Patterson,
Hannah Neufeld

Published: March 20, 2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995
Peer Review
Reader Comments

Indigenous Peoples worldwide are experiencing a cascade of impacts on their health and wellbeing as a result of climate change and biodiversity loss. Existing literature at the interface of climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous health tells us that Indigenous Peoples are among those most disproportionately and acutely affected by these impacts. Yet, a gap exists with respect to comprehensively and critically synthesizing the impacts reported across this literature and identifying Indigenous-led responses. Guided by an Indigenous advisory group, we employed a systematic umbrella review methodology, following PRISMA guidelines, to characterize the global secondary literature (PROSPERO registration #: CRD42023417060). In so doing, we identified the proximal, intermediate, distal, and gendered impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on Indigenous health and wellbeing as well as Indigenous-led responses. Five databases were searched for published reviews, along with a grey literature search that focused on underrepresented geographic regions in the academic literature. Two independent reviewers conducted two-stage screening, data extraction, and quality assessment of retrieved records. Basic descriptive statistics were calculated. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically, using a constant comparative approach. A total of 38 review articles met the eligibility criteria and 37 grey literature records were retrieved and included in the review. Reviews were published between 2010–2023 and geographically clustered in the Circumpolar North. Intersecting proximal, intermediate, and distal impacts were characterized as place-based and specific, and linked to colonialism as an antecedent to and driver of these impacts. Gendered impacts were underexplored within reviews. Reviewed literature underscored the value of engaging diverse knowledge systems; platforming localized, community-led adaptation to climate change and biodiversity loss, while addressing sociopolitical constraints to these efforts; and applying a broader conceptualization of health that aligns with Indigenous frameworks. Going forward, we must foreground equity- and rights-based considerations within integrated responses to climate and biodiversity crises.

Citation: Brubacher LJ, Peach L, Chen TT-W, Longboat S, Dodd W, Elliott SJ, et al. (2024) Climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing: A systematic umbrella review. PLOS Glob Public Health 4(3): e0002995. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995

Editor: Julia Robinson, PLOS: Public Library of Science, UNITED STATES

Received: October 30, 2023; Accepted: February 13, 2024; Published: March 20, 2024

Copyright: © 2024 Brubacher et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Data is available in the Supporting information files.

Funding: Funding for this work came from a grant to WHO from the Government of Canada entitled "Strengthening local and national Primary Health Care and Health Systems for the recovery and resilience of countries in the context of COVID-19." The work was commissioned to the University of Waterloo through Agreement for Performance of Work 203050038_01. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This article represents solely the views of the authors and in no way should be interpreted to represent the views of, or endorsement by, WHO. WHO shall in no way be responsible for the accuracy, veracity, and completeness of the information provided through this article.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Enhancing the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples amid the climate crisis and rapid biodiversity losses represents one of the most pressing and complex contemporary challenges globally [ 1 – 3 ]. Indeed, Indigenous Peoples, for whom the health of the land, environments, and all species are inextricably linked [ 4 – 6 ], are among those most disproportionately and acutely affected by the impacts of these ecological changes [ 7 , 8 ]. Equity and rights-based considerations are thus foregrounded in critical analyses of the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous health and wellbeing [ 1 , 9 , 10 ].

As the impacts of the climate crisis on Indigenous health and wellbeing are increasingly documented by scholars and practitioners worldwide, global discourse and calls for action have tuned to this interface of climate change and Indigenous health, as reflected in the 2022 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [ 11 ] and other global landmark reports [ 12 ]. In parallel, the links between biodiversity loss and Indigenous health are highlighted by global mechanisms such as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services [ 13 ] and the Convention on Biological Diversity (i.e., see Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework) [ 14 ]. There exists recognition of interconnectivity between these spheres of climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous health and wellbeing [ 15 ]. Yet, a gap exists in research that cohesively and critically examines the interrelated impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss–connections of particular significance to Indigenous Peoples’ livelihoods and wellbeing–and which aims to do so through a strengths-based lens [ 16 ]. Through a more comprehensive synthesis of these global literatures, we might identify Indigenous-led responses–opportunities for research, policy, and praxis–that advance Indigenous health and wellbeing, alongside broader ecological and planetary health. In this space, Indigenous voices, knowledges, and rights must be centred and prioritized, to drive future action with equity at the forefront [ 8 , 9 ].

Given the broad conceptual scope, as well as the expansive literatures at the climate-health nexus, a systematic umbrella review (’review of reviews’) was chosen as the appropriate knowledge synthesis methodology [ 17 , 18 ]. The overarching research question guiding the review was as follows: What are the pathways through which climate change and biodiversity loss intersect with Indigenous health and wellbeing, as reported in the global secondary literature? To guide and deepen this inquiry on pathways of impact, we mapped climate change and biodiversity loss impacts against an adapted version of Neufeld et al. (2022)’s three-level framework. In this adapted framework, proximal impacts refer to direct impacts on physical health; intermediate impacts are those related to broader ecosystem changes; and distal impacts relate to culture-wide changes [ 11 ]. Indigenous health was defined and operationalized in alignment with Indigenous conceptualizations of health as inclusive of mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical wellbeing, and intrinsically tied to the land, land-based livelihoods, language, culture, and relationships [ 4 , 5 , 7 ].

Overall, this review aimed to characterize the extent, range, and nature of secondary literature on climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous health and wellbeing globally. Based on the synthesized published and unpublished global literature, an objective of this review was to examine the proximal, intermediate, distal, and gendered impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on Indigenous health and wellbeing. The final objective was to identify responses to climate change and biodiversity loss that also advance Indigenous health and wellbeing and reinforce the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Rationale and conceptual foundation for the review

Recognizing the scale and significance of climate-health and biodiversity loss impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing, the Health Equity area of the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters’ Gender, Equity and Human Rights Department, in collaboration with the WHO Headquarters’ team for Biodiversity, Climate Change and Health, identified the need for a comprehensive literature review to support forthcoming work on climate change, biodiversity, and health. The review was commissioned to the Waterloo Climate Institute and conducted by a multidisciplinary team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars at the Universities of Waterloo and Guelph, Canada.

The purpose of the review was to contribute to the health section of the forthcoming 2024 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples report focused on climate change; to inform ongoing work for WHO with Member States and partners on climate change and health; and to contribute evidence towards implementing World Health Assembly resolution 76.16 on the "Health of Indigenous Peoples". This resolution calls for the creation of a Global Plan of Action on Indigenous Health, support to Member States on Indigenous Health, and integration of a focus on Indigenous health into the WHO’s 14 th General Programme of Work [ 19 ]. Moreover, this review aimed to inform the “Expert Working Group on Biodiversity, Climate, One Health, and Nature-Based Solutions” and support WHO regional-level capacity-building workshops on biodiversity and health.

Study context

A systematic umbrella review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) [ 20 ] ( S1 File ). Additional study details are reported in our protocol [ 21 ], as well as reported via 24 April 2023 registration with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (No. CRD42023417060).

All stages of this review were guided by an advisory committee of Indigenous experts, scholars, and civil society organization representatives, convened by WHO, as well as WHO staff responsible for commissioning the work. WHO organized two virtual engagement sessions with this group who were involved in the co-development of a research plan and methodological approach (February 2023 meeting) and provided critical feedback on preliminary results (July 2023 meeting).

Search strategy and article selection

On 9 February 2023, the following five databases were searched for published academic secondary literature: Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, CINAHL (via EBSCOHost), and the Campbell Collaboration. The sensitivity of the search approach was enhanced by a manual search of the following journals: The Journal of Climate Change and Health; Environmental Health Perspectives; The Lancet Planetary Health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health; Anthrosource; AlterNative ; and the International Journal of Indigenous Health . The detailed search strategy and eligibility criteria are reported in the protocol [ 21 ].

In addition, the research team searched for relevant global reports, working papers, and policy briefs available in English in the United Nations databases; using an NGO/IGO search tool [ 22 ]; and through targeted Google searches (i.e., using combinations of key terms such as "Indigenous Peoples", health, and climate) from 28 March 2023 to 3 April 2023. A template was developed based on the methods outlined by Godin et al. (2015) [ 23 ]. This search of the unpublished grey literature was targeted geographically to areas less represented in the published academic literature retrieved (i.e., Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, Latin America, Caribbean, Africa, South-East Asia, Middle East), as well as thematically, based on gaps identified through preliminary data extraction from the published peer reviewed literature.

Two independent reviewers (TC, LJB, or HN) conducted level one (abstract) and level two (full-text) eligibility screening of published academic literature using Covidence , a web-based systematic review platform. Included articles were: secondary sources; focused on Indigenous Peoples’ health or wellbeing; and examined health/wellbeing in relation to climate change, biodiversity, and/or environment. Records meeting all inclusion criteria proceeded to data extraction.

Data extraction and analysis

Two independent reviewers (TC, LJB, LP, or HN) extracted data according to pre-determined and piloted domains [ 21 ]. Each published article was appraised for methodological quality, using an adapted, composite tool based on the Joanna Briggs Institute and Critical Appraisal Skills Program checklists, as well as relevance and usefulness to Indigenous Peoples’ priorities and processes. All discrepancies in judgment were discussed and resolved by consensus.

Basic descriptive statistics (proportions) were calculated to evaluate the extent, range, and nature of included literature. Qualitative data from quality appraisal and extraction processes ( S1 and S2 Tables) were analyzed thematically, using a constant comparative method [ 24 ]. Initial observations of the data were discussed collaboratively as a research team. Building from these insights, two team members (LJB, LP) conducted detailed line-by-line coding of the extraction and quality appraisal frameworks, using NVivo Release 1 . 5 software for organization and retrieval of codes and coded excerpts. Case attributes and classifications corresponding to data extraction and quality appraisal domains were applied to articles within NVivo to enable querying of co-occurrence of codes across reviews and to identify potential trends in the data (e.g., co-occurrence of a given ‘geographic location’ attribute with a high level of Indigenous Peoples’ involvement in the research; or a ‘study discipline’ attribute with the type of climate responses recommended by articles). Emerging findings were shared with the expert advisory group, whose interpretations of the data, insights, and observations were integrated into the finalized results. Collaboration among the research team and with the advisory group enhanced the validity and rigour of the analyses [ 25 ].

Describing the extent, range, and nature of secondary literature on climate change and Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing globally

Of 3156 published records retrieved from database searches, 38 met the eligibility criteria for inclusion ( Fig 1 ). Records were published from 2010–2023, and reviewed literature back to 1956 (Tables 1 and 2 ). Based on the information available, the corpus of review articles synthesized searched a cumulative 37 databases, reviewed a total of 3575 records, and synthesized qualitative (71%), quantitative (68%), mixed methods (61%) and other primary research methodologies (e.g., case studies; 50%). Records reviewed literature across international, interdisciplinary databases including Indigenous databases, health, agriculture, food science, technology, biology, ecology, and zoology databases. Published literature covered a wide range of topics, largely within and cross-cutting the disciplines of public health, global health, environmental science and governance, and geography. The majority of records focused on the intersection of climate change, adaptation, and environmental/biodiversity loss with Indigenous health and wellbeing. Two records were conceptually-focused (i.e., discussing the positioning of Indigenous Knowledges within broader movements in the scholarship, such as nature-based solutions or OneHealth) [ 26 , 27 ] ( Table 2 ).

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Articles are organized chronologically by year of publication. The author(s), title, study region(s), and review methodology are also indicated for each retrieved article.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995.t001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995.t002

Published secondary literature at the nexus of climate change and Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing is geographically clustered in the Circumpolar North.

Overall, 16 published review articles (42%) focused on the Circumpolar North [ 28 – 43 ], nine of which focused specifically on Circumpolar North America, and particularly Inuit Nunangat. The range of geographic locations included Africa [ 44 – 46 ]; Asia [ 47 ]; Oceania [ 48 – 50 ]; North America (not Circumpolar) [ 51 , 52 ]; and Latin America [ 53 ] ( Table 2 ).

Reviews focused on the wellbeing of a wide geography of Indigenous Nations, groups, or organizations in their respective research studies. Only one record was explicitly focused on the experiences of urban Indigenous Peoples [ 51 ], with the majority of records focused on rural and/or remote locales. In total, five reviews were included as per a weighted criteria [see protocol, [ 21 ]] and covered Africa [ 44 – 46 ]; Latin America [ 53 ]; and Indigenous groups who broadly identified as being from mountainous regions [ 54 ]. In addition, 12 reviews focused on Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing globally (Tables 1 and 2 ).

The grey literature search retrieved 37 relevant publications consisting of policy briefs, discussion papers, organization reports, and media content (e.g., presentations, website resources) from across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, and Asia. Ten publications (27% of grey literature) were global reports retrieved from United Nations (UN) databases ( S3 Table ).

Examining the proximal, intermediate, and distal impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples

Land and place are central to Indigenous Peoples’ lives and livelihoods, and thus the health and wellbeing impacts being experienced from climate and environmental change. For Indigenous Peoples, as Davis et al. (2022) highlight, "the land is the heart of cultural and community life" [ 38 :2]. Just as the reviewed literature points to the centrality of land and place to Indigenous Peoples, so too does it indicate that "impacts , adaptation , and vulnerability are highly place- and culture-specific" [ 55 :1263] and that the "health of people and place demand an integrated engagement" [ 56 :5772].

Indeed, threaded through the biodiversity, proximal-intermediate-distal, and gendered thematic sections that follow is recognition that the health-related impacts of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss are embedded in, and inextricably tied to, Indigenous Peoples’ connections to place. These impacts relate to both natural and built places (e.g., healthcare facilities; physical infrastructure) [ 31 , 51 , 57 ]. As conveyed in the sections to follow, across reviews, opportunities for response and pathways for advancing Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing were linked to land and place.

Biodiversity impacts: Globally, ecosystems are changing in place-specific, localized ways.

The reviewed literature invariably discussed ecosystem changes and specific impacts on biodiversity as a result of climate change. Ecosystem changes were often described as resulting from human activities based in capitalism and colonialist systems that drive broader climatic and environmental change. Two reviews (5.3%) integrated climate change and biodiversity impacts within their overall framing or focus [ 36 , 54 ]. When discussed, changes to biodiversity were characterized broadly as ecosystem changes, encompassing both changes to physical environments and the plant and animal species therein.

Reported changes to physical environments were extensive and severe, characterized as "[the risk of] large scale ecological transformation" [ 53 :12] and "dramatically declining" [ 49 :3]. Aquatic [e.g., 48 , 49 ], atmospheric [e.g., 33 ], and terrestrial [e.g., 41 , 53 ] changes were described, as well as, most notably, cryospheric changes across Arctic and Subarctic regions (e.g., ice depth, extent, and timing of break-up/freeze-up) [e.g., 32 , 35 , 37 , 43 , 58 , 59 ] ( Table 3 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995.t003

These changing environments were linked to changes to wildlife and plant ecology, across the reviewed literature, including changes to species important for Indigenous food systems, medicines, and–more broadly–livelihoods. The overall health, abundance, distribution, migratory patterns, and predator-prey balance of key animal species relied upon for Indigenous Peoples’ livelihoods were reportedly altered with climatic/environmental change [ 40 , 41 , 51 ], including that of marine mammals (e.g., ringed and hooded seals, narwhal, polar bears) [ 28 , 30 , 33 , 39 ], Rangifer species (e.g., reindeer, caribou) [ 29 , 36 , 60 ], birds (e.g., wild ptarmigan) [ 29 , 42 , 59 ], and fish (e.g., char) [ 30 , 34 , 35 , 42 , 52 ], some of which were referred to as ’keystone species’ for ecosystem services and functioning, as well as Indigenous Peoples’ livelihoods and wellbeing (e.g., bees in Melanesia [ 49 ], and Rangifer in North America [ 36 ]). Changes to the health, productivity, and "agrodiversity" of both cultivated and wild plant species (e.g., berries, medicinal plants) were also noted [ 35 , 43 , 48 , 52 , 54 :1131], alongside an increase in invasive plant species that alter agriculturally significant crops and trees [ 49 ].

Overall, across geographic regions, the reviewed literature reported vast ecological changes that have impacted livelihoods [ 61 , 62 ], altered community dynamics [ 61 , 63 , 64 ], and disrupted knowledge-sharing practices [ 63 , 65 , 66 ]. As noted by Leal Filho and colleagues, degradation of land and biodiversity loss has had "cascading effects" on local people relying on ecosystem services [ 46 :7].

Proximal impacts: Ecosystem changes are challenging Indigenous Peoples’ health outcomes.

A total of 33 reviews (86.8%) identified and described the proximal impacts of observed ecosystem changes on human health, often tied to higher temperatures and variable precipitation. Records identified an overall increase in disease susceptibility [ 43 , 51 , 58 ] and mortality [ 32 , 46 ], alongside an array of acute and chronic physiological impacts, such as increased heat stress and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases [ 48 , 51 ], respiratory illnesses like asthma and airborne diseases [ 32 , 33 , 43 , 48 , 51 , 58 ], and increased UVB exposure [ 56 ]. Mental health challenges were also reported, including emotional responses of worry, sadness, anger, and emotional distress [ 32 , 35 , 58 , 60 ].

An increase in infectious diseases was also identified in 19 articles (50%), including vector-, food-, and waterborne diseases, which were observed across geographies [ 26 , 28 , 31 – 33 , 39 , 42 , 44 – 46 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 53 , 56 – 59 ]. Foodborne diseases (e.g., E. coli, botulism, salmonella, trichinella, brucellosis) were found to be particularly significant concerns among Indigenous communities in Circumpolar North America, where temperature changes compromise traditional food storage methods [ 32 , 51 , 55 , 59 ]. Moreover, several reviews underscored challenges to healthcare access and high quality infrastructure in rural areas, exacerbating the impacts of infectious disease prevalence due to climate change [ 44 , 45 , 53 , 55 ].

Beyond threats to food safety from foodborne illnesses, nutrition-related impacts were reported in 15 reviews (39.4%). Micronutrient deficiencies were reported across geographies [ 44 , 48 , 49 , 57 , 58 ]. Climate-driven food insecurity negatively impacts diet quality, particularly in relation to traditional foods access [ 30 , 52 , 55 ]. This shift away from traditional foods, known for their nutrient density [ 31 ], has invariably led to an increased reliance on market foods, resulting in increased prevalence of metabolic conditions and nutrition-related diseases [ 30 , 34 ]. Further, changing exposures and sensitivities to contaminants in food sources were also reported through bioaccumulation in the food chain [ 28 , 32 – 34 , 40 , 41 , 52 , 56 ].

Finally, 17 articles (44.7%) identified that ecosystem changes globally are creating threats to human safety. Most notably, natural calamities or environmental hazards such as flooding were known to increase accidental injury or death [ 32 , 35 , 38 , 48 , 50 , 58 ]. Subsequent erosion, particularly in coastal regions of Latin America and the Circumpolar North, was also tied to these health risks by causing infrastructure instability [ 42 , 53 ]. While relocation was discussed as an adaptation strategy to these risks by two reviews [ 53 , 57 ], Dannenberg et al. (2019) noted that injury can occur before, during, and after these managed retreat actions. In the Circumpolar North, literature discussed the danger of unstable ice conditions or unpredictable weather patterns for people travelling on the land to engage in activities such as hunting, harvesting, or herding [ 28 , 30 , 37 – 39 , 43 , 56 ].

Intermediate impacts: Ecosystem changes are changing human environments.

Across the secondary literature (n = 32; 84.2%), ecosystem changes were linked to intermediate impacts on human environments and systems of livelihoods. These included challenges to food and water systems as well as local economic and built environments.

Climate change impacts on Indigenous food and water systems were discussed in 28 reviews (73.6%) and recognized as a global phenomenon [ 67 ]. Many studies focused on harvesting-related vulnerabilities [ 39 ] that constrain subsistence activities such as hunting, fishing, and foraging [ 32 , 35 , 39 , 43 , 52 , 55 ]. Across geographies, agroecosystem productivity constraints were identified, which significantly reduced land productivity, food and medicine diversity, and drinking water quality and availability [ 29 , 42 , 48 , 49 , 52 , 54 , 58 , 59 ]. Water scarcity was a particular concern in the Global South (Latin America, Africa, South Asia, Oceania) and seen as a key driver of food insecurity and disease [ 44 , 46 , 48 , 53 , 54 ]. Ecosystem changes affected the access and availability of traditional food sources and exacerbated existing food insecurity prevalence [ 30 , 39 , 52 , 55 , 57 ], changing traditional food cultures [ 28 ].

Economic environment challenges were also described by 11 reviews (28.9%), particularly as climate change and associated biodiversity loss disrupts economic activities that are part of the subsistence economy [ 28 ]. Indigenous food systems and their security hold significant economic benefits to Indigenous communities around the world [ 67 ]. Yet, as seen in the Circumpolar North, hunting activities require more economic resources to adapt to new challenges, exacerbating social inequalities [ 28 , 35 , 40 , 43 , 52 , 56 ]. Beyond food, a reduction in other natural resources, such as fuel wood and non-timber forest products, were observed to impact other parts of the world where these resources make important contributions to local economies [ 29 , 32 , 44 , 54 , 68 ]. These challenges also impacted agricultural livelihoods, as reported in multiple grey literature reports [ 61 , 69 ].

More broadly, 12 reviews (31.5%) reported how ecosystem changes are altering built environments. For instance, land changes such as erosion and permafrost melt deteriorate transportation routes [ 32 , 51 , 52 ], lead to loss of housing and secure shelter [ 48 ], and threaten cultural sites [ 28 , 51 ]. In turn, the integrity of community infrastructure and community viability are also threatened [ 32 , 33 , 37 , 49 ]. Notably, most reviews that included built environment impacts focused on health care access or system deficiencies caused or amplified by extreme weather events or infrastructure damage [ 31 , 32 , 44 , 48 , 55 , 57 ]. These changes have had profound impacts on communities, necessitating climate-induced mobility, migration or relocation, as per the global literature [ 35 , 48 , 49 , 51 , 53 , 58 ].

Distal impacts: Human environment changes are impacting Indigenous Peoples’ relationships to place, culture, and each other.

Changes to human environments and livelihood systems were shown to have distal consequences on Indigenous Peoples’ ways of life globally. Specifically, 27 review articles (71.1%) indirectly associated ecosystem changes with interpersonal and relational changes tied to spiritual and family life, oral history, and culture [ 55 ].

Sixteen reviews (42.1%) identified these relational challenges as concerning a person’s sense of place, kinship, and identity and disrupting relationships with the land [e.g., 35 , 43 , 56 ]. Ecosystem changes that alter physical landscapes were reported to be especially significant to Indigenous contexts, because “when physical landscapes change , stories , memories , or meanings may also change or fade away” [ 29 :1079]. Several articles reported reduced cultural, historical, or social, or physical ties to the land [ 28 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 48 , 57 , 60 ] with implications for community-level kinship [ 36 ]. For example, challenges to traditional food access and availability threatened the viability of food sharing networks and other practices dependent on community collaboration [ 30 , 34 , 39 , 52 ].

Traditional knowledge and cultural practices were also indirectly associated with ecosystem changes in 23 reviews (60.5%). Articles reported impacts on traditional knowledge in terms of loss, disruption, reduced relevance, and unreliability in its use and transmission [ 26 , 27 , 29 , 30 , 35 , 37 , 38 , 43 , 48 , 49 , 51 , 52 , 54 , 57 , 60 ]. In reviews focused on the Circumpolar North, there was notable concern for the transmission of this knowledge to younger generations given the observable erosion of land skills and institutional memory [ 28 , 32 , 37 , 39 , 58 ]. Ecosystem changes were reported to disrupt daily activities [ 57 ] and, in turn, contribute to ‘culturecide’ [ 48 ].

Changing human environments were also found to challenge the fabrics of Indigenous cultures by indirectly advancing cultural shifts or negotiations. Overall, five reviews (13.1%) reported changes in traditional practices or networks [ 28 , 35 , 40 , 43 , 49 ], such as hunters requesting cash payment for traditional foods [ 28 , 43 ]. Some articles drew attention to other contextual forces, such as economics and the effects of modernization (e.g., nutrition transition, wage-based economy), as compounding these impacts and forcing people to negotiate needs [ 28 , 40 , 49 ].

Many of these distal changes contributed to emotional and psychological health challenges, as identified in 15 reviews (39.4%). Some reviews characterized ecosystem changes as constraining Indigenous Peoples’ abilities to engage with the land in ways that are necessary to sustain mental and emotional wellbeing [ 26 , 32 , 34 – 36 , 41 , 42 , 48 , 58 , 60 ]. Several reviews also discussed an increase in social pathologies (e.g., family violence, addiction, poverty, suicide) [ 51 , 56 ] and interpersonal stress, conflicts, and intrafamilial tension [ 35 , 46 , 57 , 58 ], sometimes over resource rights or a result of resource deficits [ 46 , 57 ].

Four review articles (10.5%) discussed the impact of climate change on Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. These impacts included worries of loss of autonomy and Inuit sovereignty in the Circumpolar North [ 30 , 35 ], or the loss of nationality and state sovereignty in other global regions [ 48 ]. As Middleton et al. (2020) identified, ecosystem changes can be perceived to limit people’s ability for self-determination, “such that climate change was framed as a driver of ‘environmental dispossession’” [ 60 :11]. In certain contexts, Indigenous populations were reported to be not only vulnerable to climate change, but also to policies of climate mitigation that put livelihoods at risk [ 70 ]. Grey literature reports highlighted circumstances of Indigenous Peoples’ eviction from ancestral lands [ 61 ] as well as how livelihood changes affect Indigenous Peoples’ legal, cultural, and spiritual obligations to care for ancestral lands and waters [ 14 ].

The gendered impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing are rarely discussed in the published secondary and grey literature

Eighteen review articles (47.4%) briefly mentioned sex and/or gender in some way in relation to climate change impacts or biodiversity loss; however, sex and/or gender were not a focus of the research or results in these articles. Across this literature, gender dynamics were discussed within a male-female binary, with no reported inclusion of gender-diverse participants or broader acknowledgement of gender diversity within the text. No articles conducted a specific gender-based analysis, or stratified analysis by sex or gender variables.

The available literature introduced the presence of differing health-related risks and outcomes associated with climate change due to gendered household or community roles and responsibilities. For instance, globally, women often hold more caregiving responsibilities, which may increase proximity to climate-related communicable diseases [ 44 , 45 ]. Women and men may also experience differing mental, emotional, or psychosocial impacts resulting from altered roles due to climate/environmental change, such as loss of pride and self-worth among men whose hunting activities are limited [ 35 ]; or loss of social supports among women whose partners migrate for work [ 46 ]. Within certain cultural contexts, gender norms can also limit participation in activities like hunting, thus influencing access to resources like food [ 40 , 52 , 56 ].

Of the reviews that discussed sex and/or gender (n = 8; 44.4%), differing climate-related health outcomes were reported between men and women in the literature, though did not extensively explore possible explanations. For instance, women are reportedly at higher risk of metabolic conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes [ 42 ]; lower vitamin D levels and higher risk of iron deficiency [ 30 ]; lasting mental health impacts due to climate-related relocation [ 48 ]; and higher susceptibility to neglected tropical diseases [ 45 ]. Climate-induced food insecurity and food contamination were noted as impacting the health and micronutrient intakes of pregnant women [ 33 , 58 ]. The prevalence of negative mental health outcomes was also reportedly different among men and women, with one record reporting higher rates of suicide among men in a reviewed study [ 33 ], and another referencing increased symptoms of ’solastalgia’ among women in response to observed/lived climatic changes [ 60 ]. Taken together, discussion of sex-related and/or gendered impacts in the reviewed literature mapped most closely to proximal (direct physical health) and distal (culture-wide) impacts of climate/environmental change.

When discussed in grey literature, reports highlighted climate-induced changes in knowledge-sharing practices and associated impacts on family structure [ 61 ] and other social challenges, linked in particular to the changing roles and responsibilities of women as holders of specific types of knowledge [ 71 – 73 ].

Review articles suggest opportunities for responding to climate change in ways that also advance Indigenous health and wellbeing

An array of responses to these climate-health impacts were discussed across reviews: ’mechanical’ responses such as enhanced monitoring/surveillance or warning systems [ 42 , 51 , 53 ]; regulatory responses [ 44 , 53 , 58 , 70 ], such as land-use policies and conservation legislation [ 54 ]; and, among all reviews, research responses. Across types of responses, however, there existed some cross-cutting themes.

Engaging multiple, diverse knowledge systems supports adaptation to and deepens understandings of climate-health impacts.

Reviews characterized non-Westernized knowledge systems as: "Indigenous and Local Knowledge" [ 53 , 68 ]; "Traditional and Local Knowledge" [ 54 ]; "Traditional Knowledge" [ 39 , 49 ]; "Traditional Ecological Knowledge" [ 50 ]; and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) [ 26 , 46 , 70 ]. Regardless of how it was termed, reviews broadly acknowledged the value of engaging multiple forms of knowledge, beyond Western systems, in response to climate change. However, reviews varied in how they positioned IK within this narrative and in relation to other knowledge systems (e.g., in how they proposed engagement with IK). Reviews posited a need to: ’ integrate ’, ’incorporate’ , or ’include ’ IK within Western knowledge systems [ 26 , 50 , 68 ] or resource management approaches [ 53 ]; to ’ mobilize’ IK, in general [ 54 ]; to broadly support Indigenous Knowledge-sharing or ’intergenerational knowledge transmission’ [ 36 , 37 ]; to prioritize "preservation or documentation of [Traditional and Local Knowledge] and practices" [ 54 :1133, 55 ]; and to advance some form of ’knowledge co-production’ or ’bilateral information sharing’ (e.g., within partnerships between Indigenous Peoples and researchers, governments, or other organizations) [ 27 , 50 , 70 ]. Fewer articles explicitly positioned IK as integral or foundational to Western science understandings of climate-health impacts [ 58 , 70 ].

Nevertheless, engagement with diverse knowledge systems was recognized as deepening and broadening understandings of health-related climate change and biodiversity loss impacts [ 29 , 34 , 39 ] as well as "improv[ing] quality of evidence about co-impacts" [ 70 :14], e.g., "[through] collecting more responsive and representative data" [ 59 :17]. Many articles highlighted that ecosystems have always been changing to some extent, that "adaptation to environmental change is a constant in their lives and they will continue to adapt" [ 43 :12] and that embedded in many IK systems is the ability to flex and adapt to these changes [ 34 , 38 , 46 , 55 ], with some reviews identifying IK itself as a "determinant of adaptability/resilience" to climate/environmental change [ 39 :816]. In this light, reviews pointed to the need to both support community-led adaptation and also address broader sociopolitical constraints on community-determined responses.

Continue to platform localized, Indigenous-led action for climate change adaptation.

Across the secondary literature, reviews characterized the needed response to climate change and biodiversity loss as being primarily at the locus of community (10 articles; 26.3%), rather than regional, national, or international responses (four; 10.5%), for effectiveness but also in alignment with normative values and principles. Reviews identified a need for "community-driven" responses [ 68 :56]; strengthened "community engagement" [ 37 , 54 :1138, 70 ]; "community centered discourse" [ 27 :167]; or ’community-based’ or ’bottom-up’ approaches [e.g., community-based monitoring] [ 41 , 67 ]. One review focused squarely on the voices and ’untold stories’ of Indigenous Peoples with respect to climate change [ 43 ]. Others focused on "community empowerment" without explicit discussion of self-determination in community responses [ 54 , 55 :1264]. Similarly, others applying a ’vulnerability framework’ to analyze community adaptive capacity advocated for community-led responses; however, they did not go further to interrogate the processes, institutions, and structures that constrain these adaptation responses and underly existing vulnerabilities [ 28 , 37 , 39 , 51 , 55 ]. On the other hand, some reviews went further to underscore institutions that create structural violence and risk [ 38 ] and, more foundationally, to link localized health-related climate and biodiversity vulnerabilities to broader sociopolitical contexts and colonialism.

Interrogate the structural, institutional, and processual constraints to Indigenous-led adaptation, explicitly naming colonialism where it exists.

Eighteen reviews (47.4%) explicitly situated their findings regarding the health-related impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss in the context of historic and ongoing colonialism and associated power imbalances (e.g., rated ’high’ or ’medium’ with respect to degree of attentiveness to colonial influences in quality appraisal) ( S1 Table ). Colonialism was acknowledged as an "underlying root cause of vulnerability" to climate/environmental change [ 55 :1260], that "there needs to be a shift from a focus on ’vulnerable peoples’ to the underlying processes and institutions that put people at risk" [ 38 :15]. Colonialism, in the form of land dispossession and degradation [ 49 ], "top-down governance structures [and] inflexible policies regarding land use and resource management" [ 40 :387] and hegemony of Western knowledge systems and structures [ 31 , 42 , 55 ], was named as antecedent to and driver of climate-change vulnerabilities [ 43 ]. These anthropogenic factors reportedly challenged intergenerational knowledge sharing [ 30 , 56 ] and affected access to health services, as well as food and water safety and security [ 44 , 46 , 50 ], contributing to and compounding climate change-vulnerabilities. Three reviews (7.9%) named settler colonialism, specifically, in the framing of the review [ 26 , 42 ] and situating of results [ 38 ], whereas most of the reviews discussing colonialism used the term broadly (i.e., to possibly include other forms such as franchise or exploitation colonialism).

A total of 18 articles (47.4%) were rated ’low’ in the quality appraisal process in terms of attentiveness to colonial influences on climate-health and biodiversity impacts. For some, this discussion was less relevant to the type/aim of the article [ 32 , 36 ], or colonization was briefly mentioned but not engaged with extensively [ 52 ]. Many reviews also identified broader health and social inequities–disparities in social determinants of health–that affect Indigenous Peoples’ vulnerability to climate change and biodiversity loss impacts on health [ 44 , 49 , 51 , 53 , 55 ], including poverty, inaccessibility of health services, poor infrastructure and public service systems, and racial discrimination. These articles identified the need for responses (i.e., policy, research) to be targeted towards these broader health and wellbeing challenges, to buffer the impacts of climate and environmental change.

Climate-health research is needed that is strengths-based, trans- and interdisciplinary, embedded in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, and that applies a broader health lens.

Based on their respective literature syntheses, reviews identified the need for future climate-health research approaches that are trans- and interdisciplinary [ 32 , 34 ]; strengths-based [ 43 , 48 ]; and that apply a broader lens and conceptualization of health, reflective of Indigenous concepts of health and wellbeing [ 55 , 56 ]. A research response to climate-health and biodiversity impacts needs to engage the complexity of socio-ecological relationships [ 56 ]. Reviews proposed OneHealth [ 26 ], ’nature-based solutions’ [ 27 ], and ’ecosystem-based adaptation’ [ 50 ] as frameworks for inquiry with these embedded systems or relational lenses, or that apply an eco-centric view to the design and development of adaptation approaches, and further examined the interfacing or integration of IK into these Western-science frameworks or models. Cottrell proposed that " nature-based thinking" (e.g., focused on the intrinsic value of nature)–a more inclusive and expansive framework to climate response–could help bridge the ’divide’ between the Western scientific community and Indigenous communities [ 27 :167]. Moreover, practitioners of a ’nature-based solutions’ approach, in particular, "can support the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples by advocating for local management and control over project lands" [ 27 :167].

More fundamentally, reviews proposed that primary research studies: be embedded in partnership with Indigenous Peoples [ 32 , 36 , 40 , 51 , 54 ]; involve a bilateral sharing of information rather than the scientific community, "providing unilateral advice" [ 43 :6]; and involve a "sharing of power" and privileging of IK [ 34 , 70 :14], through diverse methodological approaches [ 60 ] and "study design that fully embeds Indigenous values , realities , and priorities" [ 70 :14].

Among the reviewed secondary literature itself, however, only 6 records [15.8%] explicitly reported a high degree of involvement of Indigenous Peoples across the research process ( S1 Table ). These reviews were led by Indigenous scholars [ 70 ] or teams involving ’knowledge users’ or community researchers from the study context [ 32 , 39 ]. Review methodologies were informed by Indigenous partners or a broader steering committee [ 36 , 60 ], or reviews reported that Indigenous Peoples had input on the final manuscript to ensure framing aligned with their priorities [ 30 ].

Shift the narrative within climate-health adaptation from prioritizing community-based approaches to community-driven, rights-based approaches that emphasize Indigenous sovereignty and autonomy.

Reviews discussed the crucial need to advance priorities and processes related to Indigenous sovereignty, rights, and autonomy within the climate-health, planetary health space. Records identified that, across the primary literature, there existed recognition of a need to prioritize and respect Indigenous sovereignty and autonomy within climate-adaptation efforts, whether related to food systems [ 30 , 34 , 40 , 52 ], health systems [ 31 , 51 ], or monitoring and surveillance systems [ 35 , 41 , 67 ]. As Van Bavel et al. (2020) named, there exists " an ethical practice gap in the recognition and actualization of Indigenous and local autonomy , intellectual property rights , and data sovereignty in integrated [monitoring and surveillance systems]" as well as a need across the literature to move "from inclusion to ownership" [ 59 :18].

This need extended to research and policy spheres, where reviews identified a gap in approaches that are rights-based [ 51 , 58 , 70 ], and noted that "even the ability to define the problem on one’s own terms represents in many places a move away from the status quo" [ 40 :388]. Moreover, a focus on rights within policy responses would reportedly look like "local management and control over project lands" [ 27 :167], and "greater Indigenous autonomy over mobility , time , education and land use" [ 38 :15], as well as "a new ethos of coordination and cooperation among government levels" to address institutional determinants of health [ 51 :677]. Taken together, these findings are reflected in Loring & Gerlach’s (2015) underscoring of a "need to see beyond past concepts such as adaptation and resilience and look instead to rights-based reform" [ 40 :387]. Responses to climate change and biodiversity loss, then, need to interrogate the locus of power–question who is holding it–and move towards a model of equitable and shared decision-making [ 70 ], focused on supporting Indigenous Peoples’ sovereignty, rights, and autonomy as outlined in the UNDRIP.

These findings highlight that the health-related impacts being experienced due to the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, and broader conceptualizations and experiences of wellbeing, are place-based–inextricably tied to land and place. This resonates with Indigenous Peoples’ known, lived experiences and is also widely discussed within written scholarship [ 4 , 74 ]. Indigenous Peoples’ ontologies and epistemologies are intricately connected with the land [ 8 , 75 – 77 ]. Moreover, Indigenous Peoples’ pathways to wellness are through relationality, responsibility, and kinship with the land, viewed holistically as the “combined living spirit of plants , animals , air , water , humans , histories , and events” [ 3 :7, 76 , 77 ]. Supporting the advancement of Indigenous Peoples’ rights to lands and territories not only contributes to the wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples but to addressing the broader, complex challenges posed by climate change and biodiversity loss [ 11 , 75 , 78 ].

The findings of this review further substantiate the warning that, within the context of ongoing colonization, we are at an ecological and relational tipping point [ 70 ]. This inquiry traced the impacts of colonialism–a distancing from land and place through institutional structures, practices, policies, and systems [ 10 , 79 ]–through to biodiversity loss and the proximal, intermediate, and distal health outcomes experienced by Indigenous Peoples globally. Indeed, empirical evidence across the scholarship indicates how structural determinants are filtering down to community and individual impacts on both human and non-human species.

Colonialism, including settler colonialism, is increasingly recognized as a determinant and driver of climate-health and biodiversity impacts [ 8 , 12 , 80 , 81 ]. This recognition is important, yet Indigenous scholars and advocates have indicated that it is unclear where planetary health fits into the existing determinants of health language [ 8 ]. An ecocentric approach is needed, a critical repositioning of human engagement with the land and environments, in our understanding of determinants of health and wellbeing [ 75 , 80 , 82 ] and to better inform research, policy, and community-led responses. Given that only two reviews in this study integrated considerations of climate change and biodiversity loss (the majority focused on only one of these dimensions), opportunity exists for further integration of both climate change and biodiversity into Indigenous-led health research and adaptation responses more broadly. While responses identified in the secondary literature were primarily located at the community scale, broader global movements–through mechanisms such as the United Nations Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples–may serve to galvanize community-led efforts and may themselves be informed by bottom-up, community-focused work to address the climate crisis. Moreover, the United Nations Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has proposed a framework on Indigenous determinants of health to guide the United Nations and member states in strategy, policy setting, and actions [ 83 ].

Further gaps exist within the published secondary literature in studies that have a global scope or are geographically focused beyond the Circumpolar North. The high proportion of reviews (42%) focused on the Circumpolar North may have implications for the types of proximal, intermediate, and distal impacts identified, as well as the specific concerns around biodiversity loss described within our findings. Additionally, a limited body of literature examines the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples living in cities or the gendered impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing. More research is needed that conducts in-depth gendered analyses of climate-health and biodiversity impacts, particularly studies that consider the perspectives and experiences of gender-diverse individuals along with self-identified women and men. Opportunity exists for research to take an intersectional approach and interrogate how additional factors such as income, employment, housing, age, and class intersect with and shape experiences of Indigenous health, gender, and climate change [ 84 ].

Finally, the reviewed literature outlined further opportunities for advancing Indigenous health and wellbeing in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss. Across geographies, this literature signalled a need to consider the historical, political, and geographic contexts of climate change, alongside the structures of power (i.e., Western, colonial, and capitalist worldviews) that constrain climate adaptation and responses and disrupt Indigenous Peoples’ connection to lands and waters. This need to dissect and critically examine the broader context of structural and systemic determinants of climate-health and biodiversity impacts is increasingly the focus of global public health scholarship [ 85 ]. In this light, reviews underscored the need to continue to support, fund, and platform localized, community-led adaptation to climate change and biodiversity loss, while addressing broader sociopolitical constraints to Indigenous Peoples’ community-determination and leadership. Place-specific, localized adaptation responses are needed, informed by local data and knowledge. Moreover, as echoed throughout the literature, engaging, centering, and acknowledging multiple, diverse, non-Westernized knowledge systems and values will support climate change adaptation and deepen understanding of climate-health and biodiversity loss impacts [ 86 ].

Limitations

This review has several limitations. Importantly, the umbrella review methodology relies on already-synthesized insights across the published literature. This may have limited the depth and breadth of findings related to climate-health and biodiversity impacts, particularly if the secondary literature is not as geographically or topically diverse as the primary. We also may not have captured the most current published literature through this review of reviews. We aimed to address these limitations through a robust search and integration of the unpublished and current ’grey’ literature, focused particularly on geographic gaps in published reviews, as well as our application of a weighted criteria to include additional reviews from geographic regions or populations less represented in the published literature. In addition, the research team’s positionality as Western-trained researchers analyzing literature largely embedded within Western knowledge systems, and published almost exclusively in English, is a notable limitation of this work, in that it limits the nuance and depth of understanding of climate-health and biodiversity loss impacts emergent from Indigenous frameworks and knowledge systems. The knowledge systems embedded in other cultures, disciplines, and sectors may provide rich evidence of climate-health and biodiversity loss impacts that differs from evidence generated through Western-oriented knowledge synthesis approaches. While relying on the perspectives of the Indigenous expert advisory group to shape this study, our positionalities and the epistemological domain our findings are firmly embedded within, remain a limitation.

The findings of this review are threaded together by one central theme: that the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on health and wellbeing are rooted in and inseparable from Indigenous Peoples’ connections to place. Because of this, place-specific environmental change and biodiversity loss are driving proximal, intermediate, and distal changes to Indigenous health and wellbeing. Through bringing together global literatures on both climate change and biodiversity loss impacts, with an eye to identifying Indigenous-led responses to these crises, this umbrella review presents opportunities for advancing Indigenous health and wellbeing alongside broader ecological and planetary health.

Taken together, these findings suggest that context matters . As reflected in reviews, the temporal context of colonialism, historic and ongoing, shapes understandings of the antecedents to and drivers of climate-health and biodiversity loss impacts for Indigenous Peoples. Cultural and epistemological context matters , as the inclusion and prioritization of diverse knowledge systems strengthens monitoring and adaptation to climate change and biodiversity loss. Geographic context matters , as sociopolitical processes at multiple scales constrain or support adaptation efforts. As per the reviewed literature, place-specific and localized responses are needed, informed by local data and knowledge, firmly embedded in partnership with, by, and for Indigenous Peoples, and in service to Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and autonomy as addressed by UNDRIP. In alignment with the reflection on UNDRIP of Redvers et al. (2023) [ 9 ], positioning this instrument more prominently across geographies, scales, sectors, and literatures may support the continued integration of climate and biodiversity-related responses, while foregrounding equity and Indigenous rights within the spheres of research, policy, and praxis.

Supporting information

S1 file. completed prisma checklist..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995.s001

S1 Table. Excerpt of quality appraisal data chart.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995.s002

S2 Table. Summary of studies and extracted data pertaining to key findings, observations, and recommendations.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995.s003

S3 Table. Grey literature records retrieved and included in the review.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002995.s004

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the following Indigenous Experts (featured in alphabetical order by last name) who had a key role in co-shaping the review through their feedback during the process, including inputs to the design of the terms of reference for the work, inputs to the protocol for the review, written feedback on the manuscript, and/or sharing of related publications with the research team and WHO: Amina Amharech, Arthur Blume, Tonje Margrete Winsnes Johansen, Lena Maria Nilsson, Sara Olsvig, and Anne Simpson. Thank you also to the following Indigenous Experts who participated in one or both of the engagement meetings, providing valuable guidance: Mukaro Borrero, Phoolman Chaudhary, Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, Rhys Jones, Belkacem Lounes, Margaret Tunda Lepore, Casey Kickett, Aqqaluk Lynge, Hanieh Moghani, Sherry Pictou, Zaira Zambelli Taveira, and Tarcila Rivera Zea. We would like to thank the responsible WHO officers for commissioning and overseeing this work, Theadora Swift Koller and Cristina Romanelli, as well as Hortense Nesseler who contributed to reviewing articles and project management and WHO consultants Susana Gomez and Rachel Hammonds who contributed to the terms of reference and revised aspects of the final text, respectively. We would also like to thank Sarah Burch, Simon Glauser, and Chenel Lozon of the Waterloo Climate Institute for managing the contract, alongside providing logistical and administrative support. Thank you to India Bruton who supported the development of figures and tables for this manuscript. Thank you also to Jackie Stapleton at the University of Waterloo library for supporting the development of the search strategy.

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The purpose of this research is to critically examine the literature on global leadership competencies and behaviors, and present an integrative global leadership framework. ... For the literature review, we examined 14 global leadership competency models and 11 indigenous studies on effective leader and manager behaviors in various countries ...
PDF Global Definitions of Leadership Development
1. Global Perspectives on Leadership Summary Our review of leadership thinking begins with global perspectives, and what 'good' leadership looks like in a global context. The key insights from this review are that: Leadership is increasingly defined and judged in relation to complex global socio-economic and
Six ways of understanding leadership development: An exploration of
Integral Leadership Review 9: 1-8. Google Scholar. Day DV (2000) Leadership development: A review in context. ... Gagnon S, Collinson D (2014) Rethinking global leadership development programmes: The interrelated significance of power, context and identity. Organization Studies 35: ... A Systematic Literature Review.
Fixers by Zrinka Stahuljak (Book Review)
The role of this paradigm is to remove Eurocentrism, genre, author, nationalism, etc., from early modern literature and, by doing so, create a global history of literature. Making this change provides opportunities for scholars to reexamine disciplinary notions and create an alternative history of literature.

Global Definitions of Leadership and Theories of Leadership Development: Literature Review

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Level 2. History, Culture, and Leadership

Level 3. Premises of Western Theories

Level 4. Cultural Constraints on Western Theories

Level 5. Country Analysis and Adaptation Project

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The global leadership capacity wheel: Comparing HRD leadership literature with research from global and indigenous leadership

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An Exploration of Global Leadership Behavior and Job Satisfaction in Health Information Management

Introduction

Methodology

Author Biography

Bibliography

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

1 Introduction

2 Mindfulness

3 Methodology for building theory

4 Literature review

4.1 Attention

4.1.1 Intentional presence

4.1.2 Sustained attention

4.2 Awareness

4.2.1 Conscious mind

4.2.2 Metacognition

4.3 Authenticity

4.3.1 Beliefs and values

4.3.2 Empathy and compassion

5 Theoretical framework: the three pillar of the mindful leader

6 Discussions and conclusion

Data availability statement

Author contributions

Acknowledgments

Conflict of interest

Publisher’s note

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing: A systematic umbrella review

Introduction

Rationale and conceptual foundation for the review

Study context

Search strategy and article selection

Data extraction and analysis

Describing the extent, range, and nature of secondary literature on climate change and Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing globally

Published secondary literature at the nexus of climate change and Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing is geographically clustered in the Circumpolar North.

Examining the proximal, intermediate, and distal impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples

Biodiversity impacts: Globally, ecosystems are changing in place-specific, localized ways.

Proximal impacts: Ecosystem changes are challenging Indigenous Peoples’ health outcomes.

Intermediate impacts: Ecosystem changes are changing human environments.

Distal impacts: Human environment changes are impacting Indigenous Peoples’ relationships to place, culture, and each other.

The gendered impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing are rarely discussed in the published secondary and grey literature

Review articles suggest opportunities for responding to climate change in ways that also advance Indigenous health and wellbeing

Engaging multiple, diverse knowledge systems supports adaptation to and deepens understandings of climate-health impacts.

Continue to platform localized, Indigenous-led action for climate change adaptation.

Interrogate the structural, institutional, and processual constraints to Indigenous-led adaptation, explicitly naming colonialism where it exists.

Climate-health research is needed that is strengths-based, trans- and interdisciplinary, embedded in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, and that applies a broader health lens.

Shift the narrative within climate-health adaptation from prioritizing community-based approaches to community-driven, rights-based approaches that emphasize Indigenous sovereignty and autonomy.

Limitations

Supporting information

S1 Table. Excerpt of quality appraisal data chart.

S2 Table. Summary of studies and extracted data pertaining to key findings, observations, and recommendations.

S3 Table. Grey literature records retrieved and included in the review.