Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine professional hurt across the public services of the Commonwealth Caribbean with a view toward creating what could probably be the first body of knowledge that will offer insights into its nature and relationship with the practice of leadership.The study also sought to explore an understanding of professional hurt that could inform the design of leadership development programs to help develop leaders who can navigate or avoid hurt.I utilized the biographical research approach to access the lived experiences of 20 public sector leaders across 9 independent Commonwealth Caribbean islands.Narrative thematic analysis data from the experiences are summarized and presented using six emergent themes, illustrated with thick narrative descriptions.The findings suggest that professional hurt is a combination of the deep hurt a leader experiences as a professional, pooled with the undermining of his/her sense of professional pride, dignity, confidence, capability, credibility, and worth as a leader.While all facets of the leaders' hurtful and humiliating experience are sometimes stretched over a period of time, there is actually an identifiable point at which professional hurt occurs.The findings suggest that professional hurt is not necessarily a planned attempt to destroy a leader, but the result of a poorly managed complex social system.This study may thus offer some useful insights for a holistic and transformative change in the practice of public service leadership in the Caribbean.
Author: Ruby Macksine Brown
Institution: Antioch University
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W83556914