This paper investigates what happens when managers’ identity is centred on caring, an underappreciated aspect of leadership. Drawing on a case study of managers in elderly care, we distil an ideal-typical caring leader identity as well as contextualised interpretations that suggest both problematic and constructive aspects. The caring leader identity implies a self-understanding as being highly present, supportive, and helpful to subordinates’ development. We find that the belief of making a decisive difference to others’ development by caring for them can be a deceptive fantasy that incites over-dependence among subordinates, particularly for ambitious managers who experience pressing situations and little power. Under better but likely less common conditions, managers can develop more modest expressions of a caring leader identity, leaving space for subordinates themselves to define problems and explore solutions.

本文研究了当管理者的身份集中于关怀时，会发生什么情况，关怀是领导力未得到充分重视的方面。通过对老年护理经理人的案例研究，我们发现了理想中典型的关怀领导者的身份以及情境化的解释，这些问题暗示了存在问题和建设性的方面。富有爱心的领导者身份意味着对自我的理解，即高度存在，支持和帮助下属的发展。我们发现，通过关怀他人对他人的发展产生决定性影响的信念可能是一种欺骗性幻想，它会煽动下属之间的过度依赖，尤其是对于那些处境紧迫，权力低落的雄心勃勃的经理们。在更好但可能不太常见的条件下，管理人员可以开发出谦虚的表达，以表达对领导者的关怀，