Leadership and Empathy: A Bibliometric Review of Two Decades of Research

Abstract

Empathy in leadership is a reflection of humanity. The more artificial intelligence is used in business and work environments, the greater the need to humanize leadership with empathy as a key emotional intelligence competency. Due to the multifaceted and multilevel effects of empathy in leadership, further research on this topic could contribute to both leadership theory and practice. Bibliometric reviews can advance a research field by providing objective and reproducible overviews of published research. This paper aimed to provide a bibliometric review of the research field of leadership and empathy and offer insights into its past, present, and future. Science mapping was conducted using three bibliometric techniques: co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and co-word analysis. A systematic bibliometric review of two decades of research on leadership and empathy is provided based on articles from the Web of Science Core Collection database published from 2004 to 2024 in areas relevant to management and organizational behavior in a business context. The study includes co-word analyses conducted separately for the periods before and after the declaration of the pandemic, when there was a significant increase in the number and thematic scope of research on leadership and empathy. The findings indicate that the past of the research field was mostly concerned with the construct of emotional intelligence and the multifaceted effects of empathy in leadership. The present is focused on employee-level outcomes, crisis management and communication, and ethical, servant, transformational, responsible, and women’s leadership. The future of the research field could be directed toward advancing knowledge on the effects of leader empathy on organizational-level outcomes, the impact of enhancing empathy through leadership development programs, and the role of empathy in inclusive and adaptive leadership. The findings of this study could also raise awareness among leadership practitioners that empathy is not only inherent to what is labeled as empathetic or compassionate leadership, but can also contribute to humanizing various leadership approaches.