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The purpose of this paper is to define “beneficence” as a management concept that is the action associated with “benevolence” the intention. This paper explains how beneficence is a critical element for leaders in building trust. The authors identify how beneficence honors the ethical duties owed to followers and creates competitive advantage for organizations.

The approach of this paper is to present an extensive conceptual review of beneficence as it relates to leaders and managers and to suggest eight propositions identifying how beneficence can create competitive advantage.

The findings of this paper include eight propositions about beneficence as a source of competitive advantage.

The practical implications of this paper are for practitioners and scholars. This paper provides an opportunity for leaders to recognize the importance of translating good intentions into specific action in acting virtuously toward others. For scholars, this paper provides testable propositions for learning more about beneficence as a source of increased commitment, greater trust, and competitive advantage.

Although benevolence has been acknowledged to be a foundation of trustworthiness, benevolence is an attitude or intention. This paper explains the importance of beneficence as the action derived from benevolence as an attitude or intention to do that which benefits others.

The purpose of this research is to propose and empirically test hypotheses concerning the influence of leadership behaviors on interpersonal perceptions of trustworthiness.

Survey research is employed to assess the dimensions of leadership behavior and dimensions of trustworthiness and to determine the relationships among the leadership behavior dimensions and trustworthiness dimensions.

Factor analyses support previous research advocating three dimensions of leadership behavior (relationship development, resource utilization, and image management) and three dimensions of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity). A structural model (LISREL), testing the relationship among the three leadership behavior dimensions and the three trustworthiness dimensions, shows that image management influences perceptions of all three dimensions of trustworthiness, and relationship development influences the benevolence dimension of trustworthiness. Using analysis of variance, the research finds that younger individuals view leaders as being more trustworthy than older individuals do.

The limitations of this study include a survey research methodology and a sample of university students.

There are consequences to leaders' actions. This study shows that perceptions of trustworthiness can be influenced by leadership behavior.

Past research suggests that trustworthiness is an important component of a successful organization. This research supports the hypothesis that leadership behavior affects perceptions of trustworthiness, which is important to researchers and managers interested in how the behaviors of leaders influence other areas of the organization.

This article positions actor–-network theory (ANT) as a practice perspective and deploys it to explore the performative practices of internal consultancy teams as they implemented major programmatic change projects within a global telecommunication company. The change process required the creation of a “change network” that emerged as a boundary spanning and organising network as the consultants sought to implement and translate a highly structured change methodology and introduce new meta-routines within the organisation.

By combining the methodological datum of ANT to “follow the actors” (whatever form they take) with the guiding principle of practice theory to focus on practices rather than practitioners, the research explored the in-between temporal spaces of performative practices as they unfolded in relation to standardised routines, material artefacts and the tools and techniques of a systematic change methodology. By a method of “zooming out” and “zooming in” the research examined both the larger context of action and practice in which the change network emerged and the consultants' performative practices; but without falling into static macro–micro dualism, or a purely ethnographic “thick description” of practice. The research is based on interviews (25), participant observation and a review of the extensive documentation of the change methodology.

The findings indicate both how consultants' performative practices are embedded in the social and material arrangements of a change network, and why the intentional, expert or routine enactment of a highly standardised change methodology into practice is intrinsically problematic. Ultimately, the consultants could not rely on knowledge as a fixed, routine or pre-given empirical entity that predefined their actions. Instead, the consultants' performative practices unfolded in temporal spaces of in-betweenness as their actions and practices navigated shifting and multiple boundaries while confronting disparate and often irreconcilable ideas, choices and competing interests.

As an ANT practice perspective, the research blends mixed methods in an illustrative case study, so its findings are contextual, although the methodological rationale may be applicable to other contexts of practice.

The theoretical framing of the research contributes to repositioning ANT as practice theory perspective on change with a central focus on performative practice. The illustrative case demonstrates how a boundary spanning “change network” emerged and how it partly defined the temporal spaces of in-betweenness in which the consultants operated.

A place in the boardroom is often considered a necessary if not sufficient condition for HR directors to exercise strategic influence on business decision‐making. The purpose of the paper is to explore the perceived importance of HR boardroom representation, both in a formal and symbolic sense, and to what extent HR directors can exercise strategic influence without it?

Evidence is explored from a survey of 1,188 UK HR practitioners, including 255 board members, and a series of follow‐up interviews with 16 HR directors.

Analysis of the survey findings suggests that boardroom versus non‐boardroom representation of HR appears to matter in four key areas: board members believe they have greater involvement and influence in business planning processes; they have more positive perceptions of the overall performance of HR; they give higher ratings of CEO perceptions of the HR function; and they believe they achieve greater integration of HR strategy with business strategy.

While there are increasingly other formal mechanisms and forums (e.g. executive committees, personal networks) outside the boardroom for HR directors to exercise their influence, it appears that the “symbolic capital” of boardroom recognition and esteem still retains enormous significance and rhetorical appeal for the HR profession.

The paper seeks to reframe the debates on the relative importance of HR boardroom versus executive committee representation as forums of strategic influence, by focusing on the continued symbolic significance of boardroom representation. It is concluded that a reworking of Bourdieu's concept of “symbolic capital” (i.e. professional esteem, recognition, status, or respect) as board capital may be useful in reframing future research on HR boardroom representation.

Research confirms that leaders continue to struggle in earning followers’ trust, commitment, and organizational citizenship. The purpose of this paper is to explain the importance of the relationship between leader and followers as a covenant and to identify five roles of the leader that are necessary to be effective in creating the required relationship with followers to earn their trust in an increasingly competitive and complex market.

The approach of this paper is to present a summary of the nature of psychological contracts and to identify seven testable propositions about covenantal leadership and its ability to build trust and honor duties implied in psychological contracts of employees.

The authors explain how the five roles of the covenantal leader increase trust and examine each of these roles in identifying the importance of covenantal leadership in serving the modern leader.

This research reaffirms the importance of leaders understanding the often unarticulated perceptions of their employees in imposing moral duties and obligations on leaders and organizations.

The practical value of this paper lies in its insights about the importance of leaders understanding and honoring implied as well as stated duties, and in recognizing employee perceptions about their needs and the often unaddressed obligations of leaders and organizations.

The underlying assumptions of this paper are that leaders who seek to create greater commitment and higher performance can do so by seeking out, understanding, and honoring the implicit and explicit assumptions and expectations of their employees.

Covenantal leadership is a relatively new leadership model introduced by Moses Pava (2003) and the five roles of covenantal leadership have rarely been addressed as a leadership perspective in the scholarly and practitioner literature.

In Japan, the first state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic was declared from April to May 2020, and it was recommended that people stay home. In this study, parents were asked (using an internet questionnaire) how their children spend time at home compared to their usual activities during this period. We conducted a cluster analysis of change patterns of indoor activities among preschool children aged three to six years (n = 1.036). The cluster analysis examined whether watching videos, playing video games, engaging in active play, taking part in art activities, and joint reading of books/picture books increased or decreased compared to normal times. Two-step cluster analysis suggested five subgroups: (1) all indoor activities were almost the same as usual, (2) video viewing and art activities increased, and active play decreased, (3) video viewing, art activities, and active play increased, (4) video viewing, computer games, art activities increased, and active play declined, and (5) video viewing and computer games increased, and all other activities decreased. Of these subgroups, it is considered that particular attention should be paid to the developmental risks of Clusters 4 and 5, who might have spent more time doing digital activities and taken part in fewer interactive activities. In addition, it was indicated that these patterns were related to parental mental health and demographic characteristics. It remains to examine the support in such case considering the possibility that less participation in interactive activities and worse mental health of parents may have negative effects on development of children.

This paper examines the role of citizen budget advisory committees in local government to gain a better understanding of what exists, what works, and what does not. Specifically this paper seeks to answer the following questions: How are citizen advisory committees utilized? What influence do citizen advisory committees have on the planning and decision making process of local governments? What variables influence the effectiveness of citizen advisory committees? What obstacles prevent meaningful citizen participation from taking place? Through a better understanding of what makes some committees more effective than others, recommendations can be made that will improve the effectiveness of this type of citizen participation.