Abstract
Intellectual humility is an underused concept in leadership and management. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the role of humility in leadership and human resource management practices in terms of building an engaging, diverse, and inclusive workplace. One reason for the low engagement level among U.S. employees based on a recent Gallup annual survey is the perceived lack of intellectual humility among leaders and managers alike, which subsequently inhibits the initiation and utilization of shared leadership in teams. In addition, disengaged employees were found to be less likely to display honesty and humility in their interactions with others, suggesting a workplace culture of destructive disagreement and distrust. This chapter provides an evidence-based discussion about the need for leaders to adopt and foster intellectual humility to effectively manage their work groups to improve talent retention, employee engagement, and building an organizational culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belongingness.
TopIntroduction
As organizations continue to adapt to an ever-changing landscape driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, workplace relationships are more vital to employees and effective leadership is more crucial to sustain an engaging workforce than pre-pandemic. According to the most recent 2021 Gallup poll of the state of the global workforce (gallup.com), employee engagement level was lower (20%) than pre-pandemic level (22%). In addition, the level of stress and/or burnout reported by employees has reached a new high (41% in 2020 compared to 35% in 2019). The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted employees due to job loss and social isolation that may have explained for the increased level of worries and stress. To improve employee engagement level, organizational leaders need to rethink what makes an effective leader.
This chapter presents intellectual humility as an underused concept in contemporary management and leadership research. Although intellectual humility has been studied in philosophy and religion for more than two decades as a moral virtue or the golden mean of intellectual diffidence and intellectual arrogance, the concept has just been investigated in psychology research within the past decade (Porter et al., 2021). Nonetheless, intellectual humility has been found to predict important outcomes across different disciplines including medicine, marketing, education, psychology, and business management. For example, intellectual humility has been found to be a predictor of positive attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination and display more scrutiny of COVID-19 misinformation (e.g., Huynh & Senger, 2021; Koetke, Schumann, & Porter, 2021); front-line worker resilience (e.g., Sok et al., 2021); well-being (e.g., Krause et al., 2016); better team decision-making and resilience (e.g., Zhu et al., 2019); openness to viewpoint diversity or cognitive diversity in business ethics education and political discussion (e.g., Hendy, 2020; Porter & Schumann, 2018); and managerial and leadership success (e.g., Collins, 2005; Trinh, 2019).
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of change and the adoption of new technology in the workplace. According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs 2020 Report (weforum.org), 43% of surveyed companies employing 7.7 million people worldwide said that they would reduce their workforce due to technology integrated into the workplace such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). The shift from using humans to do routine and manual tasks in lower-skill jobs to using machines through AI could displace 85 million jobs by 2025 according to the World Economic Forum (weforum.org). The jobs that remain in the future post pandemic will be cognitive and non-routine in nature. Those who believe in the loss of jobs to be attributable to ML and AI are called “replacement view” holders. In contrast, those who believe that AI will assist humans in executing their jobs to improve productivity are called “augmentation view” holders (Tschang & Almirall, 2021). Whether one holds a replacement view or augmentation view of AI, it is the author’s view that intellectual humility is needed to succeed in future job performance post pandemic. Given the speed of change in technologies, nowhere is intellectual humility more critically needed than in executive and leadership positions within an organization. Intellectual humility as discussed in this chapter is viewed as a necessary and important competency that everyone including leaders and managers, and employees should cultivate and foster in their organizations to improve talent retention, employee engagement, and building an organizational culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belongingness.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Belongingness: The emotional connection that members within an organization or work group feel that they are accepted and integrated.
Inclusion: The extent to which policies and practices reflect all individual members’ thoughts, ideas, and perspectives.
Employee Engagement: The extent to which employees are committed to their job and their employer as well as enthused and energized about their job.
Intellectual Humility: The recognition of one’s intellectual limitations, respecting others’ intellectual strength, seeking epistemic goods, and an unusually low concern for one’s intellectual status.
Equity: The extent to which power within an organization is consistently recognized and redistributed.
Cognitive Diversity: The extent to which the members of a group or organization have different perspectives and ways of thinking.
Uniqueness: The perception of members within an organization or work group that their need to maintain a distinctive and differentiated sense of self is fulfilled.
Diversity: The extent to which an organization or work group is represented by members with different identities.