A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study of Philanthropian Leadership

This hermeneutic phenomenological study explored leadership by means of accessing the lived experiences of leaders perceived as being philanthropian in bureaucratic, mechanistic organizations in Canada and the United States. Philanthropian leaders display the following characteristics: (a) love, (b) compassion, (c) caring, (d) altruism and (e) perceptive listening. The selection process relied on the criterion and snowball sampling techniques as means for choosing thirty participants for the in-depth interviews. After the transcription of the interviews, an analysis of the data occurred using Atlas.ti, a software program. Three themes emerged. These themes centered on the leaders' mindsets, leadership tools and the emergence of the philanthropian leadership phenomenon. The implication was that employees responded positively to attitudes and behaviors of leaders who acknowledged and emphasized the value of employees.