ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how contemporary Chinese school leaders understand empathy and what it looks like in their work environments. It provides an initial snapshot of an empathetic school leader in China, with the hope that doing so will promote more research into this area and other components of emotional intelligence in China. The chapter outlines the values that describe collectivist societies – this requires a concomitant discussion of individualism. It reviews relevant studies on empathy and leadership. The chapter describes Confucian understanding of empathy and leadership. It presents the background of the school, principal and research. The chapter also presents the major research findings with illustrations of critical incidents in the principal's narrations. It discusses the relationships between culture, empathy and leadership. It is accepted that society and culture influence how leaders lead and organisations work. Leading is a profoundly emotional form of work. Emotional experiences are quite common across cultures.
