Cultivating Humility in Business Education: A Listening-Focused Pedagogy for Future Leaders
Abstract
In an era when humility and connection are vital for peace and sustainability, many leaders in business and government fall
short by prioritizing their self-interest over ethics. Business schools, as key institutions shaping future leaders, may inadvertently reinforce this imbalance. To shift this lean toward self-interest, we propose a listening-focused pedagogy to cultivate
humility and character in business school students. High-quality listening fosters interpersonal connection and promotes
complex reasoning. Complex reasoning about oneself and others is a cornerstone of humility, which is central to morality
and business ethics. We hypothesized that acquiring listening skills would enhance both high-quality listening and humility.
To test this, we conducted a longitudinal quasi-experiment over four academic years (2018–2021) with data from 260 MBA
students. Our findings show that the listening-focused course significantly increased students' listening skills and humility
compared to control courses. These results demonstrate the course’s potential to have a meaningful influence on the character development of business students. We conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications for business ethics
education, offering our materials to support replication and the broader application of this pedagogy
What It Means to Be Heard: Listening and Power in Israeli Communication Contexts.
Rave R , Itzchakov G , Weinstein N , Moin T
Listening
What does it mean to listen, and what enables people to do it well? This study examines the cultural foundations, conditions, expressions, and outcomes of listening through a qualitative analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews with Israeli participants. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identified five interrelated themes showing how listening is shaped by relational closeness, emotional safety, internal motivation, behavioral expression, and emotional impact. Participants described listening as an intentional and emotionally effortful process, grounded in trust, cultural norms, and personal willingness to remain present. It was experienced not only through visible behaviors but through authentic emotional presence and attunement. Crucially, listening was described as the most vulnerable and most revealing in contexts of conflict, emotional strain, or power asymmetries, where relational and ethical demands intensify. These findings highlight listening as a culturally situated, interpretive practice shaped by collective norms, emotional intensity, and social hierarchy. This study contributes to context-sensitive models of listening with implications for interpersonal relationships, organizational leadership, and intercultural communication, particularly in high-conflict or culturally diverse environments where listening serves as a key relational and managerial resource.
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Understanding and Cultivating Effective Listening: A Dialectical Theory of the Tensions between Intuition and Intentional Behavior
Tia Moin, Guy Itzchakov, Netta Weinstein
Listening
High-quality listening is a multifaceted social behaviour, and theories and research concerning it are mixed in terms of listening definitions and recommendations. The current study canvassed lay practitioners’ understanding of optimal listening qualities and training, drawing on a wide range of listening training materials (N = 207) sourced from the World-Wide-Web. Thematic analysis results were critically examined to systematically position praxis against our current understanding of listening theories. Findings are presented as a “dialectical listening theory” which posits that at its core, listeners’ behaviours often exist in direct tension with their mindset or intuition. Furthermore, we posit that this tension is amplified when individuals are faced with conversations that conflict with their perspectives or values. Finally, we argue that listeners may need to oscillate between dual-process states of unconscious (intuitive) and conscious (intentional) listening. We conclude that high-quality listening involves direct recognition and strategic management of tensions throughout the listening process.
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