**1. Introduction**

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a major global adaptive challenge [1] and created an imbalance in the familiar socio-emotional dynamic between employees and their leaders. As navigation of the pandemic continued, the changes and challenges became more significant. Employee wellbeing needed to be fostered. At the same time, leaders needed to deliver messages about public safety, issue cautions, provide updates on the science and progression of the virus, and keep their organizations functioning under challenging circumstances. Leaders also had to navigate organizational as well as personal challenges. Leaders who communicated messages that expressed empathy as well as strategies to deal with the pandemic were observed to connect effectively with their constituents, followers, and employees. The behaviors that were leveraged represented a blend of task and relational skills. The key behaviors that supported the successful communication and relation building achieved by leaders included nurturing, empathy, cooperation, sensitivity, and warmth, behaviors often attributed to women's or feminine leadership. These behaviors can be categorized as "care". I argue that the importance of care behaviors during the pandemic illustrated the importance and value of these behaviors for leadership in general and for navigating the increased uncertainty and complexity the world faces because of phenomena such as the climate crisis and increased disasters, future possible pandemics, global financial meltdowns, local wars, terrorism, and others. Such care behaviors have also been proven to be necessary because the workforce has increasingly demanded more humane and flexible work environments, better work–life balance, and more inclusive organizations as part of the post-pandemic workplace. I also argue that care behaviors should not replace

**Citation:** Kolga, M. Engaging "Care" Behaviors in Support of Employee and Organizational Wellbeing through Complexity Leadership Theory. *Merits* **2023**, *3*, 405–414. https://doi.org/10.3390/ merits3020023

Academic Editors: Randal Joy Thompson, Chrys Egan and Tina Wu

Received: 26 March 2023 Revised: 26 May 2023 Accepted: 29 May 2023 Published: 1 June 2023

**Copyright:** © 2023 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

leadership behaviors commonly identified as masculine but rather should complement such behaviors in a blended masculine–feminine "androgynous leadership approach".

Finally, I argue that complexity leadership theory provides the most appropriate leadership approach through which complex adaptive organizations can initiate and foster the development of "care" behaviors as part of an androgynous approach to leadership which produces system-wide benefits in complex systems including the ability to generate more inclusive outcomes among followers.

This leadership theory, which is relational, recognizes the dynamic interactions between people and processes that take place within organizations as they change, create innovation, and evolve with a focus on complex relationships and network interaction rather than controlling, standardizing, and autocratic behavior [1,2]. Leadership in complex systems needs to operate at all levels in a process-oriented, contextual, and interactive fashion [1,2]. In such a complex environment, both so-called masculine and feminine leadership behaviors are required depending upon the leadership challenge and where in the system leadership is operating.

I base my argument on information gathered from studies regarding the impact of the pandemic on mental health, stress, and burnout, examples of successful leadership approaches that included care communication highlighted during the pandemic and needed afterwards, experiences in my own organization, and an analysis of complexity leadership theory in complex adaptive systems. My argument is grounded in the academic literature, while some examples of care communication during the pandemic are taken from the media.
