Evelina.Panel 2

Session Title: Leading for Well-Being: Prevention of Absent Leadership for Improving Talent Management and Reducing Stress in Organizations

Moderator: Evelina Gillard, Head of Research and Research Faculty, Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland / University of Derby

Panellist: Jorge Arnanz, Program Manager, Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland

Panellist: Alessandro Cavelzani, Lecturer, Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland

Panellist: David Brannon, Senior Research Fellow, Hotelschool the Hague 

Watch the session: https://app.knowmia.com/WsYs

Short description: Although there are many steps that organizational members could take to maintain emotional and mental well-being individually, sometimes the way towards this objective lies through a different road. Sometimes, it is the organizational leadership that should be questioned first. Several issues can undermine the organization’s ability to maintain emotional and mental well-being in the workplace, such as inefficient leadership, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, or absent leadership, to name a few among dysfunctional leadership forms. Our expert panel focuses on absent leadership. We discuss how absent leadership undermines both employee’ and leaders’ well-being through rendering the talent management dysfunctional. First, we explain the meaning of absent leadership that ultimately results in poor group dynamics that creates obstacles to achieving personally and collectively significant long-term goals, which triggers even higher stress levels and further decay. Second, we present the concept of talent management that could particularly suffer from absent leaders due to suboptimal performance levels. Third, we suggest organizational and employee development actions that organizations could take to prevent the emergence of absent leadership, such as the use of situational leadership, implementing an organizational design that enables meeting common organizational goals, and crafting a sustainable human resource management system.

BIO: 

Evelina Gillard: I am engaged in education as Head of Research and Research Faculty at César Ritz Colleges (Switzerland). Throughout my career, I’ve worked across a variety of industries, including banking, automobile manufacturing, real estate investment, and luxury services in France and Switzerland.

Jorge Arnanz: Born and raised in Madrid, I boast a very international look to my academic background, having divided my time between Spain and France for my BA in Tourism and between UK and France for my MAs in European Tourism Management, and Thailand for my Ph. D. in Integrated Tourism Management. I have worked in many fields within the travel industry, including international hotel chains in Spain and the UK as well as working for Spain’s largest travel company. Since January 2011, I worked as a Travel Consultant for (arguably) Spain’s most specialist high-end travel company catering to the North-American market. Since May 2013, after studying an Advanced Course in Community Management, I also worked as a Social Media Manager for this company. In January 2015 I began my new life in Thailand, where I started teaching English, Tourism & Hospitality and Business Management related subjects at an important private university in Bangkok. Besides, in 2017 I co-founded one of the most popular Spanish restaurants in Bangkok, where I am currently in charge of the marketing responsibilities. Since 2019 I combined my lecturing, consulting, and researching jobs with a Department management position at the same university. The latest step in my career brought me to Switzerland in 2021, where I joined one of the top Hotel Management Colleges in the world as a Program Manager.

Alessandro Cavelzani: Dr Cavelzani is Member of IARPP International Ass. for Relational Psychoanalysis.  Practicing for the last 15 years in Milan (Italy) as English-speaking psychotherapist for adult, infant and child. Got the doctorate in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at SIPRE Italian Institute of Relational Psychoanalysis, Milan, and a post-doc in child psychotherapy at same Institute. Since 10 years, Dr Cavelzani is also Visiting Professor in some Universities: at Donau University (Austria), at Grenoble Business School (France), at FHGR University Chur (Switzerland), Ritz Colleges (Switzerland). Dr Cavelzani is also an active researcher, publishing also in the filed of dysfunctional leadership and job stress.
David Brannon: He is holding a PhD in Leadership, Organisations and Behavior, MSc in International Management and Strategic Consulting and extensive academic and commercial experience.

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