Caring Leadership and Employee Bereavement: A Literature Review

Introduction and Scope of the Literature Survey

This literature review involved close scrutiny of books, journal articles, and materials from Internet sources on caring leadership, employee bereavement, and the connections between them, in six key areas. These were: (1) bereavement and funeral policies and procedures that currently exist for United States military personnel and their families (but not for personnel and/or families of other branches of U.S. government); (2) the history of military funeral honors practices, policies, and procedures; (3) relationships between caring leadership and attitudes, practices, and policies concerning empathy and support for employees in general, and employee bereavement in particular; (4) caring leadership as demonstrated by managerial support of, and help for, grieving employees; (5) workplace attitudes and best practices having to do with support for and management of bereaved employees; and (6) typical effects on employees and those around them of the deaths of loved ones and/or other serious losses, and how caring leaders can help at those times.

Upon comprehensive review, the available literature fell into five categories. The first was primary and secondary source material pertinent to funeral benefits for military personnel and/or other government personnel — for example, federal legislation and other published congressional proceedings, and related secondary source material. The second category was literature on caring leadership in general. The third category was literature on grief management in the workplace by caring leaders, particularly the ways that caring leaders treat bereaved employees and encourage others in the workplace to treat them, and on caring workplace attitudes in general toward employees' bereavement and grief. The fourth category focused on the particular workplace funeral and bereavement policies of selected public and private organizations — including companies, colleges and universities, and churches — and compared and contrasted their respective bereavement policies both among themselves and with United States military funeral policies and procedures. The fifth category focused on the potential risks, drawbacks, and benefits of changing (or expanding) current workplace bereavement practices, policies, and procedures within government and other workplaces, and on potentially granting funeral honors to government employees that would be equivalent, in appropriate ways, to military funeral honors.

Federal Legislation and Other Information on Military and Government Funerals, Funeral Leave, and Bereavement Leave

The literature survey first examined various United States legislative documents pertinent to: (1) military funerals; (2) entitlements to military funerals; (3) the history and protocol of military funeral honors within the United States; (4) funeral leave for military and non-military government personnel; and (5) funeral leave — or the lack thereof — for non-military United States government employees.

One such legislative document was the Report to Congress on Military Funeral Honors for Veterans (1999), "as required by Section 567 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act" (p. 1). This document explained the history, background, and protocol of United States military funerals and summarized the proceedings of an earlier Congressional Executive Roundtable held on November 17, 1998. According to that document, the roundtable was attended by "over 100 representatives, including senior officials from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs" (Report to Congress on Military Funeral Honors for Veterans, 1999, p. 3). The document further explained that the present American tradition of giving military funeral honors to the fallen has evolved over a long period of time and today incorporates both foreign military and American military historical elements; present military funeral protocol is rooted in both ancient foreign military protocols and past American military experiences.

According to that document, the ritual burial of fallen military soldiers originates from the military funeral traditions of the ancient Greeks. The funeral oration of Pericles was, in fact, the model used by President Lincoln for the Gettysburg Address. It was considered customary at Roman military funerals to call the name of the dead three times. More recently, however, in the early days of the American military, three musket volleys were substituted instead, serving both to announce the completion of the burial of the fallen soldier and to signify that the burial party was ready to resume battle.

During the early days of the United States, it was the practice for Army commanders to bury their dead troops, whenever possible, in cemetery plots within the confines of their particular military posts (Report to Congress on Military Funeral Honors for Veterans, 1999). According to that document (pp. 10–11):

In 1861, Army General Order #75 ordered the Quartermaster General to provide a registered headboard to be secured at the head of each soldier's grave. In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Omnibus Act that established national cemeteries for soldiers who die in the service of the country. The music we now use for Taps dates back to General Daniel Butterfield of the Army of the Potomac, who, together with the brigade bugler, composed the music we now know as Taps. Taps was first used in connection with military funerals during the Civil War. In 1918, the U.S. Army began the practice of placing a flag over the coffin and, following the funeral service, presenting the flag to the next of kin.

Other documents on military funerals, history, protocol, employee leave, and entitlements surveyed for the study included: Military Funerals: A Brief History (2005); History of Taps (2005); Funeral Leave (2005); Military Funeral Support (2004); Funeral Honors Ceremony (2005); Banusiewicz (2004); and Military Funerals (2002). All of these sources contained information on military funeral protocol, including the facts that the military maintains a detailed body of regulations regarding its funeral procedures. When military personnel pass, there are federal laws and formal procedures in place to acknowledge them, based on Title 38 of the United States Code, Section 112. Military funeral protocols spelled out by federal law include: (1) at least two military personnel being sent to the funeral; (2) Taps being played by a bugler, if available, and if not, a recording of Taps being played; (3) a 21-gun salute being given to honor a fallen soldier under particular circumstances; (4) an American flag being first folded thirteen times by the military detail conducting the ceremony, with the folded flag then being given by the detail leader to the next of kin; (5) special words of condolence being spoken by the detail leader to the next of kin; and (6) a Certificate of Honor, signed by the current President of the United States, being made available upon request to the next of kin.

Also according to that document:

Section 1482 of Title 10 authorizes the Secretaries of the Military Services to pay for the necessary expenses of presentation of a flag of the United States to the person designated to direct disposition of remains of active duty members and eligible reservists. Section 2301 of Title 38 requires that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall furnish a flag to drape the casket of each deceased veteran (including retirees). After the burial, the flag shall be given to the veteran's next of kin. The Secretary shall furnish a flag to the next of kin of those who were on active duty after May 27, 1941. (p. 11)

Moreover, according to Military Funeral Support (2004), Funeral Honors Ceremony (2005), Banusiewicz (2004), and Military Funerals (2002), military funerals for active fallen United States military personnel are paid for in full by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The United States Code Title 38 (Veterans' Benefits), Part II, Chapter 23, "Burial Benefits" (2004) covers current federal law on military burial protocol, burial honors, rights and entitlements to military funerals, and some survivor benefits. Specifically, these sections of Title 38 are: (1) Sec. 2301. Flags; (2) Sec. 2302. Funeral Expenses; (3) Sec. 2303. Death in Department facility; plot allowance; (4) Sec. 2304. Claims for reimbursement; (5) Sec. 2305. Persons eligible under prior law; (6) Sec. 2306. Headstones, markers, and burial receptacles; (7) Sec. 2307. Death from service-connected disability; and (8) Sec. 2308. Transportation of deceased veteran to a national cemetery.

H.R. 4954, the Military Families Bereavement Leave Act (2004), was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on July 22, 2004, passed by both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and signed into law by the president shortly thereafter. This law serves to authorize leave for the immediate family members of a member of the uniformed services who dies in the line of duty, in order to facilitate the attendance of immediate family members at the burial ceremony of the member, and for other purposes (p. 1).

According to Paragraph 5 of Section 2 of HR 4954: "The immense grief felt by the families of these members who have made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the United States is compounded by the need of family members to miss work and other responsibilities in order to attend to burial duties, funeral services, and related family concerns, causing additional economic and personal hardship" (p. 2).

Additionally, Section 3 of HR 4954 states that "an eligible employee shall be entitled to a total of seven days of leave because of the death of a parent, spouse, son, daughter, or person for whom the employee serves as designated representative, if the deceased died in the line of duty as a member of the uniformed services. Such leave is intended to permit the employee to prepare for or attend the burial ceremony of the deceased member of the uniformed services and may be paid or unpaid leave" (Military Families Bereavement Leave Act, 2004, p. 2).

Conversely, the United States federal government presently has no laws in place to similarly, or in any comparably formal way, acknowledge and honor the passing of federal government personnel other than military personnel.

According to U.S. Code Title 5, Part III, Subpart E, Chapter 63, Subchapter II (2005), the federal government does authorize, according to three separate sections of Title 5: (1) Sec. 6321, "Absence of veterans to attend funeral services"; (2) Sec. 6326, "Absence in connection with funerals of immediate relatives in the Armed Forces"; and (3) Sec. 6328, "Absence in connection with funerals of fellow Federal law enforcement officers." Title 5, therefore, authorizes the use of sick leave to attend a family member's funeral, and within Title 5, various procedures and rights to leave — paid or unpaid — for immediate survivors are delineated for: (1) funerals of law enforcement officers; (2) funerals of relatives in the Armed Forces; and (3) funerals of veterans (2005).

However, no other branches of United States government service are mentioned in terms of funeral protocols, survivors' rights, or leaves of absence for survivors anywhere within Title 5 of the U.S. Code. In fact, within the two agencies of U.S. government service whose work is very often arguably equally as dangerous as active military service — and in some cases more so — namely the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), no similar or equivalent funeral benefits or honors are offered in honor of fallen members of those agencies, their spouses, or other immediate survivors as are offered to military personnel and their families. The FBI, for example, offers annual leave, sick leave, family medical leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, and family-friendly leave, which includes "up to 40 hours (5 days) of sick leave in a leave year to care for a family member or to arrange or attend an immediate family member's funeral. In addition to the 40 hours of sick leave allowed, an employee may use an additional 64 hours under certain circumstances" (Benefits, 2005, p. 2).

The CIA's leave policies are very similar to those of the FBI (Sunoo & Solomon, 1996): no specific funeral leave or funeral honors are granted to CIA personnel, or to immediate relatives of CIA personnel killed in the line of duty (p. 8). However, according to one CIA employee whose 33-year-old husband was diagnosed with lung cancer and died two months later (p. 8), additional benefits were in fact forthcoming from the agency when she most needed them — but only due to an internal pool of donated annual leave and the compassion and generosity of her peers:

"Thank goodness the agency maintains a pool of annual leave donated by other employees. People who have excess leave time can donate it to the pool. It's so helpful for those involved in catastrophic situations. I never had to take leave without pay. My office gave me a week off after he died."

Like many employees of many workplaces nationwide, then, CIA employees — like the vast majority of other U.S. government employees (not to mention employees of most other public and private entities) — depend, following the death of a loved one, on workplace kindness rather than on a governmental guarantee of up to seven days of federally protected funeral and/or bereavement leave time, as is uniquely guaranteed to U.S. Armed Services members and their families (Sunoo & Solomon, 1996; Grief in the Workplace, April 2003; Bereavement in the Workplace, 2005; Tyler, 2003).

In summary, the United States federal government currently has no laws equivalent to either Title 38 or HR 4954 in place to similarly acknowledge the passing of non-military federal personnel, or the effects of their passing upon their loved ones. The federal government currently authorizes only the use of previously accrued sick leave to attend a family member's funeral. Separate procedures are also spelled out within Title 5 for leave that may be taken for funerals of law enforcement officers, funerals of relatives in the Armed Forces, and funerals of veterans. However, no other branch of government service is covered in terms of funeral leave protected by law — much less funeral honors for personnel other than military — anywhere within either Title 5 or Title 38.