Responsible Leadership: Review and Prospects

Abstract

The responsible leadership has gained considerable attention in contemporary management scholarship. As a new leadership theory, responsible leadership transcends traditional dyadic leader-subordinate relationship, and focuses on a full-range view of leader-stakeholder relationship, which can effectively deal with new challenges from all sectors of society. In this paper, we first provide an overview of the conception, structure, and measurement of responsible leadership. Besides, we analyze and conclude the antecedents and consequences of responsible leadership. Finally, we put forward some suggestions about future research in this field.

Responsible Leadership Research: A Bibliometric Review

“…Despite the field of responsible leadership still being in its infancy (Shi & Ye, 2016), a decade of research has resulted in at least 64 publications that depict several alternative emerging theories, as well as concepts and research methods and techniques (Shi & Ye, 2016). Based on the frequency distribution of publications on the topic, which started in 2006, the number of publications grew from 2009 on, denoting the increasing research interest in responsible leadership.…”

“…Despite BAR, Rio de Janeiro, v. 15, n. 1, art. 5, e170112, 2018 www.anpad.org.br/bar being recent, approximately within the last decade, the topic has gained a high level of attention in management research (Shi & Ye, 2016), which nevertheless has not been accompanied by a systematization of the ideas, concepts, and key theories already being used by active researchers. Such is the purpose of the current research, which intends to organize and give structure to the existing literature on responsible leadership.…”

“…Secondly, the increasing awareness, public interest and intervention in financial crises, unemployment, massive layoffs, downsizings, environmental problems, corporate scandals and unethical misconduct in business. Managers and leaders' responsibilities and ethical behavior have been receiving higher levels of attention (Shi & Ye, 2016); hence corporate and managerial responsiveness has been under public scrutiny more than ever (Pfeffer, 2015). In his seminal paper, Stodgill (1950) highlighted leadership as one of the world's oldest concerns, as exemplified by Homer's book the Iliad and the Greek heroes.…”

“…Although a recent concept, responsible leadership has attracted much research attention (Shi & Ye, 2016), but literature has failed to offer a systematic description of the key ideas, concepts and theoretical approaches underlying the research. Thus, no organized and systematic review has been offered, leaving the knowledge on the field scattered through numerous publications.…”

Corporate Social Responsibility and Population Health

“…In addition, they argued that this type of leadership is aimed to build and sustain good, trustful and sustainable relationships with all relevant stakeholders within an organization and outside its borders; responsible leadership takes place in a global, interconnected world where there is an interaction with a multitude of followers as stakeholders, locally and globally, inside and outside the corporation, and that key stakeholders include employees, clients and customers, shareholders, business partners, suppliers, peers, family, community, and the social and natural environment [56]. Various scholars suggest that responsible leaders are positioned to address today's challenges in a stakeholder society by being able to bring together different people to follow a shared and morally sound vision [19,56,57]. Thus, by being able to build and cultivate relationships with internal and external stakeholders, responsible leaders will be able to achieve mutually shared objectives based on a vision of business as a force of good for the many, and not just a few (shareholders and managers) [58].…”