What Does It Mean to Be Responsible? Addressing the Missing Responsibility Dimension in Ethical Leadership Research

This paper extends ethical leadership research by proposing a responsibility orientation for leaders. Responsible leadership is based on consideration of leaders as not isolated from the environment, as critically evaluating prevailing norms, as forward-looking, as sharing responsibility, and as aiming for collective problem solving. I show how adding such a responsibility orientation helps to address some remaining critical issues in ethical leadership research. Results from in-depth interviews with business and non-governmental organization representatives illustrate the practical relevance of thinking about responsibility and reveal challenges for responsible leadership. The article discusses important aspects of responsible leadership for the leader as a moral person and a moral manager. Among those, aspects for the moral person include being able to make informed ethical judgments about prevailing norms and rules, engaging in long-term thinking, communicating effectively with stakeholders, engaging in perspective taking, displaying moral courage, and aspiring to positive change. Furthermore, for the moral manager, responsible leadership means actively engaging stakeholders, encouraging participative decision making, and aiming for shared problem solving