We review the responsible leadership literature over the last few years.

What is it about?

To map the theoretical, methodological, and empirical state of the art of the responsible leadership field, we outline recent developments and delineate important research gaps and directions for future theory development and empirical research. We emphasize the transition of responsible leadership research from micro-level perspectives with normative roots to research spanning multiple levels of analysis, vis-à-vis both antecedents and outcomes. We discuss the implications of our mapping, highlighting the necessity of not only conceptualizing responsible leadership across multiple levels of analysis, but also to actively focus on interactions among responsible leadership antecedents and outcomes across these levels.

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Why is it important?

The increasing interest in responsible leadership has produced a research field rich in theoretical and conceptual potential, with diverse research foci, theoretical foundations, and methodological approaches. These fascinating developments have demarcated the field from other leadership-oriented disciplines. However, they have equally courted fragmentation and ambiguity in terms of the field’s positioning within the greater body of leadership studies. For this reason, it is important to clearly understand the responsible leadership phenomenon.