Globally Responsible Leadership

This book employs the UN Global Compact and its ten principles as a framework for discussing the issues facing global business managers. Contributors examine the intersection between business and ethical issues, including human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.

The need to ensure principle-driven, legally sound, and ethically acceptable behavior in the global context is not an easy task for leaders. They face the requirement of meeting the needs and expectations of a diverse set of stakeholders. They are increasingly called upon to protect, preserve, and restore the resources of the environment. They are expected to improve human well-being and social equity and recognize and effectively address economic and social issues concerning equality, social justice, and human rights protection. How should leaders in global organizations go about meeting the multiple demands of a complex global stakeholder environment? This book explores the dilemmas, paradoxes, and opportunities that leaders in global organizations of all types confront daily and addresses how managers can and should think about and approach these complex issues in responsible and productive ways. This book will be of interest to students and scholars across business, management and the social sciences more broadly.

These chapters on ‘Responsible Leadership’ represent the latest thinking on a topic of increasing relevance in a connected world. There are many challenges that still remain when it comes to establishing responsible leadership both in theory and practice. Whilst offering conceptualisations for the improvement of leadership is a first and perhaps easier response, what is more difficult is to facilitate the actual change to happen. These chapters will not only generate interest in the emerging domain of studies on responsible leadership, but also will pave the way for future research in this area in the years to come. Previously Published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 98 Supplement 2, 2011​

It is time for the development of a new kind of business leadership. Global needs call for a revision of market capitalism and a move towards moral capitalism; a move "from value to values, from shareholders to stakeholders, and from balance sheets to balanced development" (Kofi Annan). With the challenge of this transition in mind, this book argues that it is time for a new understanding of leadership, a new romanticism which looks behind the overvalued, heroic leadership notion. The editors explore a romanticized rhetoric and situate it within current discourses of authentic, distributed and ethical leadership, where societal, economic and environmental challenges require us to take a collective lead towards doing good and growing well. Exploring this dichotomy of romantic ideal and essential requirement, this book combines the insights of leading academics and with those of practitioners in the field. Thought-provoking and engaging it will challenge both thinking and practice, and is essential reading for all those operating or researching in the field of leadership, particularly those who realize the overwhelming challenges of sustainability, and corporate social responsibility which the world now faces.

As Chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group from 1991–2001 and Anglo American plc from 2002–2009, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart is as qualified as anyone on the planet to discuss the realities, dilemmas and lessons to be learnt from the last 20 years of corporate engagement with sustainability, ethics and responsibility. In this unique book – part memoir, part confessional, part manifesto for leadership – we hear a unique voice from the front line of corporate responsibility. Moody-Stuart retraces the steps of a remarkable journey from being a postgraduate geologist to being at the helm of two of the largest corporations in the world.We hear of dealings with dictators and prime ministers, colleagues and NGOs, rivals and friends. We travel from Syria to Nigeria; Iraq to Downing Street; and from the machinations of the United Nations to those inside the boardroom of Shell. We see Shell’s annus horribilis in 1995 unfold through the eyes of an insider, and how Brent Spar and the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa sent shockwaves through the company, resulting in a complete reappraisal of its mission and principles. We hear about the oil and mining sectors and their complicated development role in areas of conflict and corruption; the way that markets have failed us on climate change and corruption; and how governments need to step up to the global challenges we face. We hear how Deepwater Horizon could have been avoided; what Shell were asked to do by Tony Blair during the UK fuel blockades of 2000 and why they declined; why China is too important to ignore; and why the Global Compact is too important to fail. We hear lessons from a life spent living in 10 different countries and we come to realize that, for corporations, trying to do the right thing can sometimes be almost impossible. We also come to know a deeply ethical and thoughtful leader who has always tried to do exactly that.

The second edition of Responsible Leadership offers orienting knowledge on how to lead in a world of contested values—a world where leadership work extends beyond leaders and direct reports to a whole range of stakeholders inside and outside an organization. The new edition comes at a time where leaders face growing expectations to do better, and more, and where leadership challenges such as the ethical tragedy of climate change and global pandemics highlight the urgency of collective action. Updated and significantly extended, the second edition of this much acclaimed volume assembles leading scholars and practitioners in the field. It includes new chapters on inclusive leadership, the study of responsible leadership, the purpose of organizations, authenticity and values, virtuous leadership, irresponsible leadership, the paradoxical nature of responsible leadership, responsible leadership in context and in Asia, artistic expression to enable responsible leadership, responsible leadership measurement, and new directions for responsible leadership. This volume offers rich and functional insights into the concept and practice of responsible leadership. It will appeal to academics and practitioners alike with a wide array of perspectives grounded in pioneering scholarship and best practice.