Leaders do not emerge from a vacuum: Toward an understanding of the development of responsible leadership

Abstract

The worldwide problem of corruption is one that requires greater knowledge about responsible leadership. Based on the literature on responsible leadership, developmental psychology, and moral development, the purpose of our study is to understand the constructions of the motivational drivers behind the behaviors of a responsible leader. Using biographical and narrative methodologies, we analyzed the individual motivational drivers of Carlos Cavelier, a recognized responsible leaders who grew up and works in Colombia, a social/economic context characterized by institutional fragility and corruption. Our findings suggest that the coherence between the immediate environments of development of the future leader, configured optimal environments in which the leader developed the moral conscience that guides his behavior as a responsible leader. Our study points out the need not to take the development of responsible leaders for granted, and presents propositions that allow for a deeper understanding of the micro-foundations of responsible leadership, highlighting the importance of the contexts in which leaders are raised and in which they develop. Thus, our study has the potential to be heuristic and generative of future studies. 330 | CASTILLO eT AL. 1 | INTRODUCTION The past two decades have witnessed growing interest in the topic of responsible leadership (RL) (Maak, Pless, & Voegtlin, 2016; Waldman, 2011). This is the result of the rising number of corporate scandals and their significant global financial, social, and environmental repercussions (e.g., Odebrecht, FIFA, Petrobras, etc.). According to Voegtlin, Patzer, and Scherer (2012), scandals of this kind have led to a decline in public trust, the destruction of social capital, and an overall loss of legitimacy for corporate organizational systems. This loss of legitimacy and trust persists (Waldman, Siegel, & Stahl, 2020). Other reasons to be interested in RL are the global environment of new businesses, the active role of stakeholders, and the complex environmental and social challenges as we transition to a more sustainable economic model (Throop & Mayberry, 2017; Witt & Stahl, 2016). According to Freeman and Auster (2011), organizations and their leaders are coming under increasing pressure to enact new values, such as responsibility and sustainability, and to pay more attention to the effects of their actions on their stakeholders. This implies that if organizations want flourish, "leaders will need to behave in new ways consistent with a finite, complex, uncertain, changing, collaborative, connected, and caring world" (Throop & Mayberry, 2017, p. 222). The sheer expansiveness and growth of organizations focused on sustainability such as the Association of Sustainability in Higher Education, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME); and the Academy of Management, among others, is reflective of the increasing recognition of the importance of integrating sustainability in business education (Palthe, 2013) to train the leaders needed by socie...

Does the context matter? Responsible Leadership in Latin America. A Literature Review.

“…Based on the findings of Maak and Stoetter (2012), Van de Loo (2006), and Castillo et al (2020, 2022, three contextual similarities in the development of responsible leaders in Latin America were found. First, all the studied responsible leaders had role models who influenced their ethical and moral character from an early life stage.…”

“…The authors combine the ideas about RL (Maak & Pless, 2006;Pless, 2007), psychological development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006;Magnusson & Stattin, 2006), and moral development (Kohlberg, 1981) to analyze the development of the motivational drivers of Cavelier as a responsible leader throughout his life. Castillo et al (2020Castillo et al ( , 2022 found in Cavelier motivational drivers such as the need for exploration and affirmation, the need for attachment and affiliation, the need for justice, the need for recognition, and the sense of care, which seem to explain his RL roles as steward, citizen, servant, visionary, coach, architect, storyteller, and change agent.…”

“…In their study, Castillo et al (2020Castillo et al ( , 2022 highlighted that the Colombian (Latin American) socio-economical context is an environment in which responsible leaders' development would not seem easy due to formal and informal institutional weaknesses that promote irresponsible behaviors. Castillo et al (2020Castillo et al ( , 2022 argued that the social context in which Cavalier grew up seems to have contributed to his RL behavior.…”

“…In their study, Castillo et al (2020Castillo et al ( , 2022 highlighted that the Colombian (Latin American) socio-economical context is an environment in which responsible leaders' development would not seem easy due to formal and informal institutional weaknesses that promote irresponsible behaviors. Castillo et al (2020Castillo et al ( , 2022 argued that the social context in which Cavalier grew up seems to have contributed to his RL behavior. According to them, the proximal environment or microsystem (family and school), and the coherence between the values promoted by his family and those promoted by his school (mesosystems), represented an optimal environment.…”

“…Thus, Castillo et al (2020Castillo et al ( , 2022 sustain that the context or parenting environment seems to matter in the development of responsible leaders. In this case, the proximal environment (represented by Cavelier's micro and mesosystem) characterized by the coherence and consistency in developing values and role models contributed to Cavelier's moral development.…”