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    Responsible Leadership

     
    5/8/2006

    Responsible Leadership is full of ideas and cases on business integrity, leadership in an era of globalization, and the development of values-based stewardship. Harvard Business School makes an appearance too, with an excerpt from professor Lynn Paine’s 2003 book Value Shift on “A Compass for Decision Making,” and an essay by professor James E. Austin on “Leadership Through Social Purpose Partnering.”

    First, though, what is responsible leadership? It’s a gnarly concept. In a nutshell, responsible leadership is simply linking leadership with integrity in business. Leaders frame decisions by considering all stakeholders as well as the common good. “At best, leadership and management complement each other. At worst, we find only management but no leadership,” write editors Thomas Maak and Nicola M. Pless, who are both associated with Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen.

    Chapters look at (among many other topics) accountability, leading responsibly across cultures, reconciling dilemmas, and sustainable business. In order to lead across cultures, for instance, managers should remain cognizant of their own cultural identity and its possible blind-spots; they also should recognize the possibility that they and their employees may hold several different cultural identities at the same time. This latter point is illustrated by a case from the late ‘90s about a strike by airline SAS. Striking flight attendants identified with the organization, their profession as a whole, or their country of origin, making the strike that much more complex.

    As Maak and Pless write in the preface, “We first developed the idea to edit a book on responsible leadership in 2002 because we simply had trouble finding one.” A little digging led to enthusiasm and encouragement from a willing pool of contributors who work in business and leadership ethics, decision sciences, multicultural and nonprofit management, and leadership development. It makes for a valuable volume.

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