Ethical context of the participative leadership model: taking people into account

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how the model of participative leadership may operate in the context of partnership with internal stakeholders. By linking the moral claims of an organization's employees to CSR strategies, an organization can strengthen emotional bonds with its key stakeholders, and create deeper, longer‐lasting relationships that translate to increased support, loyalty and a sense of stakeholder ownership.

Design/methodology/approach

Although there are many definitions of leadership, none of them is universally agreed‐upon. The paper reviews different approaches and paradigms of leadership and the role of ethical values in leading responsible organizations. The effective and ethical leadership and the critical role of employees' participation in implementing corporate responsibility agenda are analyzed.

Findings

Corporate responsibility strategy will succeed only if employees recognize that this strategy creates value for them as well. In recent times participative leadership is at the center of an important shift in a corporate world increasingly moving away from traditional top‐down leadership to more decentralized models based on ethical values shared by all stakeholders.

Research limitations/implications

Only a small portion of the existing literature on responsible leadership in the context of CSR reports of studies using longitudinal or empirical designs. Further research should focus on the relationship between different leadership paradigms and corporate social performance.

Practical implications

Moral motives carry greater weight in determining the total “CSR motivation” held by each employee, so employees will seek to work for, remain in, and get attached to organizations whose organizational strategies are consistent with their moral values. An ethical infrastructure based on the proper leadership model is critical in the process of adopting responsibility‐based practices throughout organization.

Originality/value

This paper intends to conceptualize the linkage between ethical values of the employees and the type of leadership enhancing implementation of corporate responsibility strategy. Recent discussions among academics and practitioners are showing that effective CSR should be understood more as a process, through which individuals' moral values and concerns are articulated.

Citation

Rok, B. (2009), "Ethical context of the participative leadership model: taking people into account", Corporate Governance, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 461-472. https://doi.org/10.1108/14720700910985007