This paper analyzes perceptions of responsible leadership in eight Asia-based firms during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The focal firms were a mixture of multinational corporations (MNCs), large-sized enterprises, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In all eight focal firms, we found that the responsible decision-making of leaders during the pandemic was perceived to be guided by five main moral principles. These comprised equity-based justice for employees, meeting employees’ basic needs, ethics of care for employees, concern for non-employee (...) stakeholders, and interactional justice for employees. We developed a conceptual map of how these principles related to aspects of four ethics-oriented leadership theories. Our analysis also identified four types of responsible leadership policies and practices. These comprised prioritizing the health and safety of stakeholders, flexible work arrangements, meeting employees’ and customers’ special needs, and financial and psychological support for employees. (shrink)

As a rapidly growing field of study, social entrepreneurship is increasingly receiving attention from scholars and practitioners because social ventures have the potential to contribute to economic growth and social innovation. Surprisingly, the role of leadership in social venture growth has received very limited attention. One reason for this omission may be that entrepreneurship and leadership evolved as separate domains. Applying leadership theory to social ventures can help scholars and managers understand how social entrepreneurs can manage the environmental risks, dual (...) mission, and legitimacy issues of social ventures. Our goal for this conceptual paper is to describe how social entrepreneurs can align employees with the seemingly inconsistent goals of social and economic value creation to improve venture performance. We do so by concentrating on a leadership style applicable to their dual mission—servant leadership. Drawing from theoretical underpinnings and examples from single case studies, we offer a research framework and related propositions that delineate how servant leadership style affects social venture performance through the perception of work meaningfulness, well-being, and job engagement. We contribute to theory building by uncovering how social entrepreneurs can share their personal passions, values, and obligations with their employees and inspire them to meet their dual mission, paying attention to the context of social ventures and the attributes of the employees they attract. We also discuss theoretical and practical implications for social entrepreneurship and offer future research directions. (shrink)