Moral foundations for responsible leadership at a time of crisis

Hamid Khurshid, Crystal Xinru Wu, Robin Stanley Snell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)109-140
Number of pages32
JournalAsian Journal of Business Ethics
Volume13
Issue numberSuppl 1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2024

Keywords

  • Distributive justice
  • Moral principles
  • Responsible leadership
  • Responsible practices

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