Stakeholder exclusion practices of responsible leaders: an investigation into the application of responsible leader values in stakeholder inclusion and exclusion

• Date: 26 March 2024
• Pages: 1168-1191
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-06-2023-0187
• Published date: 26 March 2024
• Author: Mark Ellis,Dianne Dean

Stakeholder exclusion practices

of responsible leaders:

an investigation into

the application of responsible

leader values in stakeholder

inclusion and exclusion

Mark Ellis and Dianne Dean

College of Business Technology and Engineering, Sheffield Hallam University,

Sheffield, UK

Abstract

Purpose –The aim of this paper is to explore the stakeholder exclusion practices of responsible leaders.

Design/methodology/approach –An interpretive multiple case analyses of seven responsibly led

organisations was employed. Twenty-two qualitative interviews were undertaken to investigate and

understand perceptions and practice of responsible leaders and their approach to stakeholder inclusion and

exclusion.

Findings –The findings revealed new and surprising insights where responsible leaders compromised their

espoused values of inclusivity through the application of a personal bias, resulting in the exclusion of certain

stakeholders. This exclusivity practice focused on the informal evaluation of potential stakeholders’values,

and where they did not align with those of the responsible leader, these stakeholders were excluded from

participation with the organisation. This resulted in the creation and continuity of a culture of shared moral

purpose across the organisation.

Research limitations/implications –This study focussed on responsible leader-led organisations, so the

next stage of the research will include mainstream organisations (i.e. without explicit responsible leadership) to

examine how personal values bias affects stakeholder selection in a wider setting.

Practical implications –The findings suggest that reflexive practice and critically appraising management

methods in normative leadership approaches may lead to improvements in diversity management.

Originality/value –This paper presents original empirical data challenging current perceptions of

responsible leader inclusivity practices and indicates areas of leadership development that may need to be

addressed.

Keywords Responsible leadership, Stakeholder inclusion, Stakeholder exclusion, Diversity management

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

“Responsible leadership is inclusive and far-reaching”(Stone-Johnson, 2014, p. 660) where

responsible leaders are concerned for the wider stakeholder community (Voegtlin et al., 2020)

and apply moral values in their decision making (Cameron, 2011;Ciulla, 2014). This form of

leadership responds to the growing demand within society for ethical business practice (Pless

and Maak, 2011) where there is a need for inclusive capitalism (Waldman et al., 2020).

The inclusivity challenge of satisfying multiple stakeholder needs, governing from a

moral standpoint whilst also maintaining a viable organisation requires responsible leaders

to “possess the cognitive ability”to achieve positive outcomes within this context (Voegtlin

et al., 2020, p. 414), making responsible leadership (RL) an aspirational, but potentially

unobtainable goal (Cameron, 2011). Maak (2007, p. 330) highlights a key challenge for

responsible leaders is the need for proactivity where they are “required to enable inclusive

EDI

43,7

1168

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 5 June 2023

Revised 14 December 2023

6 February 2024

Accepted 22 February 2024

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 43 No. 7, 2024

pp. 1168-1191

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-06-2023-0187

stakeholder engagement”and that although this is a complex task with many uncertainties,

this will lead to building social capital and the common good.

However, although the RL literature sees responsible leaders as inclusive leaders, it does

not explore in significant detail how this is practiced or where the limit of inclusivity is

(Waldman et al., 2020;Voegtlin et al., 2020). This limited understanding presents challenges,

for instance, where inclusivity may be espoused by a responsible leader it is not possible for

them to be wholly inclusive to all stakeholders all of the time, particularly where stakeholder

needs may be mutually exclusive, equally they cannot consult with all stakeholders on all

issues. Indeed, dark leadership studies have highlighted how abusive and destructive leaders

have an “utter disregard”for stakeholders (Milosevic et al., 2020, p. 120), thus presenting RL

as an antidote to this with its espoused stakeholder inclusivity approach, but it too must have

limits. This article seeks to understand where the boundary of this inclusivity is and what

rationale underpins this decision-making?

Stakeholder inclusion among responsible leaders is a relatively nascent topic and this is

reflected in the extant literature where the majority of studies are largely theoretical (Marques

et al., 2018) with limited empirical studies of how organisations are actually engaging with RL

(Voegtlin et al., 2020). To deepen our understanding of responsible leader practice around

stakeholder inclusivity, this study investigated this activity across seven responsibly led

organisations. The investigation focused on behaviours linked with stakeholder inclusion

and management, and the espoused rationale for this practice. The findings revealed that

responsible leaders use their personal moral values as a decisional heuristic within

stakeholder selection, actively seeking those who share their moral values. In doing so, they

also identify those whose values do not align with their own and actively seek to exclude

these individuals. This results in the preservation of the organisational culture of shared

moral purpose (Voegtlin, 2011;Waldman and Balven, 2014), established from their own

personal value set (Schein, 2010). This unexpected finding of stakeholder exclusivity brings

new empirical insights to contemporary RL theory, where it takes forward the understanding

of stakeholder inclusion practices of responsible leaders. Responsible leaders were found to

be inclusive, but this was bounded where they proactively included likeminded others as

stakeholders, and actively excluded those whose values they perceived as not being aligned

with their own (and by association their organisation). Thus, the responsible leaders in this

study were not inclusive, contrasting current views of responsible leaders (Waldman et al.,

2020;Bhatti et al., 2023). Instead, they compromised their espoused values of inclusivity so as

to preserve the established mo ral values of the organisation al culture, prioritising

homogeneity above diversity.

The following reviews the theoretical framework and current interpretations of RL with a

focus on responsible leader values and stakeholder inclusion. This is followed by a review of

the research methods applied, the key findings and discussion section. The paper concludes

with a discussion on the theory development along with implications for future research and

practice.

Theoretical framework

Within society there is a growing interest and demand for responsible leadership (RL)

(Voegtlin et al., 2020;Waldman and Galvin, 2008). The business scandals in the late 20th

century (e.g. Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, the Bhopal disaster for Union Carbide and the

demise of Enron and Arthur Anderson) (Pless and Maak, 2011) linked with questionable

ethics and self-interested governance practices have brought into question many of the

assumptions around the boundaries of a business’s responsibility (Doh et al., 2011). Indeed,

destructive leadership is a reality within many organisations where leaders violate the

legitimate interests of the organisation by undermining the goals and employee’s well-being

Stakeholder

exclusion

practices

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