A Multi-Level Study Analysis of the Gray Shades of Responsible Leadership Behavior for Themselves

Abstract

Most theories and research on responsible leadership have focused on how the behavior of responsible leaders affects followers, and portraying these behaviors is undoubtedly beneficial. We shifted from our primary focus to the gray side of responsible leader behavior on leaders themselves. Based on the conservation of resource theory, we assume that although responsible leader behavior brings benefits to leaders and followers, these behaviors will also cause resource damage to the leaders themselves. The findings of two study samples show that leaders and their followers have completed five consecutive weeks of weekly surveys. The results show that responsible leader behavior is associated with leader psychological distress and subsequent increase in leader burnout. These detrimental outcomes go beyond the benefits to followers (Study 1) and the leaders themselves (Study 2). Moreover, the extent to which responsible leader behavior is related to increased psychological distress depends on the attributes of the followers. Therefore, when the leader’s responsible behavior is directed at followers with low proactive personality (study 1) and competence (study 2), the leaders experienced greater increases in psychological distress. Overall, the results of this article answer why and under what circumstances the gray side of responsible leader behavior may appear.