Not all managers in multinational corporations can be exceptional leaders. Hence, corporations provide their managers with a broad set of instruments, methods and tools to support them in achieving outstanding leadership. These instruments stem from various functions like human resources, controlling, corporate communication, strategic management, and knowledge management and present the building blocks of so called leadership systems. A key question is how leadership systems can be aligned with corporate strategy to reach "leadership excellence" - a question that has been subject to empirical research in the recent years. In 2003, a study at my institute at Technische Universität München has shown that most leadership systems are indeed "excellent" in the way they are derived from the overarching corporate strategy; however, the results have also indicated that leadership systems have only weak ties to topics such as values, ethics, and social responsibilities. The major ethical and environmental crises which many of the multinational corporations have been facing motivated the author to revisit the topic of leadership systems. He roots his understanding in new management concepts such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate sustainability and, more generally, corporate responsibility (CR) and has argued that leadership systems need to go beyond purely economic aspects to also integrate social and environmental aspects. Such a holistic leadership system, the author terms "Responsible Leadership System". In 2007, the author designed an empirical study labelled "CSR Leadership Study", whose results are at the core of the present research.
Several global crises such as climate change, the global financial breakdown and corporate corruption scandals have diminished the legitimacy of business. One possible answer to this situation is the concept of corporate responsibility (CR), a voluntary approach aiming at the integration of economic with social, ethical and environmental goals. Erik G. Hansen addresses this gap. Rooted in literature on CR and formal leadership systems he develops a conceptual "Responsible Leadership Systems" framework structuring leadership instruments and tools into seven interconnected key areas. The framework is applied in qualitative multi-case studies in seven of the largest German stock corporations. The results show that leading companies increasingly make CR part of their strategies, structures, management instruments and tools.
