A view from within: exploring the psychology of responsible leadership

The purpose of this paper is to review the links between ethics, leadership and psychology, and to introduce the papers for the special issue of the Journal of Management Development.

The paper provides a conceptual review of issues attached to research in the field of responsible leadership psychology.

Individual organisational members affect and are affected by the organisation's collective psyche, and all are potential leaders; therefore, all should care about their “inner life” and reflect on the interrelationships between their ethical responsibility, their psychological world, and their interaction with others.

The paper shows that self‐enquiry and understanding the unconscious influences on ego‐consciousness are essential for nurturing ethical awareness and responsible action as leaders, followers and more generally as organisational agents.