Responsible Leadership in Organisations (2000–2025): A PRISMA-Guided Systematic Review of Definitions, Theories, Trends, and Research Gaps

As background to this study, organisational leadership has faced scrutiny due to ethical failures, governance crises, and global challenges, highlighting the limitations of models focused on short-term gains, specifically over the past two decades. This study, as a systematic literature review, aims to synthesise definitions, theoretical drivers, and research gaps in Responsible Leadership (RL) within organisational contexts, addressing conceptual fragmentation and the need for culturally diverse exploration, particularly in the underrepresented non-Western regions. The study employed a PRISMA-based approach to conduct a structured literature review on 67 peer-reviewed articles from 2000 to June 2025, sourced from 12 databases using Boolean searches. Inclusion criteria focused on peer-reviewed studies on RL in organisational settings; data extraction covered metadata, paradigms, methods, and outcomes, with narrative and quantitative synthesis applied. One of the major findings is that RL is a multidimensional, relational construct rooted in Stakeholder Theory, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Triple Bottom Line, emphasising ethics, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability. Inconsistencies in definitions and measurements persist, with limited research in non-Western contexts and a need for standardised tools. The value of this study is in the consolidation of RL scholarship, highlighting trends and gaps (e.g., Global South underrepresentation), and proposes a research agenda for culturally responsive frameworks, offering value for theory refinement and practical leadership development in diverse settings. This systematic literature review was conducted and reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines.