This dissertation explores the complexities of responsible leadership (RL) and managers’ sense of responsibility (SOR) in the context of structural power. Existing literature on structural power, SOR, justice, and responsible leadership, focuses on the powerfuls’ responsibility to generate inclusivity and solidarity by enforcing norms of equal respect and participation within their teams, without fully accounting for multiple stakeholders and contradictory justice norms. This dissertation proposes a bipartite framework that contrasts managers’ upward-facing SOR to institutional goals with their downward-facing SOR to care for lower-power others. I qualify the solidarity-enhancing perspective of structural power and responsibility by highlighting how structural power comes with responsibilities that are both equality-enhancing and inequality-enhancing. Unlike those without power, I suggest that powerholders have merit-based obligations (MBO) to regulate collective behavior by granting justice-relevant privileges (e.g., greater pay, voice, and respect) that favor high-performers who conform with organizational goals and punish those who do not. This responsibility leads those with power to perceive larger discrepancies between those who “fit” and “do not fit” with collective goals compared to lower-ranking others. However, these collective merit-based responsibilities contrast with relational norms of friendship and justice norms of equal voice, dignity, and consideration. Finally, I consider how employees' cooperativeness and competitiveness influence the perceived legitimacy and justice of exacerbated merit-based norms. This dissertation offers a descriptive theory of responsible leadership that underscores the paradoxical nature of responsibility and the constructed pro-social relevance of merit-based inequalities at work.
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