Conceptualising socially contributive leadership among Indian organisational leaders: a qualitative study

The study attempts to explore how the proposed concept of socially contributive leadership (SCL) initiates and sustains the process of 'social contribution' as a call of the personal-conscience of an organisational leader. Constructionist grounded theory (CGT) methodology was applied to identify the process of contribution through SCL. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 48 Indian organisational leaders, and secondary data were collected about four organisational leaders. The CGT analysis of data resulted in four categories depicting the nature of socially contributive leadership, namely 'inducing socially conscientious values', 'empowering the disadvantaged', 'deconstructing irrelevant social categorisation', and 'creating and seizing upon the opportunities to sensitise people'. This study illustrates the nature of SCL and the process of initiating and sustaining social change by engaging with and giving primacy to the issues of the external stakeholders while motivating the internal stakeholders to synergise their action as a mechanism to achieve social contribution.