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Inclusive Leadership for Reduced Inequality: Economic–Social–Economic Cycle of Inclusion

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Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations related to reduced inequalities calls for greater economic inclusion of the poor. Yet, how business leaders grant economic opportunities and development to the poor is significantly under-researched. Extending burgeoning responsible leadership theory that promotes paradox-savvy leadership for building inclusive ventures through various actors, this study introduces new concepts of inclusive leadership that foster the economic inclusion of the poor from Amartya Sen’s capability approach perspective. By studying how leaders include the poor in social businesses, we provide a fresh perspective of inclusive leadership as a personalized empowering cycle of economic–social–economic inclusion to close the gaps between the rich and poor in business and society. This perspective provides new territories of diversity and inclusion research for reduced inequality.

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Notes

  1. For past studies on inclusive business from a macro perspective, see the cited works on entrepreneurship (Hall et al., 2012); corporate citizenship (Arora & Kazmi, 2012); cross-sector partnerships (Reficco & Marquez, 2012); institutional logic (Pache & Santos, 2013); social capital and capability development (Ansari et al., 2012), the human rights and dignity perspective (Hahn, 2012); and the inclusion, capability-building and empowering-networks perspective (Blowfield & Dolan, 2014).

  2. Despite psychological empowerment involving a positive coalition of dynamic forces comprising multiple parties (Maton, 2000), research on empowerment of the poor has been limited to specific and entity-based interventions such as job creation, microfinancing, international aid and entrepreneurial training (Biswas et al., 2001; Bonfiglioli, 2003; Mensah & Benedict, 2010).

  3. On some occasions, conducting an interview was not feasible due to language barriers and because locations were too distant to reach.

  4. An aparajita is a woman who will not accept defeat.

  5. BDT refers to Bangladeshi taka. BDT 2000 equates to approximately 24 U.S. dollars.

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Acknowledgment

We express our sincere appreciation to the handling editor Dr Scott Taylor and the anonymous reviewers for their time reviewing and providing insightful comments and helpful suggestions.

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  1. Department of Management, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia

    Yuka Fujimoto

  2. Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia

    Jasim Uddin

  3. Department of Management, Monash University, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia

    Jasim Uddin

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  1. Yuka Fujimoto
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Correspondence to Yuka Fujimoto.

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Fujimoto, Y., Uddin, J. Inclusive Leadership for Reduced Inequality: Economic–Social–Economic Cycle of Inclusion. J Bus Ethics 181, 563–582 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04920-2

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