Does a socially responsible prototypical leader exist in Spain?

Abstract

This research is focused on reviewing whether the emergence of the phenomenon of social responsibility in Spain evident since the beginning of the twenty-first century, has been linked to a prototypic leader with characteristic traits. According to this objective, a quantitative study has been developed with a sample of 189 business leaders from small, medium and large companies who work in the Spanish market. Data has been collected through structured interviews, using three tools: the ARS19 scale to know the attitude of leaders towards Corporative Social Responsibility, the SPV questionnaire to evaluate their personal values next to generic competences, personal traits and behavioural characteristics and the LBA II questionnaire to analyse their leadership. The study results indicate that leaders with a most favourable attitude towards social responsibility are younger, working in sectors where there is a higher environmental impact (as the industrial) and are employed in large and I+D+i involved companies. Besides, these corporate executives show affinity for a support focused leadership style, along with an outstanding effectiveness in their role as leaders, and they stay away from a task oriented leadership style. They present a very high inclination for defined goals at work, a notable preference by challenges and a greater tune with post-materialist values as well. These findings suggest the existence of a prototype of leader closer to social responsibility.