Enacting responsible leadership in cross-sector partnerships: A dynamic choreography of power
研究通过一个高知名度跨部门伙伴关系案例，揭示领导者如何结合合作与强制策略动态运用权力，推动多方协作应对复杂社会问题，为平衡伦理与影响力提供实践启示。
How can leaders guide diverse organizations to work together on society’s biggest challenges when power is unevenly distributed? Cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) bring together companies, governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to address complex problems, yet their success hinges on how leaders navigate competing interests and shifting power dynamics. This study examines a high-profile CSP involving a Fortune 500 company, two international development organizations, and an NGO. Drawing on Mary Parker Follett’s ideas about “power-with” and “power-over,” I show how NGO leaders combined collaborative and more coercive tactics to move the partnership forward. My analysis reveals that responsible leadership (RL) in CSPs is not a static trait or style but evolves through a dynamic choreography of power as challenges and priorities change. The findings offer practical lessons for leaders seeking to balance ethics, inclusion, and influence in multi-stakeholder collaborations, and they extend theory by reframing RL as a shifting, context-sensitive process rather than a fixed style.