The special issue aims to advance critical scholarship on leadership by moving beyond the simplistic dichotomy of “good” versus “bad” leadership and focusing instead on the underexplored spectrum of “grey leadership”, which often falls outside of established categories such as “destructive,” “abusive,” or “toxic” leadership (e.g., Einarsen et al., 2007; Krasikova et al., 2013; Schyns & Schilling, 2013; Tepper, 2000), yet they significantly shape everyday organizational life. Grey leadership captures the ambiguous, contested, and relational practices that are neither clearly constructive nor overtly destructive – for example, when rules are subtly bent, when inaction enables harmful dynamics, or when followers themselves participate in or normalize problematic conduct. These behaviors would not typically attract public attention or legal sanction, yet they may have significant relational or organizational consequences. Compared to world issues, they may appear minor, but they provoke discomfort or uncertainty precisely because they resist clear classification or moral judgment. Occupying the middle range of the constructive–destructive leadership continuum, grey leadership implies a mixed or situational intent, a mixed or ambiguous impact, and a conflicted or pragmatic motive.
Grey leadership is therefore defined by mixed ethical intent – where moral and self-interested motives coexist or oscillate (Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, 2011; Kellerman, 2018); inconsistent moral signaling – where espoused and enacted values diverge across situations (Simons, 2002; Treviño, Brown, & Hartman, 2003); and situationally contingent consequences – where the same behaviors may yield both positive and negative outcomes depending on context and interpretation (Weick, 1995; Hannah et al., 2011).
Rather than merely adding another label between constructive and destructive leadership, grey leadership establishes a conceptual bridge across currently fragmented literatures. It connects the moral, emotional, and contextual dimensions of leadership that have traditionally evolved in isolation: ethical leadership emphasizes moral integrity, ambivalent leadership emphasizes emotional complexity, and paradoxical leadership emphasizes cognitive tension. Grey leadership integrates these threads by showing how ethical, emotional, and practical contradictions intertwine in everyday leadership practices, generating outcomes that are context-dependent and relationally negotiated. This framing contributes to the nomological network by revealing leadership not as a stable moral category but as a dynamic moral ecology, where intent, signal, and consequence interact across situations. In doing so, the concept extends critical and relational perspectives on leadership (Alvesson & Spicer, 2012) and opens new pathways for theorizing the “ordinary” ambiguities that sustain organizational life.
By examining these nuanced dynamics, the issue seeks to develop conceptual clarity, provide empirical insights, and highlight the implications of grey leadership for individuals, organizations, and society. Contributions will engage with questions of how grey leadership is enacted, sustained, normalized, or challenged, and whether ambiguity can ever serve constructive purposes. The special issue will bring together diverse theoretical, empirical, and case-based perspectives to illuminate the continuum from grey to dark leadership, stimulate new debates, and foster more context-sensitive approaches to understanding leadership in complex and uncertain environments.
Submissions Information
Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here.
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here.
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.
Key Deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 15/06/2026
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30/09/2026
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