This special issue examines grey leadership, a phenomenon occupying the spectrum between constructive and destructive leadership practices. Grey leadership encompasses ambiguous and contested behaviors that are neither clearly beneficial nor overtly harmful—such as subtle rule-bending, enabling harmful dynamics through inaction, or normalizing problematic conduct. These behaviors often escape clear moral judgment or legal consequences yet significantly impact organizational relationships and culture.
The concept integrates ethical, emotional, and contextual dimensions of leadership by recognizing mixed moral intent, inconsistent values signaling, and situationally contingent consequences. Grey leadership serves as a conceptual bridge across fragmented leadership literatures, revealing how contradictions in intent, signals, and outcomes interact dynamically within specific contexts and are negotiated through relational processes.
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