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This paper aims to explore the socially responsible human resource practices disclosed by the “World’s Best Multinational Workplaces,” with the aim of facilitating the benchmarking of these disclosed practices.

Using the “World’s Best Multinational Workplaces” list was a strategic decision in this study due to the rigorous methodology used in the preparation of the list as it concentrated largely on the employees’ feedback, thus ensuring that these listed companies are actually top workplaces. Both manifest and latent content analysis, are applied on 23 of the 25 listed Multinational Corporations’ websites and reports, and company reviews done on these companies by the Great Place to Work for to pinpoint the social responsible human resource practices.

Most of the practices disclosed are oriented toward enhancing the employees’ work experiences whether that happened through improving their employment conditions or through having a diverse and inclusive workplace. Thus, the employee-oriented human resource management practices got the lion’s share of the disclosures, rather than the legal or the Corporate social responsibility–human resources facilitation components.

The practices that are already used at small and medium enterprises within national contexts were not covered in this study.

It is assumed that businesses can benefit from the practices of these MNCs which are considered as great places to work for, and as pioneers in their socially responsible human resource approaches.

This study is likely to fill an important gap in the corporate social responsibility literature, which gave pint-sized attention to the internal stakeholders, rendering the academic coverage of employee-related practices scarce if not absent

This study aims to provide a point of reference and another of guidance for future research on the topic of responsible leadership by exploring its challenges, outcomes and practices.

A systematic review of the literature, originally adopted from the medical sciences but also used in management and leadership studies, was conducted to integrate research in an organized, translucent and reproducible manner. The final sample of 46 empirical and conceptual studies were scientifically screened and synthesized.

The synthesis revealed that balancing stakeholder needs, personal characteristics and organizational structures are the main challenges against responsible leadership, whereas financial benefits, employees-related benefits and reputational gains among others are the main outcomes. Practices pinpointed, while scarce, are represented in nurturing a stakeholder culture, and engaging employee-related and human-resource-responsible functions.

This study contributes to the development of responsible leadership.