Emergent leadership paradigms for corporate sustainability: a proposed model

Leadership studies evolve as organisational contexts change. Under stable environments, the traditional leadership paradigms might have survived. With increases in complexity and dynamic business environment, the proliferation of traditional leadership paradigms (i.e. Classical and Transactional leadership) has been challenged. In the literature, organisations adopting emergent leadership paradigms (i.e. Visionary and Organic leadership) tend to be higher performing and capable of more effectively responding to environmental change than organisations adopting the traditional leadership paradigms. However, few published studies have specifically investigated the predicted relationship between Visionary and Organic leadership paradigms and corporate sustainability. More study of the role of mediating effects, particularly the roles played by in leadership-performance and corporate sustainability will be investigated. In this paper, the literature on leadership paradigms, organisational performance and corporate sustainability, and key mediating variables, particularly shared vision and values, self-leadership, an organisational team orientation and consensual decision-making, affecting their relationships is reviewed. Then a structural model is developed. Propositions and future direction are also discussed.