TY - JOUR
T1 - Leadership for Sustainability
T2 - An Evolution of Leadership Ability
AU - Metcalf, Louise
AU - Benn, Sue
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - This article examines the existing confusion over the multiple leadership styles related to successful implementation of corporate social responsibility/sustainability in organisations. The researchers find that the problem is the complex nature of sustainability itself. We posit that organisations are complex adaptive systems operating within wider complex adaptive systems, making the problem of interpreting just in what way an organisation is to be sustainable, an extraordinary demand on leaders. Hence, leadership for sustainability requires leaders of extraordinary abilities. These are leaders who can read and predict through complexity, think through complex problems, engage groups in dynamic adaptive organisational change and have the emotional intelligence to adaptively engage with their own emotions associated with complex problem solving. Leaders and leadership is a key interpreter of how sustainability of the organisation 'links' to the wider systems in which the organisation sits, and executing that link well requires unusual leaders and leadership systems.
AB - This article examines the existing confusion over the multiple leadership styles related to successful implementation of corporate social responsibility/sustainability in organisations. The researchers find that the problem is the complex nature of sustainability itself. We posit that organisations are complex adaptive systems operating within wider complex adaptive systems, making the problem of interpreting just in what way an organisation is to be sustainable, an extraordinary demand on leaders. Hence, leadership for sustainability requires leaders of extraordinary abilities. These are leaders who can read and predict through complexity, think through complex problems, engage groups in dynamic adaptive organisational change and have the emotional intelligence to adaptively engage with their own emotions associated with complex problem solving. Leaders and leadership is a key interpreter of how sustainability of the organisation 'links' to the wider systems in which the organisation sits, and executing that link well requires unusual leaders and leadership systems.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84872768624&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10551-012-1278-6
DO - 10.1007/s10551-012-1278-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84872768624
VL - 112
SP - 369
EP - 384
JO - Journal of Business Ethics
JF - Journal of Business Ethics
SN - 0167-4544
IS - 3
ER -