Purposes, People and Processes in Leadership for Sustainability

Abstract:

Leadership is recognized as a crucial element for successfully introducing, implementing andinstitutionalizing change for sustainability. However, it is unclear which purposes, people and processes, regarded as core components of leadership, drive sustainability and how they do it.The objective of this thesis is to investigate how organizational leadership for sustainability can be conceptualized in terms of purposes, people and processes driving sustainability. Addressed research questions are: How is sustainability and leadership viewed and approached by organizational leaders? Which purposes, people and processes drive leadership for sustainability in organizations? How are these purposes, people and processes related in driving leadership for sustainability? To answer these questions, research data has been collected through a case study, primarily through 16 interviews with leaders in different companies who have explicit responsibility for sustainability. The findings suggest that:Purposes that drive leadership for sustainability are many. On an organizational level, a central driver is to meet stakeholder expectations, which in turn may create various business benefits. On an individual level, a core driver is the personal engagement of wanting to do something meaningful by contributing to sustainability and to the personal development of other people.People who drive leadership for sustainability have very mixed backgrounds and are associated with a wide range of abilities and qualities. However, the abilities to coordinate and to shift from silo thinking to systems thinking stand out. Combining generalist competences in systems thinking and coordination with specialist competences within environmental, social and economic dimensions suggests that key competences needed to drive sustainability could be described as M- shaped competences.Processes that drive leadership for sustainability can be described in terms of including elements from a wide range of leadership theories, such as transformational, ethical, shared and emergent leadership. Elements of many different leadership theories seem needed to understand what leadership for sustainability means and how it effectively can be approached.Based on these findings, the overall conclusion is that the 3Ps purposes, people, processes play important roles in driving sustainability. Linking these 3Ps of leadership with the 3Ps of sustainability planet, people, profit into the 6Ps of leadership for sustainability seem to provide a valuable lens or framework for analyzing and understanding organizational leadership for sustainability as it highlights central aspects that seem essential to balance and clarify in order to drive sustainability.