Empowering Future Leaders to Advocate Sustainable Action : A comparative analysis between two university programmes focusing on leadership and sustainability in Sweden and Germany

Abstract: Sustainability must be integrated into our everyday world. To achieve that, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established. Some scholars agree that the SDGs are not enough. So, a new strategy is needed to conquer the challenges. More specifically, a new generation of leaders is needed to transform our world. This study, therefore, introduces the theory of leadership for sustainability. Educating leaders for sustainability lies in the hands of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In that context, this study compares two programmes focusing on leadership and sustainability at HEIs to discover how they prepare the leaders of tomorrow to implement more sustainability actions that contribute to achieving the SDGs. Adopting qualitative research, empirical data was collected from semi-structured interviews with alumni and the management teams of two programmes in Sweden and Germany. In line with the literature, findings show that programmes focusing on leadership and sustainability need to include learnings such as awareness, diverse views and perspectives, experiential learning, systemic thinking, critical assessment, reflection, and collaborative work to ensure knowledge and skill transfer. In addition, the findings emphasize the embedding of the programme, a coherent programme structure, well-matched content, great teachers, and small groups of diverse students to achieve learning outcomes and prepare future leaders sufficiently. The data demonstrate that despite perceiving content and learnings individually, students are equally prepared. The study outlines that programmes focusing on leadership and sustainability are a beginning and convenient possibility to educate future leaders for sustainability. Still, more action is needed to integrate sustainability further into our world.