Solution
Soumi answered on
Sep 13 2020
Running Head: SUSTAINABILITY 1
SUSTAINABILITY 10
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
[Sustainability is a key strategy for CEOs around the world. What type of a leader would be best suited to advance sustainability strategy? Critically discuss organisational leadership theories.]
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Understanding of Leadership Theories in Link to Sustainability – People, Planet and Profits (Triple Bottom Line) 3
Conclusion 8
References 9
Introduction
In lieu of the changing business environments globally, companies strive to be competent enough to be able to respond to customer expectations, have sound and healthy relationships with all the stakeholders, have operations that are transparent and accountable and increase their bottom line fulfilling their commitment towards the sustainability of their business, environment and the community. Companies striving to achieve these objectives often struggle in doing so due to the lack of a proper vision and guidance from the leadership, which might be lagging in the required traits. Though the leadership style and strategies followed by various companies may be different, yet there are certain categories of organisational strategies, which are adapted for sustainable development and contribute to the growth and development of a firm.
Understanding of Leadership Theories in Link to Sustainability – People, Planet and Profits (Triple Bottom Line)
Various organisations resort to multiple sustainable strategies and require specific skills and traits possessed by the leadership to execute them. As stated by Adams, Keloharju and Knupfer (2018), from an organisational point of view, effective leadership does everything that is required for the firm to achieve its objectives along with the well-being of the workforce. Some of the common traits are—
Dealing with Uncertainty: Leaders, who tend to take into account the changing environmental and social scenario, flare much better in terms of organisational performance. The ability to deal with dynamic su
oundings helps these leaders to manage the interdependence and complexities of the business along with the stakeholders, who play a major role in this uncertainty. The idea here is to place less emphasis on tools such as demand planning, forecasting, inventory and production control as well as allocate resources for the unexpected changes (Bolden, 2016).
Value Difference: As opposed to the conventional means of diversity in terms of age, gender, ethnicity leaders must recognise the role of external stakeholders apart from customers, suppliers and employees. As mentioned by Boxall, Guthrie and Paauwe (2016), the concept of “cognitive diversity” entails external panels and experts to provide fresh perspectives regarding the business on various front like new product development, advertising and marketing campaigns. This quality helps them to question the process critically and working of the company in regular intervals.
Building a Relational Enterprise: Successful leaders tend to emphasise of building long-term relationships with the stakeholders rather than a transactional one. Social accountability is at the heart of this function with a productive dialogue based approach and aim to align all the stakeholders’ goals and objectives with the firm in long term. As supported by Darcy, Hill, McCabe and McGovern (2014), some leaders utilise the stakeholders’ participation in much more effective way and harness their abilities for new business ideas and innovation, thus enabling them to operate with transparency and accountability.
Social Accountability: Efficient leaders recognise their responsibility for the sustainable development of the company along with the social, political and policy environment they operate in. This can be done through two ways, Firstly working towards sustainable development at an enterprise and sectoral level, thus assisting them in greater say in the policymaking regarding their industry. Secondly, as opined by Glowacki‐Dudka and Mu
ay (2015), it done by adapting new-age organisational procedures, such as balanced scorecard, vendors’ assessment and reward schemes, for sustainable environmental...