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SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM LEADERSHIP FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

PROFESSIONALS: A COMPETENCY MODEL

Dana M. Cosby, Western Kentucky University

INTRODUCTION Over the past few years, in the midst of the economic downturn, companies struggled for survival, making many difficult decisions concerning how to leverage financial, physical, and human capital for competitive advantage. One of the interesting trends is the business-driven advancement of sustainable development activities within organizations. Sustainable development is defined as, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Commission, 1987).

While regulatory efforts to dictate business practices largely fell flat with the denial of passage of the Copenhagen measures and Cap and Trade policies, the amount of business activity and the number of innovative business programs in the area of sustainability development at the organization level is promising. From SAP to Coca Cola, organizations are designing new systems and processes to harness new green technologies. According to Peter Graf, Chief Sustainability Development Officer for SAP, “Sustainability is alive and kicking. It is not because of climate change. There is money to be made and money to be saved.” The economic value of sustainable development is supported by a survey that shows companies with sustainability-focused companies outperformed peers across industrial sectors (A.T. Kearney, 2008).

While a positive financial implication drives interest in sustainability, there are other social and environmental reasons for inquiry in the topic. From human resource development perspective this topic is important as scholarship calls for a greater focus on social responsibility and ecological sustainability (Bierma & D’Abundo, 2004). Critical human resources development is promoting research in this area, challenging an increased focus and attention on power relations, equity, social justice, and reflexivity in HRD (Corley & Eades, 2006; Elliott & Turnball, 2005; Fenwick, 2005; Valentin, 2006). Further, Sambrook (2003) offers the idea that as the critical stream of HRD matures, the role of HRD will increase in the promotion of corporate social responsibility in transforming workplaces into democratic workplaces for employees. The 2007 Green Workplace Survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management reported that 50% of respondents reported either a formal (written) or informal environmental policy in place within their organizations. Further, the study revealed several perceive positive outcomes of those instituted programs, including improved employee morale, a stronger public image, and increased consumer confidence (SHRM, 2007). Researchers and practitioners are in the beginning stages of defining the roles that human resource development will play in fostering sustainability within organizations. One of the key are

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roles was noted by Hitchcock and Willard when they point out, “Sustainability is at its core an issue requiring organizational change cultural change” (2006). Certainly human resource development professionals are positioned to support this activity, although little direction in the literature exists to strongly connect this relationship. I propose that the development of a sustainability leadership competency model for human resource managers would contribute to both the knowledge base of human resource development scholars and professionals for this topic. Constructing a model of the desired competencies sets the stage for further analysis of the learning needs of employees, a good initial step for many organizations in the move toward becoming a sustainability-focused enterprise. The competency model is two-tiered. First, using support from the literature I will broadly describe competencies needed at the employee level. Second, I will synthesize the competencies into an overall model that can be used for further inquiry and development. This article adds to the literature stream by focusing on two primary research questions:

(1) What are the sustainability leadership competencies required of employees to prepare them for leadership roles in organizations with sustainable development as a business strategy?

(2) What are emerging roles and challenges for human resource development professionals in leading the “people-side” of sustainable development efforts within organizations with sustainable development as a business strategy?

METHODOLOGY

This paper examines the theoretic literature relating to human resource development, sustainability, and competency development. I conducted literature searches using the terms human resources development and sustainability, and competency development best practices; via the database EBSCO host, including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, Green File, Master File Premier, and the Psychological and Behavioral Science Collection databases from 2000 to 2013 to determine current research in these areas. In addition to the database searches, I also searched manually using Internet search engines such as Google Scholar, Good Advanced, and Bing. I summarized relevant articles, including suggested linkage of findings to desired state of sustainability-related human resources practices. From this data, I constructed a Sustainability Leadership Competency model for human resource professionals. To develop the Sustainability Leadership Competency Model, we engaged in a multi-step model as recommended in the literature (Campion, Fink, Ruggerberg, Carr, Phillips, & Odman, 2011; Marelli, Tondora, & Hoge, 2005; McClelland, 1973). First, I defined the objectives for the model which are (1) create a common vocabulary among human resource development practitioners about sustainability and requisite knowledge and skills, (2) provide a structure for competency development, and (3) inform organizational leaders about emerging professional practice issues.

Next, using existing competencies gleaned from the literature, I defined four critical areas of focus areas create the Sustainability Leadership Competency Model (see Chart 1). These critical

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areas of focus including (a) sustainable culture strategic visioning, (b) systems alignment, (c) measurement and metrics, and (d) employee engagement. Several distinct, but related competencies comprise each major focus area. Guidelines suggest that manageable competency models consist of twenty or less competencies (Campion et.al, 2011). For the Sustainability Leadership Competency model, I included twelve competencies.

FOUR CRITICAL FACTORS FOR SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM LEADERSHIP

Ulrich (1997) suggested that human resource development performs four roles within an organization. These roles are (a) strategic partner, (b) administrative expert, (c) change agent, and (d) employee champion. My research indicates that these roles should be altered slightly with a directed purpose for sustainability program leadership. In this section I propose four critical roles comprised of competencies identified from the literature. As sustainability moves to the forefront of organizational initiatives, organizational leaders must understand the stakeholder expectations for the efforts. Garavan and McGuire (2010) argue that human resource development must focus on the “triple bottom line” of the organization that includes economic, social, and environmental outcomes. There are new pressures on the organization to move beyond economic results to focus on social and environmental outcomes. Major stakeholder groups influencing the adoption of sustainability programs include investors, the environment, employees (both current and future), customers, suppliers, communities, and governments (Institute for Responsible Investment, 2010). The unique issues and requirements of these stakeholders is key to program design, implementation, and maintenance. Competencies needed for accomplishing this first major factor of Sustainability Strategic Vision include ecological competence, business acumen, strategic planning, and change management. Ecological competence is the basic knowledge about the key issues in sustainability and includes an understanding of meanings and terms. Despite a now common usage of the term sustainability, differences in the definition and purpose of programming exist (Fenwick & Bierema, 2008). A broad base of knowledge about the economic, environmental, and social threats to society can help the sustainability program leader inform the organization in practical program integration and application (Pless, Maak, & Stahl, 2012). Business acumen competence refers to the awareness of business necessities in the environment, in particular the stakeholder requirements regarding sustainability (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). The business environment implications, and in particular, understanding of stakeholder interest are key for advocating and promoting sustainability throughout the systems of the organization. Strategic planning competence involves collaboration with others to create ideas for the direction and activities of a new business (Garavan, 2007; MacKay & McKieran, 2004); Pepper & Wildy, 2008). A clear understanding of the mission of the organization, as well as the objectives of the sustainability initiatives must drive culture change. Change management competence refers to the ability to shepherd initiatives to take people and organizations from a current state to a desired state (Lee, 2008; Ulrich & Beatty, 2001). The second major critical factor is Systems Alignment and includes innovation, justice, advocacy, and needs analysis competencies. Innovation competence refers to enacting new ways of doing things to support the culture change practices (Cramer & Karabell, 2010; Steger, 2000).

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The changes required by the introduction of the new programs requires creativity and “out of the box thinking.” Advocacy competence involves communicating and advocating with senior management the link between employee development and sustainability efforts (Fenwick & Beirna, 2008). Needs analysis competence is utilizing appropriate methods to break down process or jobs to support design efforts for sustainability efforts (Jackson & Seo, 2010). Employee Engagement is the third major critical factor and consists of supportive communication, credible activism, human resource-line partnering and emerging communication technology competencies. Supportive communication competence is the willingness to listen to audiences with varied opinions and motivations (Cramer & Karabell, 2010). Credible activism competence is the ability to persuade employees and upper management regarding the importance of sustainability (Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, Sandholz & Younger, 2008). Human Resources- Line Partnering Competence supports the managers with daily and consistent communication and support to reinforce culture change (Ramus & Steger, 2000; Colbert & Kuruez, 2007; Dubois, Dubois & Astakhova, 2011). Emerging communication technologies competence is using new computer technologies such as applications and social networking to communicate information regarding sustainability to the employee level (SHRM, 2011).

The fourth major critical factor area is Measurement and Metrics. This area focuses on deploying knowledge management, needs analysis, and reporting processes to create needed information for formal communication to stakeholders. CorporateRegister.com, a repository for corporate and social responsibility reports, of which sustainability is a subset, reported an increase from 26 reports in 1992 to over 3,000 in 2008. Apotheker (2010) reported that 80% of Fortune 250 companies formally report sustainability performance. Included in the factor are reporting, knowledge management, and needs analysis competencies. Reporting competence prepares reports to stakeholder groups that describe organizational efforts in a systematic, databased format (Institute for Responsible Development, 2010). Knowledge management competence is the ability to gather and deploy information in meaningful ways to support change efforts (Nahapier &Ghoshal, 1998). Needs analysis competence is the ability to use appropriate methods to break

Chart 1. Sustainability Leadership Competency Model

Sustainability Strategic Visioning

Systems Alignment Measurement and Metrics

Employee Engagement

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down processes or work to support design initiatives for sustainability efforts (Jackson & Seo, 2010). Table 1. Sustainability Leadership Competencies for Human Resources Development in the Literature

Competency Description/Linkage Literature Support Business Acumen Aware of business necessities in the environment; Understand

external stakeholder requirements regarding CSR and sustainability

Ulrich & Brockbank (2005)

Credible Activism Ability to persuade employees and upper management regarding importance of sustainability

Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, Sandholz & Younger (2008)

HR-Line Partnering

Supports line managers with daily and consistent communication and support to reinforce critical culture change

Ramus & Steger (2000); Colbert & Kuruez (2007); Dubois, Dubois & Astakhova (2011).

Emerging Communication Technologies

Utilizes new computer technologies such as social networking to communicate information regarding CSR and sustainability at the employee level

SHRM (2011)

Supportive Communication

Willing to listen to diverse audiences with varied opinions and motivation

Cramer & Karabell (2010)

Strategic Planning Collaborates with others to create ideas for the direction and activities of a business

Pepper & Wildy (2008); MacKay & McKieran (2004); Garavan (2007)

Change Management

Is able to shepherd initiatives to take people and organizations from a current state to a desired state

Lee (2008), Ulrich & Beatty (2001),

Ecological Competence

Basic knowledge about the key issues in CSR and Sustainability Fenwick & Bierna (2008)

Advocacy Advocate linkage between employee development, organizational development and CSR/Sustainability efforts

Fenwick & Bierna (2008)

Innovation Supports culture for change practices Cramer & Karabell (2010); Steger (2000); Cook & Saine (2010)

Reporting pPepares reports to stakeholder groups that describe organizational efforts in a systematic, data-based format

Institute for Responsible Reporting (2010)

Knowledge Management

Ability to gather and deploy information in meaningful ways to support change efforts

Nahapiet & Ghoshal (1998)

Needs Analysis Can utilize appropriate methods to break down process or jobs to support design process for sustainability efforts

Jackson & Seo (2010)

Taking Initiative Acts in a proactive manner to solve problems or recommend improvements without prompts

Wiek, et.al, (2011); Sipos, et. al (2008); Rowe (2007); Ones & Dilchert (2010)

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE There are three main contributions this study makes to the human resources development literature. First, the issue of sustainability has been identified as a megatrend (Lubin & Esty, 2010) and will continue to gain prominence in business, organizational behavior, and education study. This offers challenging and exciting possibilities for the intersection of adult learning and corporate responsibility issues. This is an area that is emerging as an issue in the literature and more inquiry is needed to develop needed depth and breadth.

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The literature reveals that human resources has largely taken a supportive role, if any role at all, in sustainability and corporate and social responsibility initiatives in most organizations. The skills that are needed to prepare employees, and indeed the organization, for sustainability and corporate and social responsibility initiatives are aligned with many of the typical functions associated with strategic human resource management. The impetus is on the human resources function to gain the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for enhanced roles in this sense. Rather than lagging behind the effort, the human resources function can play a strategic role in program design and development. Second, the article extends the literature by suggesting that in addition to the “typical” strategic skills roles involved in cultural change activities, human resources professionals often serve in key roles as reporters of the information. To fully engage in those activities, new skills are needed about how to properly report the information. Further, as these reports tend to be data- intensive, human resources development professionals must align systems in ways that allow for the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data. They must understand what the goals of the various stakeholders are with regard to sustainability and be able to present information that can be benchmarked on an on-going basis. To do this, human resources professionals must possess a deeper understanding of the sustainability reporting requirements, directing development to meet the needs of the stakeholders. Further inquiry is needed in the literature to identify best practices. Finally, as organizations build programs for the future, human resources development practitioners are positioned to play significant roles in these efforts through training and organizational development efforts. For example, employees at all levels will need specific training to support the culture change, beginning with program leaders. Human Resources processes such as recruitment, selection, performance management, rewards, and recognition must also integrate the new competencies into the cultural tapestry. The Sustainability Leadership Competency Model can be used as the foundation these items and is a good starting point for organizational conversations on the topic. Overall, it seems clear that human resources role in sustainability is gaining interest in the literature and practice moving away from low participation and toward strategic leadership. As this happens, more information on how to organize and structure sustainability initiatives will be needed. The Sustainability Leadership Model provides useful information in this endeavor to help human resource development professionals advance the efforts of sustainability within contemporary organizations.

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