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Week8LectureSlides.pptxWeek 8 : Leading Sustainably
The Cost of Leadership:
How much do you think organisations (commercial and not for profit) spent on leadership training in the USA last year?
Has it created a better world?
Business schools need to teach managers how to be leaders in a manner appropriate to the present conditions (Mintzberg, 2004).
A recent study by Gagnon and Collinson (2014) cited USD45 billion annual expenditures in the United States alone for leadership development. The same study found that European CEOs were also “extremely committed to leadership development” (p. 648). Many universities offer courses on leadership, the focus of which is usually personal development in preparation for senior management in an organisation. There are moreover, several journals dedicated to the topic.
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Big Question: Is Earth past the tipping point?
Questions:
These days, in responses to the ills of the world when we often hear: “We need more sustainability leadership”
What is meant by this?
Whom should this leadership come from?
What do you think sustainability leaders should be like? (Based on all our discussions, readings and assessments to date, name five core characteristics of sustainability leadership)
What do you think it means to have a sustainability mindset?
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Sustainability Mindset
Sustainability mindset is a way of thinking and being that results from a broad understanding of the ecosystem's manifestations, an introspective focus on the personal values and the higher self, and finds its expression in actions for the greater good of the whole (Rimanoczy, 2014)
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Leadership Discourses (Western, 2008)
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Leadership Discourses
The Controller Discourse
Frederick Taylor & Scientific Management;
Dehumanizing; employees cogs in the wheel of the efficient machine
The Therapist Discourse
Focus on human relations; happy workers are more productive
Hawthorne Experiments; Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Democratising of the workplace; self-actualise through work
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Leadership Discourses
The Messiah Discourse
Transformational leadership
Organisations become communities of members; inspired by leader vision, loyal & committed workforce
Peters & Waterman’s (1982) “In Search of Excellence”
Seek devotion from employees, love the firm and its goals
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Leadership Discourses
Sustainability Leadership:
Redistributes power from the centre to the edges
Recognises the impossibility of “going it alone” when we are interdependent
Rejects ‘great man’ theory of leadership
Understands grassroots social movements lead & innovate change
Emergence of Sustainability Leadership:
Reaction to 21st century economic decline
Disenchantment with messiah leadership
New zeitgeist emerging
Quantum physics
Globalisation & Technological advancements
The environmental movement
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Organisational Forms
The primary task of sustainability leaders is to dismantle modernist forms that shape our internal landscapes - Plato's Cave
Can you explain how what is happening in the world at present resembles Plato’s Cave?
The three previous leadership discourses have their place but…
They must acknowledge that we live in a fragile ecosystem and are all parts of the “web of life”
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Form & Function
Modernity traps us in “forms” that limit us; these external landscapes shape our internal landscapes
Corporatized self (Casey, 1995)
Iron cage (Weber, 1930) of technical/economic conditions of machine production
Technocratic society (Ellul, 1964)
Psychic Prisons (Moran, 1998)
Colonisation of the “Life World” (Habermas 1984)
These approaches are conformist, utilitarian, totalising
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Sustainability Leadership & Systemic Ethics
Sustainability Leaders draw on a deeper source
It demands an ethical approach that resists Market Liberalism (Western, 2010)
We need a “deep” systemic character ethic that interconnects us individually and communally with all life.
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Workplace Biodiversity
Contemporary leadership advocates monocultures create success
Homogenised organizations with monocultures can be dangerous (e.g. cults, terrorist groups)
Ecosystems are healthy when they have biodiversity;
Monocultures in the natural world inevitably lead to disaster (e.g. corn in USA)
Difference is vital to promote creativity
You don’t want dependent followers but leadership actors (from all cultures, ages, professions).
Sustainability Leaders decolonise organisations
Its about harmonization so each individual contributes to the health of the whole
Unity in diversity
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Organisational Architects
Sustainability leaders are organisational architects, taking a spatial leadership approach
Create organisational forms that enable operation in non-linear, non-hierarchical and sustainable ways
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Leadership at Interface
Taking the lead from employees and being comfortable with not knowing
Ray Anderson - Interface Carpets
Why is it wise for a leader to take the lead from employees?
Interconnecting with all community of life
When a company such as Interface connects with the whole of the community of life, what consequences does this have for evaluating the company’s contribution to the world?
All employees taking responsibility
The Business Case for Sustainability - Ray Anderson
(1.30) I Am Mission Zero
Why do all employees have to take responsibility for sustainability?
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