Sustainable Leadership and Organisations: Better Performance and a Better World

Why did sustainable organisations ride the GFC with little more than a performance blip while many traditionally led ones required huge government bailouts? How can contemporary organisations move towards models of sustainable leadership without compromising their business productivity or performance? What should leaders and executives do to ensure their organisations engage with and maintain sustainable principles and practices? How can business and management schools contribute to developing and implementing sustainable practices? 

This research area examines theories and practices of sustainable leadership from organisations and literature across the globe, synthesising them into a coherent model and exploring how organisations can best implement these into the way they work every day.

Details

Senior executives from major organisations around the world have applied the sustainable leadership pyramid, which organises the 23 principles, practices, beliefs and behaviours of leadership, to their own enterprises. In Australia, Asia and Europe, this has led to discussions at executive level and attempts to better align practices to the sustainable leadership pattern in enterprises across many different sectors – from pharmaceuticals, finance and retail, to construction, manufacturing, government and non-profits. 

Research Streams

Foundation Practices of Sustainable Leadership

This research stream analyses 14 foundation practices of sustainable leadership and areas of focused and rapid organisational implementation. It draws on real-world examples, examining them against non-sustainable practices and illustrating core advantages of sustainable alternatives. 

Examples of these practices include, but are not limited to; employee development, stakeholder management, succession planning, valuing staff, ethical behaviour and environmental responsibility.

Higher-Level Practices of Sustainable Leadership

This research stream covers studies of the six higher-level practices of sustainable leadership that organisations, having already adopted the foundation principles, should expect to manifest.

It examines devolved and consensual decision-making, self-managing employees, team orientation, an enabling organisational culture, processes for developing and retaining knowledge, and organisational trust. 

This stream identifies how each of these practices both contributes to and results from an organisation’s focused and ongoing engagement with sustainable leadership. 

Key Performance Drivers of Sustainable Organisations

This stream of research analyses how customers experience the effects of long-term sustainable, organisational leadership. Focusing on their experiences of product quality and innovation, and engaged staff and service, it examines how sustainable practices enable organisations to better integrate their activities with complex and varied stakeholder expectations and study the  branding, satisfaction and productivity pay-offs that result. 

Measuring Sustainable Practice in Action

This stream of research aims to capture sustainable practices in action and measure how they directly influence an organisation’s performance outcomes.

It facilitates an understanding of the relationship between these practices and financial outcomes, brand and reputation enhancement, customer satisfaction and shareholder value.

The ultimate objective of this stream is to enable the value an enterprise generates for all stakeholders to be assessed. 

 

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS >

INVOLVE YOUR ORGANISATION >

FIND AN ACADEMIC SPEAKER >