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1 Introduction
Sustainability has become quite fashionable over the past several years. Indeed, the “Sustainability Revolution” (coined by Andres Edwards, 2005) is creating a deep and enduring shift in people’s consciousness and worldview. Sustainability now appears to be the strategic imperative of the new millennium. Today’s authors use the phrases sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate social performance (CSP), going green, or the “triple bottom line” (Elkington, 1998; Savitz and Weber, 2006) to express society’s desire to improve the long-term economic, social, and environmental performance of firms.
Yet, despite the ever expanding volume of literature underscoring the importance of sustainability to organizations, executives and managers do not have a clear roadmap identifying the full scope of factors affecting the success of sustainability initiatives. Certainly, much has been written regarding the strategic imperative of sustainability in helping firms achieve a range of organization-level outcomes. But, despite the increasing importance of sustainability, very little attention has been paid to the importance of individual managers and employees in helping identify, champion, coordinate, and implement sustainability efforts within organizations. There is little guidance on the role of leaders in helping foster and nurture an organizational environment that both understands and actively seeks sustainable solutions for the firm. Undoubtedly, it is important for leaders at the highest echelons of organizations to consider sustainability from a firm-level strategic perspective. However, the very best cost-saving ideas and innovative solutions that simultaneously promote social and environmental benefits will often come from front-line supervisors and employees. Unfortunately, there is little guidance available to company executives and managers to help them understand the critical interdependency of both management and employees in the success of sustainability strategies.
Leading the Sustainable Organization aims to fill this void. We see that the very success of sustainability strategies depends just as much upon the mobilization, eagerness, and enthusiasm of internal stakeholders of the firm as it does upon external stakeholders. In other words, management needs to recognize that the path to sustainability hinges upon a comprehensive understanding of both macro (organization-wide) and micro (manager-to-employee) factors associated with its success. The book is structured around the components of a model that encompasses both of these dimensions, which we call the Leading the Sustainable Organization model (see Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1 The ‘Leading the Sustainable Organization’ Model
Key principle
The path to successful sustainability efforts hinges upon both macro- and micro-organizational factors.
Why the Model was Developed
In short, sustainability efforts have not been as productive as they could be. This is partly because management teams often fail to connect sustainability to business strategy (Porter and Kramer, 2006). Moreover, once a sustainability strategy has been set, firm leadership plays a crucial role in creating and maintaining effective strategic change. However, no clear leadership model exists with the express purpose of creating the most effective employee engagement during corporate sustainability efforts (Rok, 2009). In order to address these significant shortcomings, we believe there is a critical need for a comprehensive model that addresses both the macro- and micro-practices of successful sustainability efforts. Our multi-level model provides a comprehensive foundation for the formulation, implementation, and successful execution of sustainability efforts.
Key principle
There is a clear need for a leadership model that facilitates employee engagement in a firm’s sustainability efforts.
How the Model was Developed
The Leading the Sustainable Organization model presented in Figure 1.1 was developed using a combination of the available practitioner and academic literature from multiple fields, including: sustainability, strategy, leadership, organizational culture, human resources, organizational behavior, and workforce engagement. This material included both qualitative and quantitative information. The formation of the model was also augmented by the authors’ combined experience as seasoned practitioners and consultants in the areas of strategy development and execution, organizational culture change, and leadership development.
Synthesis Rather than Analysis
Because the model is meant to be used by managers and academicians alike, a systematic, statistical meta-analysis, as traditionally used by researchers, was determined not to be appropriate for its development. Moreover, meta-analysis has been contested as a means of understanding multi-faceted management endeavors such as sustainability efforts. First, meta-analysis rejects qualitative and anecdotal information that is often important in the development of complex knowledge (Denyer and Tranfield, 2006). Second, meta-analysis lacks an ability to cope with the variations in study designs, populations, contexts, and types of analyses (Cook et al., 1997) that are found in a fragmented field such as management. Third, combining studies to derive an average removes critical contextual information (Hammersley, 2001).
In view of these limitations, the contribution of qualitative information has recently been recognized and has become progressively more valued as an evidence-based approach to building actionable knowledge in the field of management (Denyer and Tranfield, 2006). Therefore, due to the cross-functional and complex nature of the undertaking from which our model is derived (corporate sustainability efforts), the method used to develop it was a narrative synthesis of both practitioner and academic literature from various disciplines. Narrative synthesis has become an increasingly accepted technique, across different disciplines, including management, of summarizing and combining both qualitative and empirical information addressing various aspects of the same phenomenon in order to provide a larger picture of that phenomenon (Denyer and Tranfield, 2006). Rumrill and Fitzgerald (2001) identify four key objectives for a narrative synthesis:
- to develop or advance theoretical models;
- to identify, explain, and provide perspectives on complicated or controversial issues;
- to present new perspectives on important and emerging issues; and
- to provide information that can assist practitioners in advancing “best” practice.
Unlike meta-analyses, where there must be a fit between the nature and quality of information sources, narrative synthesis accommodates differences in the questions and designs of various studies, as well as differences in the context of information. Narrative synthesis is especially valuable when information includes both quantitative and qualitative sources (Cassell and Symon, 1994). Moreover, narrative synthesis provides deep and rich information (Light and Pillmer, 1984) that is not obtained by other methods.
Key principle
A comprehensive model of leading sustainability efforts was built by synthesizing both quantitative and qualitative information from various fields.
How the Model is Presented
Our discussion throughout the chapters of this book follows a top-down flow through the Leading the Sustainable Organization model. The process begins with the articulation of sustainability as part of the mission, values, goals, and strategy of the organization. The human resources (HR) value chain supports this mission with efforts to attract, retain, and engage a talented workforce. The macro-level practices set the tone for creating an engaged workforce, but they are not sufficient to create a sustainable enterprise. These macro-level practices must be complemented by a set of micro-level practices. Leader behavior, job characteristics, and challenging goals are the necessary precursors to employee engagement in sustainability efforts. When employees experience engagement in sustainability endeavors, there will be positive in-role (job specific) and extra-role (above and beyond the job) employee performance, as well as positive overall firm performance. Finally, trust acts as an important enhancer of the relationships between the precursors and outcomes of workforce engagement in sustainability efforts.
In practice, leading sustainability efforts is often messier than the top-down flow presented in this book. Multiple iterations of various components of the model are necessary as organizations and their sustainability efforts evolve. Likewise, management often will find the need to loop back from one component of the model in order to refine or adjust a previous component before moving forward with their sustainability efforts.
Key principle
Multiple iterations of various components of the model are necessary as organizations and their sustainability efforts evolve.
Why the Model is Important
The Leading the Sustainable Organization model is a comprehensive model that is an important advancement in the sustainability literature, for several reasons. First, no book has yet combined a comprehensive view of leadership with the development, implementation, and assessment of firms’ sustainability efforts. Second, the framework transcends industries and the size of companies. Third, because the components of the model have been developed by drawing on research from various disciplines, academic researchers can use the framework to study sustainability efforts from a multi-level and multi-disciplinary perspective. Thus, the model provides a framework to guide research that is focused in the broader context of overall sustainability efforts. Lastly, several studies have identified what needs to occur during sustainability efforts in order to achieve success (Van Velsor, 2009). However, despite observations on what needs to be done around sustainability, many organizations do not seem to know how to go about it. Therefore, throughout our discussion of the components of the Leading the Sustainable Organization model, practical guidelines, along...
