Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
It is vital that the impetus should come both from 'above' (states and the
multilateral governance authorities) and from 'below' (citizens, social organiza-
tions and the mechanisms of the 'grassroots democracy') so that the 'intermediary'
actors (firms, territorial authorities) are included and make a real contribution
to the required institutional change in order to promote SD on a long-term basis.
(2010: 436)
So just as sustainable development may be conceived as a dialogue of values
encompassing a myriad of perspectives and worldviews, approaches to leadership
for sustainability may be equally diverse and multifaceted, embracing even a denial
of the importance of leadership as conventionally understood itself.
On leadership
Management theorists have invested a great deal of energy in analysing leaders and
leadership. They frequently draw lessons from politics, history and war as well as
business. The focus is frequently on the individual and his or her relationship to
situation or contingency. There has been relatively little work on the type of leadership
required to fashion a more sustainable world, although recently sustainability
practitioners have begun to think about this quite seriously. There is no longer a
reluctance to see leadership negatively as inevitably hierarchical, linear or a danger
to equity and democracy, although it can be that and may even be conceived and
promoted as such. The business theorist Peter G. Northouse (2007: 3) defines
leadership as being principally 'a process whereby an individual influences a group
of individuals to achieve a common goal', pointing to four key elements.
•
Leadership is a
process
, an interactive transactional event that takes place between
a leader and his or her followers and is as such open to everyone - not just the
great, special or worthy.
•
Leadership involves
influence
or the ways in which a leader affects followers.
Without influence there can be no leadership.
•
Leadership occurs within a
group context
, involving influencing people who
have a common goal or purpose. These groups can be small or large, task-
orientated or ideologically motivated.
•
Leadership involves
goal attainment
, achieving a desired aim, end or task
collectively.
For many, this may be too restrictive and too individualized, but it nonetheless does
offer a starting point. Whatever the approach or theory, leadership almost inevitably
involves consideration of political power, personality traits, institutional and
organizational culture, motivation, inspiration, emotion, intelligence, visioning, skills,
ethics and learning. Mumford
et al
. (2000) developed a capability model of leadership,
relating a leader's knowledge and skills with the leader's performance. Leadership
capabilities can be learned and developed through experience. They consist of various
competencies, including problem-solving and social judgement skills, and the ability
to acquire and process information into knowledge. For many environmentalists,
however, the most important element of any leader must be the values that he or
she has and is able to successfully communicate to others so that we can achieve.
As Egri and Herman write:
