Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
therefore have to take others into account. Thus, authentic leadership, particularly
in organizations, can be characterized as 'a process that draws from both positive
psychological capacities and a highly developed organizational context, which results
in both greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviors on the part of
leaders and associates, fostering positive self-development' (Luthans and Avolio,
2003: 243). It is thus multifaceted, operates at many different levels and is in large
part constituted by the following (Avolio and Gardner, 2005):
•
positive psychological capital;
•
positive moral perspective;
•
leader self-awareness;
•
leader self-regulation;
•
leadership processes and behaviours;
•
follower self-awareness/regulation;
•
follower development;
•
organization context;
•
veritable and sustained performance beyond expectations.
Leadership theory often comes with a number of prefixes such as transformational,
charismatic, spiritual, servant as well as authentic. Given the significance of digital
technology and the Internet, it is no surprise that E-Leadership has also received a
considerable amount of attention recently together with virtual teams (Zigurs, 2003).
A key issue here is the influence of technology on traditional leadership functions
and whether the degree of media richness impacts positively or negatively and at
what level.
Global social inequality, climate change and environmental degradation is still
perceived by many as a consequence of the capitalist model of development that has
promoted a culture of wants, demands and greed. Scott Prudham (2009) writes in
his highly critical study of the entrepreneur business leader Richard Branson, that
the legitimacy of green capitalism and its leaders rely on an image of ethical and
innovative dynamism and highly publicized expressions of commitment to global
challenges such as climate action. Prudham argues that Richard Branson's entrepre-
neurial successes, his high media profile and his much publicized green announcements
conceal more than they reveal. In 2006 he pledged that all the profits from Virgin
Atlantic and Virgin Trains would be used to fight global climate change by diverting
the money to investments in carbon sequestration and the production of (highly
problematic) biofuels through his own company Virgin Fuels. This would invariably
produce new ecological conditions that may in themselves be highly destructive.
Prudham writes:
Here, a private entrepreneur proposes to invest money from companies he controls
into new, private, profit-seeking ventures which ostensibly redress an existing
set of environmental dilemmas (i.e. climate-change-inducing effects of fossil fuel
combustion) by introducing a new set of fuels for profit-driven transportation
services and an attendant set of new environmental problems, many as yet
unspecified or not well known. Hardly an example of the harnessing of capital
to the green cause.
(2009: 1604)
