Abstract
Benjamin Redekop has edited this collection of papers into a remarkably coherent book. ‘Green Leadership’ and ‘Leadership for Environmental Sustainability’ are phrases with inherent contradictions as leaders strive with an ‘industrial approach’ to deliver business results and manage the economic downturn through the traditional levers of cost and waste reduction, squeezing suppliers, downsizing and reducing services, and maximising resources while maintaining their instinct for commercial opportunism. There is little time for the ‘ecological approach’ to leadership to address the wider human benefit or the climate change agenda. Compliance becomes the main driver (Robinson and Clegg, 1998).
However, environmental management and leadership can have a clear synergy, providing strategic purpose in times of economic turmoil, a nobler rationale for waste and cost reduction, a focus on the wider customer and a spur to creativity.
The sections in the book are short and readable. They are not so theoretical as to be of interest only to academics and put aside by those with the practical responsibility of leadership. One the one hand, Heifetz’s theory of adaptive leadership, sensing and responding flexibly to change, is reflected in a number of chapters. On the other, links are made between chaos/complexity theory and other approaches appropriate in the face of increasing chaotic and dangerous environmental uncertainties and their possible consequences for customers and businesses.
Every job requires a visible role play from the incumbent but none more so than leadership. Followers will note every belief, action, message and behaviour of their leaders. Role modelling in the practice of sustainability is an essential and powerful approach. It is essential for the leader to see the bigger picture, the longer time perspective and the broader organisational impacts, and to act with personal integrity. Of course, the greater challenge is to convince not only followers but also others with equal or greater power in the organisation that traditional measures of success are now insufficient or increasingly counterproductive.
Popularist rhetoric may succeed in the political arena, but in an organisational infrastructure that may have a larger turnover than some countries, the reality of climate change must be addressed purposefully with a clearer rationale. Where there is an inconvenient truth, business needs to understand it in terms of impact and not simply resort to polemic.
Organisations will need charismatic, and not just celebrity, leaders who are aware of the business issues involved in environmental sustainability; they will need leaders who understand the issues, are able to lead culture change, set an example and deliver business sustainability as well.
While the overlay of social justice and campaigning eco-leadership may at times seem unrealistic and the realities of leadership feel at a great distance from proposed role models such as Gandhi and The Prince of Wales cited here, there is a knell throughout this collection that will resonate with those in leadership roles who have been wrestling with the challenges of seeking a sense of direction. Ultimately, wrecking the planet will not succeed as a business mission and green washing reality into an acceptable marketing front will rapidly wear thin.
Customers will increasingly want honesty, integrity and, most of all, a future for their children. Because the challenge is not specific and internal, we may see ecological leaders emerging from outside organisations, and yet the opportunities for inspirational internal leaders have never been greater. At McDonalds, not yet seen as synonymous with excellence in environmental management, the visionary leadership in managing environmental concerns was critical in changing the hearts and minds of staff (Haddock-Millar et al., 2012).
This collection of chapters covers a wide range of issues: considering the complexities of ecology; redefining leadership in the face of the new environmental challenges; considerations of agriculture, health, religion and spirituality and the experiences of the Green Party in Germany, but at its core are the considerations of the tensions between individual, organisational and collective benefits and how these can be articulated by leaders with a new sense of urgency and clarity.
We will need to move on from recycling our cardboard and printing on both sides of our paper to save money and reduce costs to a new model that seriously looks at questions on a global basis and sees the relationship between the organisation and its customers in a completely new way. The interconnectedness and organic nature of the planet was first highlighted dramatically in the iconic photo of ‘Earthrise’ over the lunar horizon that was taken by the Apollo 8 crew in December 1968. Greed, short-termism, profit pressure, ambition and a desire for survival of the current situation are all in evidence now. While ecological zealots use guilt, self denial and altruism as main tenets, it is hard to see much global progress. Clearly, what is needed is a new paradigm. The balance between what’s in it for us now with the uncertainties of the future will remain tipped. At the moment, the global recession is helping us more than we think but when people are on a coach heading towards certain disaster over a cliff edge, it is still tempting for leaders to begin a rousing song and for individuals to be tempted to have that one last drink. In the next 50 years, we will see the death of the oceans, the loss of half of the species on the planet and the possible extinction of humans and it is all our fault. It is the fault of what we consume, how we live, what we buy, how we travel, what we demand and, most of all, what we choose not to think about.
That is a hard message to communicate and Redekop is right in looking to the most remarkable leaders to do it. It may take very unremarkable leaders who are more like servants of the ecosystem to attempt it.
One suggestion which might be for a subsequent volume in this emerging area would be for the inclusion of a case study of a real organisational leadership attempt at improved environmental management, which looked at the practical implications of the theories outlined here and explored the issues of political feasibility and impact. Otherwise, this collection will be read and ignored as a council of perfection without any practical application potential. In fact, the inclusion of practical explorations of the ideas could provide just the kind of environmental leadership the book proposes is required. Case studies could be found at http://www.bceawards.org/.
Simon Western summarises the stark message from the book in his chapter ‘Towards a New Paradigm’: ‘The eco-leadership discourse comes from a new zeitgeist, and now is the time for organizational leaders – public, private and not-for-profit – to stop observing from the sidelines because in ecosystems there are no sidelines, we are all in it together’.
The risk with a book like this is that readers either have their view of environmental catastrophe confirmed or enter onto an internal dialogue over the cause of the problem. This then eliminates any need for reflection about personal leadership changes required, especially if only celebrity leaders are asked to apply for the job.