Leading for sustainability: implementing the tasks of leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to expand the field of sustainability/corporate social responsibility research to include a focus on leadership. It aims to present an exploratory study of senior leaders in organizations formally adopting principles of sustainability and how these leaders enact the tasks of leadership: setting direction, creating alignment, and maintaining commitment within the context of sustainability.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a qualitative approach, sampling senior executives from organizations formally adopting sustainability practices and using a structured interview to uncover their leadership practices related to sustainability.Findings – Leaders adopting sustainability practices are similar to other “effective” leaders and yet they also have additional capacity and mindset to include a wider expanse of stakeholders and a different mindset as to the purpose of organizations.Research limitations/implications – Limited sample of senior executives/CEOs, as wel...

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