Questions:
Q1 Week 1st slide
Introducing sustainability.
Why is ‘sustainability’ a complex and controversial concept?
Q2 Week 2nd slide
The business case for sustainability
In your view, what is the most compelling business case for sustainability? Why is this so?
Q3 Week 3rd slide
Leadership for sustainability
Cavagnaro and Curiel (2012) propose that sustainability leadership ‘starts with the individual’. Do you agree with this statement? Please justify your answer.
Sustainability models to “think with”
Why do existing sustainability models emphasis systems thinking?
As referred to in the given presentation, I learn that the sustainability concept is thoroughly based upon the context that individuals along with their communities comprise of social, economical, and environmental systems which remain in constant interaction and balance in order that the community continues functioning for benefits of the inhabitants. I agree to the fact that a society is said to be sustainable if it operates in a balanced way based on its strengths and endurance into the future, thereby providing a decent lifestyle to the members (Pinnington, 2011). The presentation stresses that the concept may be interpreted differently but uniquely it is a developmental approach which aims at balancing competing needs against environmental, economic, and social limitation awareness that a society faces. I have learnt that living with the existing environmental limits has been one of the key principals of sustainable development. One outcome of not abiding by it is climate change. But the focus of sustainability concept encompasses wider zone. It includes building of strong, potential, and healthy society. This refers to the need to satisfy diverse needs of all individuals in present or future communities, social cohesion, enhancement of personal wellbeing, and developing scopes for equal opportunities. I consider that sustainable development refers to the development which satisfies the necessity of the current community without sacrificing the capability of future generations for meeting own needs. It acknowledges me that sustainability is interpreted as triple bottom line such as economic, environmental, and social (Peter and Swilling, 2014). I gather knowledge that the way we approach development impacts everyone. The effects of our decisions as a society give real outcomes for lives of societal people. For instance, ineffective planning of communities may result in reduction the quality of life of societal people. The presentation teaches me that in order to maintain sustainability at all the three levels, it is to be bore in mind that this would have a significant impact upon the lives of the communal people. Social sustainability encompasses aspects such as social justice, social capital, social responsibility, ethics, gender equality, cooperation, participation, social cohesion, trust, etc.
The slide under this topic reflects upon the corporate sustainability concept. From the given presentation about the given topic, I learn that drivers for business sustainability includes greater visibility of social injustices or environmental damage, increased public awareness of social issues, societal needs for sustainability, governmental legislative mechanisms, and emergence of global mechanism for governance (Osbaldiston, 2013). I learn that some institutions are intensively dedicated to global sustainability like that of United Nations Environment Program, Center for Sustainable Economy, Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, etc. Some resistances exist in the path of sustainability like that of skepticism and suspicion of academic researchers. I completely agree that for realizing sustainability, initiatives are to be honed to particular situations of firms in distinct industries. Sustainability benefits corporate organizations in a number of ways, such as it reduces risks as well as costs, increases legitimacy as well as reputation, stimulates innovation, creates competitive advantage, values, and also promotes financial performances. Some examples can be given in this regard. Lack of commitment of James Hardie towards sustainability had led him to pay $1.5 billion as penalty to the asbestos victims. Organizations like Ikea, Westpac, and 3M pays greater emphasis on the corporate sustainability. I can reflect the positive impacts of sustainability upon organizations like Forbes, Fortunes, Dow Jones, etc. I have witnessed the wider outline of an innovative way of interpreting corporate sustainability matters taking shape at considerable time (Newman-Storen, 2014). I have gained knowledge and thinking about the significant relationship amidst environmental management as well as corporate performance, particularly in relating environmental management enhancements to financial value. As depicted in the presentation, the extra leverage brought about by active involvement of financial market players has been responsible in shifting the investment world towards alignment of objectives of corporate sustainability. The key elements identified in the process of attaining sustainability are active involvement of CEO, Board and Executive Team, etc. The presentation also emphasizes upon the need to inculcate positive culture and effective strategies to bring about assured sustainability in the organizations in the long run. It is also important to define improved efficiency within the value chain of an organization.
As depicted in the presentation, a leader is an individual who is solely responsible for crafting a definite vision as well as inspires people for achieving desired objectives of an organization against all those challenges arising along the way. A leader is one who inspires his members as well as supports them towards a better world. From the presentation, I learn that that the key attributes and styles of an effective leader for ensuring sustainability are that the leaders need to be systematic, understanding, and interdisciplinary. He needs to have emotional intelligence as well as caring attitude (Marshall, 2011). He needs to have a strong vision for making a difference. I learnt that the transition for sustainable operation is the greatest challenge a business will ever face. However, leadership is the key to bring about a positive change within the organization. Some of the leadership theories that are depicted in the presentation are Trait theory, behavioral theory, transactional leadership, participative leadership, situational theories, great man theory, and transformational leadership. Each of the type of leadership theories has been highlighted upon the presentation. I learn from the presentation that path to sustainable leadership involves cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, and systematic intelligence. Emotional intelligence refers to the type of social intelligence which involves the capability of monitoring own as well as other’s feelings for discriminating among them and using the information for guiding thoughts as well as actions. Systematic intelligence is the ability to perceive the whole as sum of sub parts that are interconnected. A society or an organization cannot achieve sustainability without thinking systematically. Some other leadership styles as depicted in the presentation are authentic leadership, ethical leadership, and servant leadership. Thus, it has been rightly stated by Cavagnaro and Curiel (Cullen, 2013) that sustainability leadership initiates with an individual. An individual is responsible for the way he inculcates the leadership qualities or executes them. I totally justify with the statement as an individual must understand the need to be a leader in the organizational set up. Leadership qualities may be learnt but the best practice is to inculcate the qualities from within. In order to be an organizational leader, an individual needs to understand the urgency of the situation and act according to it. This refers to the need to satisfy diverse needs of all individuals in present or future communities, social cohesion, enhancement of personal wellbeing, and developing scopes for equal opportunities. I consider that sustainable development refers to the development which satisfies the necessity of the current community without sacrificing the capability of future generations for meeting own needs.
Why do existing sustainability models emphasis systems thinking?
Systems
The main aim of sustainability models to emphasize upon systems thinking through modeling is to promote the results as well as process of visioning for moving the system successfully to a desired position. Models are said to focus techniques for creating visions which are viable as well as resilient, and are thereby crafted to continue with the sustainability principles.
Sustainability models have certain attributes of models in general with constraints of resources based on which the system is built (Bottery, 2012). These models are likely to be heuristic and not predictive on account of the dependence upon normative interpretations of the specific system. System thinking or models produce static snapshots of the present system state or even dynamic representation of future cases which are anchored during the present situation. System thinking is greatly emphasized by sustainability models because of some key concepts that are core to those models. These are:
I learn from the presentation that path to sustainable leadership involves cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, and systematic intelligence. Emotional intelligence refers to the type of social intelligence which involves the capability of monitoring own as well as other’s feelings for discriminating among them and using the information for guiding thoughts as well as actions. Systematic intelligence is the ability to perceive the whole as sum of sub parts that are interconnected.
References
Bottery, M. (2012). Leadership, the Logic of Sufficiency and the Sustainability of Education.Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 40(4), pp.449-463.
Bullough, A. and de Luque, M. (2014). Women’s participation in entrepreneurial and political leadership: The importance of culturally endorsed implicit leadership theories. Leadership, 11(1), pp.36-56.
Cullen, J. (2013). Judi Marshall, Gill Coleman and Peter Reason, Leadership for sustainability: An action research approach,. Leadership, 9(2), pp.305-308.
Marshall, J. (2011). En-gendering Notions of Leadership for Sustainability. Gender, Work & Organization, 18(3), pp.263-281.
Newman-Storen, R. (2014). Leadership in Sustainability: Creating an Interface between Creativity and Leadership Theory in Dealing with “Wicked Problems”. Sustainability, 6(9), pp.5955-5967.
Osbaldiston, R. (2013). Synthesizing the Experiments and Theories of Conservation Psychology.Sustainability, 5(6), pp.2770-2795.
Peter, C. and Swilling, M. (2014). Linking Complexity and Sustainability Theories: Implications for Modeling Sustainability Transitions. Sustainability, 6(3), pp.1594-1622.
Pinnington, A. (2011). Leadership development: Applying the same leadership theories and development practices to different contexts?. Leadership, 7(3), pp.335-365.
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