A Global Perspective on Environmental Leadership

• In Event: Innovation in Environmental Leadership: Global Perspectives

Short Description

This paper examines the leadership process specifically as it relates to the conservation and sustainability of the natural world within the context of global cultures. It highlights the ways cultural traditions from around the world embrace their environmental context, and the implications for global environmental leadership.

Detailed Abstract

In Understanding Leadership: An Arts and Humanities Perspective, the authors define leadership as “the process by which leaders and followers develop a relationship and work together toward a goal (or goals) within an environmental context shaped by cultural values and norms” (McManus and Perruci, 2015, p. 15). Many leadership scholars implicitly or explicitly acknowledge the first three aspects of this definition – leaders, followers, and the goal (House and Mitchel, 1974, pp. 81-97). Likewise, organizational scholars have noted the relevance of the organizational environment to leadership (Schein, 2010); whereas others have highlighted the impact culture has upon the leadership process (Hofstede, 1980; House et. al., 2004). What many in the field of leadership studies have failed to emphasize more explicitly is the importance of the natural environment on the leadership process, and the cultural values and norms that would help leaders and followers embrace the natural world as an important aspect of their operating context. In this paper the author suggests effective leadership must acknowledge the importance of the natural world, and appealing to pre-existing cultural values can help leaders and followers understand this importance.

The paper examines the leadership process specifically as it relates to the conservation and sustainability of the natural world as the broadest aspect of environmental context that envelops the core of the leadership process – leaders and followers working towards a goal. Leaders and followers must more carefully consider the natural world as a vital part of the environmental context in which they pursue their goals. The paper highlights the ways cultural traditions from around the world embrace this extension of their environmental context. It argues that various cultures – Western, Latin American, Islamic, African, Buddhist, and Taoist civilizations – all have cultural traditions that value the natural world. This paper will highlight these traditions and tie them to the importance of conservation and sustainability of the natural environment. In so doing, it will argue that care for the natural environment is fundamental in conceiving effective leadership. The author will tie this premise to cultural values throughout the world to argue for greater appreciation for the natural environment as a vital part of the context of leadership.

Participant

• Robert McManus, Marietta College