The Roles of Leadership that are Relevant to Corporate Greening - Essay Example

Thе Rоlеs of Lеаdеrshiр thаt arе Rеlеvаnt tо Соrроrаtе Grееning in Еnsuring Соrроrаtе Sustаinаbility Name Institution Date   Introduction Leadership is a very essential aspect of achieving corporate sustainability. A good leader is someone whom other people can follow towards the right direction (Fuller & Green 2005, p.1). Managers and other top management personalities in an organisation have the responsibility of leading the business towards the achievement of long term corporate sustainability. Good leadership in an organisation will ensure that corporate strategies are well set out and the people within the organisation are able to accept and trust these strategies while working towards achieving them. To ensure corporate sustainability is achieved good corporate leadership must be aimed at building long term benefit for all the stakeholders of the firm including; shareholders, customers and employees (Crutzen & Herzig 2013, p.166). Leadership with integrity is the key here, leading with word and deed. Business leaders require integrity to craft and implement good business strategies. In leadership, managers in an organisation have the responsibility of finding strategic activities like industry analysis, internal analysis and competitive analysis and ensure these activities are done (p.1). Leadership serves many roles in ensuring corporate sustainability is achieved. This essay is aimed at analyzing the roles of leadership that are relevant to corporate greening in ensuring corporate sustainability. The main basis of the essay will be on discussing leadership and governance and expound leadership theories such as corporate greening, corporate sustainability, environmental leadership, ethical leadership and green leadership among other leadership theories. The essay will also discuss the importance of corporate greening in leadership and governance and its rationale. There will also be a discussion on the importance of corporate greening in ensuring corporate sustainability and how leadership can facilitate this process. Corporate greening involves the process through which organisations can work and become more responsible environmentally within their operations. This involves organisations becoming more environmentally conscious as well as reducing their influence on the natural environment (Harvey & Schaefer 1998, p.1). For an organisation to achieve corporate sustainability through corporate greening it is important to establish green leadership together with green teams that work to inspire and motivate employees’ in the organisation. This will ensure that workers shift their strategies towards a path which is more sustainable for the organisation. Corporate greening advocates for a more environmentally sustainable society and this requires companies to mitigate their impact of populations as well as the planet while maintaining shareholder as well as investors interests of rightfully demanding profits. Leaders have a role in corporate greening so as to give employees light that will allow them in finding news ideas of rooting out waste, create designs that are improve and find new efficiencies. Managers have the responsibility of working to ensure that the company operations are more environmentally friendly. The human resources department should allow green teams in the company to instigate organisational change (Murthy & Parisi, 2013). As their leadership role, managers in an organisation have the responsibility of supporting the company’s corporate sustainability strategy for business growth and protecting the planet’s natural resources (Mulvaney 2009, p.1115). Managers can achieve this through encouraging and educating workers the importance of reducing the consumption of energy and water. It is also achieved through empowering the business development partners to build green companies and also greening the company’s supply chain as well as educating and inspiring associates to conserve and preserve the environment. Leaders in the organisation also have the responsibility of advocating for the address of environmental challenges through the use of conservation initiatives that are innovative such as; rainforest protection as well as water conservation. This highly supports the role of leaders in the organisation to support environmental leadership and green leadership. It is the role of senior managers in an organisation to recognise the need for reducing the consumption of water, waste as well as energy in their companies as well as corporate offices and focus on integrating greater environmental sustainability in the business (Dillon, Brody & Stevenson, 2013). They should be in the front line to advocate for improvement in energy efficiency, conservation of water and projects that are supportive in reducing deforestation. Leaders should ensure that their business use energy as well as environmental action plans and best practice auditing tools that help their properties in achieving energy and water reduction goals. It is also their responsibility to ensure that, their database and monitoring systems help them in tracking consumption as well as monitoring progress against goals. In developing green organisations, leaders in an organisation have the responsibility of working with other partners for leadership in energy and environmental design. This ensures that their partners are empowered to build green companies. This enables the owners of businesses save a lot of energy and water consumption and recover their initial investment in a very short time. It is evident that corporate leaders are faced with new demands of leadership when it comes to new issues that are related to energy and environment arises. It is their responsibility to lead their organisations in dealing with global warming and fuel factors for the management of risks, satisfaction of stakeholders, meet requirements and beat their competitors. Corporate greening explains how leaders in the organisation achieve economic, social and political accountability while creating opportunities for business growth (Srivastava 2013, p.13). It tells how leaders and corporate communicators can effectively engage. Corporate greening gives managers in businesses insights that can be used in advising and engaging together with company stakeholders on the climate change and carbon constraint issue together with the formation and implementation of business strategies that are sustainable. According to Mandip (2012, p.2277), corporate sustainability is all about making sure that companies implement their strategies that work to contribute to long term success. Additionally, businesses that act in a manner which is sustainable help in maintaining the wellbeing of the planet and its populations as well as creating businesses that have greater chances of survival and thriving in the long run. Therefore, leaders in these organisations have the responsibility of recognising that a performance that is successfully sustainable translates to the bottom line success of a business performance. They should also realise that investors are usually attracted to organisations that act in a manner which is sustainable and focusing on profitability which is long term and competitive advantage. Investing in the environment is one way through which organisations focus on long term profitability and corporate greening is inevitable. It is one of the sustainable practices that an organisation can undertake to achieve a better, secure and long term viability of the business (AICPA, CICA & CIMA research study 2010, p.3). In achieving corporate strategy and sustainable development, leadership plays a big role in its attainment through the creation of vision, mission and through the provision of strategic direction to the organisation (Epstein 2008, p.13). It is the responsibility of environmental leaders to exert enough influence across boundaries of the organisation with the use of their power. They need to poses specific characteristics such as; confidence, persistence, agreeableness, promotion regulatory focus and openness to experience (p.14). They have the role of ensuring that all stakeholders subscribe to the idea that today’s needs are going to be met without the compromise of future generations’ needs. Business leaders have a responsibility of making a trade off in between their interest in the business as well as the larger community and society good. They have a duty to establish, promote, monitor and maintain ethical standards as well as practices when dealing will all stakeholders of the company (Haack, Schoeneborn & Wickert, 2012, p.816). This ensures that all stakeholders are involved in the organisations’ activities. Leaders achieve corporate sustainability by integrating corporate greening within the policies as well as practices of the management (p.15). This ensures that, managers incorporate a framework which is effective in governing and making decisions that are related to corporate greening so as to achieve business practices that are sustainable. As a sustainability initiative, corporate greening should be integrated together with business planning, management information as well as control systems (Watson, Boudreau & Chen 2010, p.4). Therefore, in achieving corporate sustainability through corporate greening, leaders need to adapt strategies as well as activities that meet the needs of its stakeholders while protecting, enhancing and sustaining human as well as natural resources that are needed in the future. To achieve corporate sustainability, senior officers within a company have the first responsibility of being committed to corporate greening by developing a mission and a strategy that will be implemented. This involves setting the tone of the goal at the top management of the organisation which is important for corporate sustainability. It is also important for leaders to adopt a corporate sustainability mission statement the corporate commitment to achieving corporate greening throughout the organisation (Brunn 2014, p.6578). By developing corporate greening strategies, leaders have the responsibility of ensuring that the organisation achieves these strategies towards a full integration of corporate sustainability. Leaders should allow flexibility for a lifelong learning experience to meet and understand the scope of corporate greening in areas of mutual interest. Leaders have the responsibility to communicate enough about the company’s corporate strategy on corporate greening to all stakeholders. Leaders should ensure that all stakeholders in the organisation are aware of the complex facts of climate protection strategies (Spencer 2014, p.13). This communication ensures their better understanding of the issue and focuses their ideas and energy in achieving the strategy. Leaders will achieve corporate greening by leading through influence. There are many programs that must be carried out and managers must communicate all of them to the respective departments and people (Boichuk & Lyapustina, 2014). They may find themselves in a state of lacking authority to control and this call for leading through influence. To influence other people within the organisation, leaders must have the capability of growing relationships that are productive. They must build relationships with all staff in the organisation from departments within the company for the purpose of aligning their action with the corporate greening strategies, goals as well as metrics that contribute to a program which is consistent and credible. Leaders must have and demonstrate a mutual relationship with all stakeholders (Egels-Zandén & Rosén 2014, p.1). Leaders have a big function in achieving corporate sustainability through corporate greening by formulating and achieving environmental as well as social goals while ensuring that these objectives are balanced with traditional financial performance metrics (Rubin & Rubin 2012, p.323). They can lead by partnering with other people to determine project requirement in formulating corporate values as well as sustainability strategy. Human resources managers have a key role in ensuring that employees work to implement the set out strategies within the organisation (Cohen, Taylor & Camen 2011, p.1). Conclusion Leadership has been recognised as having a key role to play in achieving corporate sustainability. One of the major aspects that leaders can use is corporate greening that works to achieve sustainable development in organisations through integration of social and environmental issues with corporate strategies, business plans, systems as well as practices. It is the responsibility of leaders to adopt a corporate sustainability mission that conveys the organisation’s commitment in corporate greening. Leaders should also develop strategies of corporate sustainability that are aimed at implementing the corporate greening process and move the business towards fully sustainable integration. It is also the role of leaders to establish, promote, monitor and maintain ethical standards as well as practices when dealing with tall the stakeholders of the company. References AICPA, CICA and CIMA Research Study, 2010, Evolution of Corporate Sustainability Practices, Perspectives from the UK, US and Canada, pp.1-5. Boichuk, S., & Lyapustina, K, 2014, Master of Science in Sustainable Management. Brunn, S. 2014, Cyberspace Knowledge Gaps and Boundaries in Sustainability Science: Topics, Regions, Editorial Teams and Journals.Sustainability, Vol.6, Iss.10, pp.6576-6603. 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