Move over hero as organizations shift to eco-leadership

What do Al Gore, Bill Gates, Toshiba and MacDonalds all have in common? According to a new SAGE publication out this month, they all show attributes of Eco-leadership: a more ethical and socially responsible form of leadership that is emerging to address the social and environmental issues faced by organizations in the 21st century.

In Leadership, A Critical Text, Simon Western explores the four key leadership discourses that have emerged over the past century: the leader as Controller, Therapist, Messiah, and Eco-leader. Western claims this visionary hero leadership of the Messiah in the USA created corporate cultures that mimicked fundamentalist church cultures:

ìThey were dynamic and yet conformist and followers aligned behind visionary/prophetic leaders,î commented Western. ìFollower belief in the leader and their vision created a form of culture control where employees would drive each other forward to achieve great things together, working long hours for ëthe good of the company; together they would prosperíî.

Western believes the Messiah leaders created cultures that shut down innovation and questioning; resulting in economic downturn and catastrophic events such as the collapse of Enron. This triggered the current shift to a more organic, distributed form of leadership that could make decisions close to the ground, be more adaptive and more ethical.

Until recently a marginalized voice, the Eco-leader has become powerful since 2000, and more and more progressive business and political leaders begin to embrace this discourse. Eco-leadership understands the ecology of the workplace in relation to the wider world. It takes account of a holistic approach, realizing the interconnectivity of an organization, and builds networks and relationships with stakeholders.

ìNot only does the Eco-leader exist in the battle against climate change, but also recognizes the relationship between social responsibility and success,î said Western. ìConsumers are no-longer willing to sit passively by while slave labour is used to manufacture goods. The costs of waste, fuel costs, heating costs, are all at unsustainable levels and have suddenly have brought Eco-leadership into the foreground, for business reasons as well as ethical reasons.î

Already praised as one of the 'most promising forthcoming management books for 2007í, Leadership A Critical Text offers insightful new ways to think about contemporary leadership.