Leading the Sustainable Organization

214 Pages·2012·2.377 MB·English

by  Timothy J. Galpin, J. Lee Whittington, Greg Bell

Leading the Sustainable Organization
This book is the first to combine the much talked about topics of leadership and
sustainability, and provides readers with a comprehensive overview and pragmatic
approach to leading sustainable organizations.
Chapters include discussions, case examples, steps, and useful tools centered
on the components of the Leading the Sustainable Organization model. This
model provides managers with a pragmatic, end-to-end framework for creating
(in the case of new entities) or shifting (in the case of existing firms) their
organizations’ workforces to a sustainability focus.
Leading the Sustainable Organization is the perfect tool for executives and
managers in small, medium, and large companies, and in all industries, to assist
with the difficult and confusing topic of leading sustainability efforts.
This book will be of great interest to students and academics who want to learn
more about corporate sustainability.
Timothy J. Galpin is an Assistant Professor at Colorado Mesa University. He has
over 20 years’ experience as a management consultant and business manager,
working with firms around the world on strategic planning, strategy execution,
merger and acquisition integration, restructuring, and organizational change.
J. Lee Whittington is Professor of Management at the University of Dallas. He
focuses his teaching, research, and consulting in the areas of leadership,
organizational behavior, and spiritual leadership.
R. Greg Bell is an Assistant Professor at the University of Dallas where he
teaches courses in Strategic Management and Business and Society. His research
focus is in corporate governance and sustainability.
Leading the Sustainable
Organization
Development, Implementation and
Assessment
Timothy J. Galpin, J. Lee Whittington,
and R. Greg Bell
First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2012 Timothy J. Galpin, J. Lee Whittington, and R. Greg Bell.
The right of Timothy J. Galpin, J. Lee Whittington, and R. Greg Bell
to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Galpin, Timothy J., 1961-
Leading the sustainable organization : development, implementation, and
assessment / Tim Galpin, J. Lee Whittington, and Greg Bell.
p. cm.
1. Leadership. 2. Strategic planning. 3. Organizational effectiveness.
I. Whittington, J. Lee. II. Bell, Greg. III. Title.
HD57.7.G346 2012
658.4’092--dc23
ISBN: 978-1-84971-466-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-69783-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-12844-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Contents
List of figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Preface x
1 Introduction 1
PART I
Development 21
2 Direction setting – mission, values, goals, and strategy 23
3 Setting the context – the HR value chain 46
PART II
Implementation 69
4 Engaging employees through full-range leadership 71
5 Increasing engagement through goal setting and task design 90
6 Enhancing engagement by building high-trust
relationships 104
PART III
Assessment 123
7 Employees and the micro-level of sustainability
performance 125
8 Organizations and the macro-level of sustainability
performance 143
vi Contents
9 Summary 168
Glossary of key terms 179
Appendices
A – Executive summary of the “Current state of
sustainability leadership” survey 181
B – Sustainability raters 184
Index 202
List of Figures
1.1 The ‘Leading the Sustainable Organization’ model 2
1.2 Perceptions of both managers and employees as to
why their firm pursues sustainability 9
1.3 Virtuous cycle of sustainability and workforce engagement 11
2.1 Begin leading the sustainable organization by including
sustainability as part of the firm’s mission, values,
goals, and strategy 24
2.2 Systemic perspective of strategic management 25
2.3 Sustainability is included in my company’s mission 27
2.4 Stages of sustainability 28
2.5 Sustainability is included in my company’s values
(totals more than 100% due to rounding) 33
2.6 Sustainability is included in my company’s strategy
(totals more than 100% due to rounding) 36
3.1 Set the context for leading the sustainable organization
by including sustainability as part of the firm’s
HR value chain 47
3.2 My company recruits and selects new hires who
value sustainability 53
3.3 My company does a good job of communicating to
employees and managers the importance of the company’s
sustainability efforts 54
3.4 My company includes sustainability in at least some
portion of each employee’s and manager’s training and
development 56
3.5 My company requires that sustainability is included
within each employee’s and manager’s performance plan
and evaluation 58
viii List of figures
3.6 My company attaches at least some portion of each
employee’s and manager’s pay and rewards to his or her
sustainability performance evaluation 60
3.7 My company does a good job of being ethical and fair
when it comes to letting people go from the company
due to performance issues or layoffs 61
4.1 Micro-level leadership components 74
4.2 The full range of leadership 76
5.1 Job characteristics model 94
5.2 Job strain model 95
5.3 Guidelines for enriching a job 96
5.4 Assessing your job’s enrichment level 102
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge our clients and colleagues, who are too numerous
to name here, but who have added much to our understanding of what leading
successful sustainability efforts entails. We would also like to thank Lucy
Gonzalez at Mission Foods, Tom Kemper at Dolphin Blue, Scott Morrison at City
Garage, and Phillip Williams at Montgomery Farm for the generous time they
took to provide us with their insights and experiences in leading their sustainable
organizations.
Preface
As sustainability has grown in popularity, the availability of books and articles on
the topic has also increased. Whether identified as sustainability, corporate social
responsibility (CSR), corporate social performance (CSP), “going green,” or the
“triple bottom line” – including financial, environmental and social performance
– the public’s interest in the area is far-reaching.
Just as sustainability is still ill-defined, the writing thus far on the topic is also
scattered and fragmented. What has been written on sustainability falls, for the
most part, squarely into the “thou shalt” genre of management books. That is, the
authors who address the topic of corporate sustainability (for the purposes of this
book, we use the terms corporate sustainability, CSR, CSP, “going green,” and the
“triple bottom line” interchangeably) seem to all agree that executives and
managers should be doing something about making their organizations more
sustainable. However, there is limited, practical guidance regarding how to go
about leading and engaging a sustainable organization. While there are numerous
anecdotes and case examples of sustainability activities that companies have
engaged in, there is no clear end-to-end model to aid executives and managers in
leading sustainable organizations. What is needed is a comprehensive and
pragmatic framework that addresses sustainability from strategy, through
employee engagement, to measurable results.
Why this book?
This is the first book to combine leadership with sustainability. In view of the
scattered nature of information, and more importantly, useful how-to information on
the topics of leadership and sustainability, we provide readers with a comprehensive
overview and pragmatic approach to leading sustainable organizations. The chapters
of this book include discussions, case examples, steps, and useful tools centered on
the components of our Leading the Sustainable Organization model. This model
provides managers with an evidence-based, pragmatic, end-to-end framework for
creating (in the case of new entities) or shifting (in the case of existing firms) their
organizations’ workforces to a sustainability focus.
This book is divided into three parts. Part I – Development – focuses on the
macro-components of leading sustainable organizations taking place at the firm-