Sustainability-Oriented Leader, Please! Effects of Industry on Followers’ Preferences

Gillian Warner-Søderholm (), Simonas Čepėnas, Inga Minelgaite and Vita Akstinaitė
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Gillian Warner-Søderholm: Department of Business, Strategy and Political Science, USN School of Business, University of South East Norway, 3045 Drammen, Norway
Simonas Čepėnas: ISM University of Management and Economics, LT-01304 Vilnius, Lithuania
Inga Minelgaite: School of Business, University of Iceland, 102 Reykjavík, Iceland
Vita Akstinaitė: ISM University of Management and Economics, LT-01304 Vilnius, Lithuania

Administrative Sciences, 2024, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-26

Abstract: With sustainability becoming the new norm, the discussion about followers’ attitudes towards sustainability-oriented leadership is growing globally. Therefore, this study investigates the extent to which employees’ industry and sector background influence their perception of the ideal leader in relation to preferred sustainability orientation. This study also examines preferred sustainability leadership values and the role of culturally endorsed leadership in this process. Using the Preferred Sustainability Leadership Orientation (PSLO) survey, we gathered and analyzed data from 11 countries and 11 industry backgrounds ( n = 5530). Our findings show that there is a statistical significance in followers’ valuing a leader with a high sustainability orientation most. Moreover, our results indicate that respondents working in public administration organizations value a leader with a strong sustainability orientation in addition to environmental and equality goals. While respondents associated with agriculture and real estate do not seem to place so much value on an ideal leader focusing on gender equality, in industries such as finance, manufacturing, and real estate, followers seem to value a leader with a stronger focus on profit and less emphasis on promoting gender equality. This research offers implications for the development of the PSLO (preferred sustainable leadership orientation) as a useful sustainability leadership barometer tool for measuring an organization’s sustainability culture and suggests avenues for future research.

Keywords: profit vs. environment; preferred sustainable leadership orientation; equality; demographics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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