Taking the Lead into Sustainability: Decision Makers’ Competencies for a Greener Future

Sarah Eberz (), Sandra Lang, Petra Breitenmoser and Kai Niebert
Additional contact information
Sarah Eberz: Institute of Education, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Sandra Lang: Institute of Education, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Petra Breitenmoser: Institute of Education, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Kai Niebert: Institute of Education, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: Many research articles describe competencies that people need in order to think, develop, and enact a sustainable future. Based on findings from the political economy, this paper argues that it is the macroscopic decisions in the public sphere that have an impact on society and the environment. Therefore, decision makers in the economy, politics, and civil society are important actors to enable a societal transformation towards sustainability by making macroscopic decisions. Based on these assumptions, this empirical research article analyzes the competencies decision makers such as ministers, CEOs, or union leaders need to contribute to a sustainable future in their professional life. We conducted interviews with 14 high-level decision makers and analyzed their competencies based on Wiek et al.’s framework on sustainability competencies. The findings show how they enact and organize the competencies needed for steering the sustainable transition. Linking all competencies is particularly important, especially at the intersection of different systems, to develop a macroscale, system-oriented decision. The authors suggest to consider systems and interpersonal thinking as extremely interdisciplinary competencies and to put a focus on public-sphere actions when educating future leaders. Moreover, the results indicate that dealing with uncertainty, following one’s own values, and building up resilience play a major role for decision makers.

Keywords: key competencies in sustainability; leadership; decision making; sustainable transformation; education for sustainable development (ESD) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/4986/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/4986/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:6:p:4986-:d:1094091

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().