Cultivating Earth-Shaped Leaders: Ecological Imagination in Organizations

Benjamin Yosua-Davis ()
Additional contact information
Benjamin Yosua-Davis: The BTS Center

Humanistic Management Journal, 2025, vol. 10, issue 1, No 13, 199-213

Abstract: Abstract How would organizations act differently if they embodied an ecological imagination? In 2022, The BTS Center convened a group of leaders from seven cross-sector organizations working in the non-profit and higher education sectors to explore this question in the context of a year-long cross-sector co-learning community. Our research employed a qualitative research framework that aimed for thick descriptions of leaders’ experiences by field noting large group sessions, breakout groups, site visits, and one-on-one conversations with participants. The research identifies and describes several distinct patterns that emerged when leaders re-imagined their leadership via an ecological lens. These include: the importance of spaciousness for cultural transformation, the power of non-profit cultural norming through the concept of the “Non-Profit Industrial Complex,” and, most significantly, how shifts in organizational self-perception led to new ways of understanding leadership, metrics, and organizational identity; all while respecting the existing limits of leaders’ institutional and moral agency. This research also noted the perceptions, postures, and practices that cultivate earth-shaped leadership, including the importance of seeing health before growth, being curious and adaptable, creating personal differentiation from one’s professional identity, practicing spaciousness, and tending relationships.

Keywords: Environment; Climate; Organizational leadership; Ecological; Perception; Imagination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41463-024-00190-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:humman:v:10:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s41463-024-00190-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41463

DOI: 10.1007/s41463-024-00190-y

Access Statistics for this article

Humanistic Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Pirson

More articles in Humanistic Management Journal from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().