Commonalities Between Sustainability Companies and Business Leadership

Commonalities between Sustainability Companies and Business Leadership
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The globe has shifted its focus to corporate sustainability over the past few years. The public are no longer contented with companies that emphasis maximization of short term profits, instead they are interested in companies that are concerned with human needs as a whole. Research indicate that many companies are taking these shifts seriously and have developed strategies related to sustainability that will enable them to be highly competitive. Companies have shifted from just complying with social and environmental regulations and offering support to the philanthropy of corporates to incorporating risks and opportunities that are non-financial into their main organizational strategies. Research further indicates that companies that have incorporated sustainability policies in their strategies have considerably outperformed those that have not adopted these policies (Eccles et al, 2012, p. 44). High sustainability companies demonstrate high performance in the stock market than low sustainability organizations. Leadership traits are critical if a company is to achieve its sustainability plan.
Pioneer companies in the integration of sustainability in business activities are drawn from various sectors in the industry and from different countries.   Despite these differences, many of these companies show an explicit and common obligation to leadership at three distinct levels (Scheltegger et al, 2010, p. 380). Most leading sustainable companies have formed programs and policies aimed at empowering and developing leadership skill at the individual level of their employees in an effort to enable them be actively involved in the change towards business models that are sustainable. They have equally come up with structures of leadership at the institutional level in the company, these are so as to enable more systematic engagement with main stakeholders and to make sure that...