Developing Leaders for the Sustainability of Corporate Culture

Many organizations do not look beyond the aspects of sustainability that directly relates to the immediate concerns of their company. One way to assure the sustainability of an organization, as well as its corporate culture, is to develop individuals within the organization to be leaders. Developing future leaders of an organization is a key responsibility of the current senior management in any organization. More than 60 percent of senior executives in developed economies cited a lack of succession planning in leadership positions as their top business challenge (Bergelson, 2014). Adding to the problems of sustainability and corporate culture that leaders currently face is the fact leaders today need to operate in the changing global business environment that may not have been part of their responsibilities when they became part of the senior management of a company. The current leaders of an organization need to realize that the corporate culture that they helped develop can best be sustained through the promotion of individuals in the organization who possesses the shared vision of the organization and the ethical traits consistent with the culture of the organization (Torugsa, O’Donohue, & Hecker, 2013).

When developing employees for leadership roles, senior management must learn to recognize ways in which the corporate culture presents opportunities and constraints on the development of individuals. Then the executives should seek out individuals with great leadership potential, and identify what will be needed to groom them as successors to the leaders of the organization (Kotter 1990). In setting out to develop the sustainability of organizational culture, senior managers could benefit by identifying and developing possible leaders that share a vision for the organization consistent with the current leaders while exhibiting traits of a transformational leader. By developing employees for leadership positions within an organization, companies can help to assure corporate sustainability while reducing employee turnover and maintain longer-term employment opportunities within a company (Bateh, Heaton, Arbogast, & Broadbent, 2015). When management develops future leaders of an organization from within, they are helping to assure the mission and corporate culture of the organization while preparing for a smooth transition of leadership.

References

Bateh, J., Heaton, C., Arbogast, G., & Broadbent, A.(2015). Defining sustainability in the business setting. American Journal of Business Education, 6(3), 397-400. doi:10.19030/jsm.v1i1.8386

Bergelson, M. (2014). Developing tomorrow’s leaders: Innovative approaches to mentorship. People & Strategy, 37(2), 18-22. Retrieved from http://www.hrps.org

Kotter, J. (1999). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review, 79(11),85-96. doi:10.1007/978-1-137-24203-7_4

Torugsa, N., O’Donohue, W., & Hecker, R. (2013). Proactive CSR: An empirical analysis of the role of its economic, social and environmental dimensions on the association between capabilities and performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(2), 383-402. doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1405-4