Because they are victims of short-term economic pressures and "parochial politics", most American companies critically lack the one factor proven effective in winning competitive advantage: leadership. Thus argues John P. Kotter in this, his third large-scale work on leadership, which continues and complements the work begun in his influential "The General Managers" and "Power and Influence". With compelling evidence, Kotter demonstrates why most American firms do not have the leadership capacity they currently need and explains what they must do to correct this damaging problem. Using comprehensive data from 900 senior executives in 100 American corporations, as well as in-depth interviews with 150 top managers in fifteen successful companies, including General Electric, Citicorp, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Coca-Cola, Kotter singles out the practices that develop superior leadership. He identifies both the specific personal attributes and general leadership qualities needed in today's corporations. And, with the spotlight on such individuals as Lee Iacocca at Chrysler and teams like the top management at Johnson & Johnson, he vividly illustrates the four factors that create outstanding leadership in both private and public sector senior and middle level managers. Professor Kotter underscores his argument with glaring examples of managerial failures in firms like ITT, providing eye-opening evidence of damage-- inability to control sagging productivity and poor records in customer service, quality control, and the development of new products-- caused primarily not be poor R&D or labor problems, but by a weak leadership capacity. Filled with dozens of case histories, "The Leadership Factor" reveals an all-too-common picture of companies which, unable to recognize or develop leadership talent and utilize it, create a pervasive gap in corporate planning and personal management. Progress has been made in improving quality management, but is has been limited. Kotter is hard-hitting in his assessment that even American companies which achieve a superior level of success in the leadership area-- IBM, DuPont, Dow Jones, Hewlett-Packard, and Anheuser-Busch, for example, must do even better to match efforts of foreign competitors. In showing how leaders are made, not born, he provides a realistic program structured to help attract, retain, and motivate dynamic, capable leaders in executive and middle management positions. Following Kotter's advice, companies can build strong managerial teams necessary not only for growth-- but also for survival itself.

The Leadership Factor

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound consequences on the social, economic and cultural life at the global level. The educational dimension has also been affected in the schools’ regular functioning, with the temporary closure of educational institutions, as well as the impediment of face-to-face classes. This perspective paper aims to add to the knowledge already produced on this topic, by arguing that these challenging conditions can be a pivotal moment of opportunity for reshaping higher education, with the implementation, development and diffusion, among academics and students, of digital technologies. The paper also discusses the role of leadership in the transformation of organizational culture in higher education. The methodology used to carry out this study is qualitative, and the technique employed to analyze the data collected was content analysis. Research studies, in diverse formats, already published on the COVID-19 topic and its impacts were the elected data sources. The results of this document analysis allow us to conclude that there is the need to improve the digital sustainable development in teaching in higher education, which entails profound challenges that higher education institutions need to face and overcome if they want to be at the forefront of success in the international education market. This is where the authors seek to contribute, by offering insights on the challenges—but also the opportunities—that COVID-19 poses to higher education at a time when it needs to redefine its teaching methods, leadership models, and interaction channels, by going digital towards the improvement of the sustainable development of its teaching.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8525/pdf

The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education

Cleaner production for achieving the sustainable development goals

https://hal-emse.ccsd.cnrs.fr/emse-02276514/document

Towards Circular Economy in Production Planning: Challenges and Opportunities

Sustainability indicators for the economic evaluation of tourism investments on islands

Sustainability leadership entails the processes, which leaders, policymakers, and academics undertake in order to implement sustainable development policies and other initiatives within their organizations. It encompasses approaches, methods, and systemic solutions to solve problems and drive institutional policy towards a more sustainable organization. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) play a particularly important role, especially with regard to their institutional leadership role in promoting sustainable development. There is a paucity of research focusing on sustainability leadership in universities. In order to address this gap, this paper discussed the concept of sustainability leadership based on literature and empirical insights. The study aimed to understand the main characteristics of sustainability leaders at HEI and the main challenges they are confronted with. Secondary research questions involved gender issues and positive outcomes of sustainability leadership. The empirical component of the study consisted of an online-questionnaire survey performed among leaders (n = 50) from a set of universities in 29 countries. The sampling scheme was purposive, based on the membership in the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Program (IUSDRP). The study was explorative in nature, and the descriptive statistics were used for the analysis. Due to the purposive sampling, the participants from top management positions could be considered as experienced, and their views were assumed to be information-rich. With a self-evaluation, the respondents described their leadership style and their usual traits, with inclusive style and systemic thinking being predominant in the sample. Regarding the skills, the respondents selected the ability to innovate, to think long-term, and to manage complexity from a pre-defined set of options. Connectedness with interdisciplinarity and knowledge about organizational settings, as well as global challenges and dilemmas, were stated as important issues related to the knowledge required for being a leader. Regarding requirements for a change towards more sustainable universities’ curriculum adaptation, investments in education for sustainable development (ESD), sustainable procurement, and reporting were mentioned. The study also revealed that gender issues were taken seriously among the sampled institutions, which is an encouraging trend. Challenges seen in implementing sustainability leadership are, for instance, a lack of interest by the university administration and among some members of the academic community, as well as lack of expertise and materials or resources. Based on the empirical insights, a set of measures were listed and which may be adopted in the future, so as to allow leaders of Higher Education Institutions to enhance their sustainability performance.

Sustainability leadership in higher education institutions: An overview of challenges

Systemic indicator of sustainable development: Proposal and application of a framework

\nPurpose\nThis paper aims to explore whether formal, non-formal, and informal learning experiences contribute to developing sustainable development competencies (SDCs) among students in a Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) signatory business school.\n\n\nDesign/methodology/approach\nAn online survey based on the students’ learning experiences and a questionnaire on sustainability competencies already validated in the literature were given to a sample of 274 bachelor students at a PRME signatory business school. Nominal variables representing students’ categories were created to test a set of hypotheses developed according to the literature. Because the data was not normally distributed, non-parametric independent-samples Mann–Whitney U test was conducted, and descriptive statistics was used to help the analysis.\n\n\nFindings\nThe results suggest that a hybrid format with a combination of formal, non-formal and informal learning experiences is essential to maximising the development of SDCs and raising students’ sustainability literacy.\n\n\nResearch limitations/implications\nThis study is one of the first attempts to understand the importance of a hybrid approach in developing sustainable competencies (SDCs). Future studies could adopt longitudinal analysis to check the development of these competencies over time, assess students from different PRME signatory schools or comparing students to those in non-signatory business schools.\n\n\nPractical implications\nThis study provides insight into how business schools could address challenges in developing sustainable competencies through redirecting their educational systems by balancing formal, informal and non-formal learning approaches to educate future responsible leaders.\n\n\nOriginality/value\nThis research provides evidence on how a hybrid learning approach could maximise the development of sustainable development competencies and, therefore, generating insights for educational policies.\n

A hybrid approach to sustainable development competencies: the role of formal, informal and non-formal learning experiences

It is established that sustainable development (SD) requires that each dimension be addressed. Indeed, focus should be on economic perspective as an important pillar to achieve sustainability goals. Economic approaches to SD use resource accounting based on their roles and potential externalities, greening of GDP, different sustainable growth modeling, and conceptual definition of strong and weak sustainability. Many economists assume that sustainable growth is part of economic development. Some economic indicators may assess and anticipate conditions and trends by providing early warning information to avoid future economic, environmental, and social problems. In addition, they can help you formulate strategies and support decision-making at all levels. A useful perspective on the integration of economic indicators and impacts and consequences to SD practices was not objectively provided by literature. The sustainability economics has been thought of as an aggregation of environmental resources and economic mechanisms, forgetting of the other SD dimensions. Approaches for assessing economic dimension to SD do not capture the multidimensional relationships that are needed to analyze the complex system. The common methods quantify the sources of gains for individual groups or regions and nations and account for limitations on economic growth posed by environmental constraints, social implications, and institutional settings without articulating them. This is not enough and makes it necessary to make clear what are the connections between different approaches of economic indicators used to manage and measure sustainability. A comprehensive approach to economic assessment in the SD perspective must start by guiding indicators in a systematic way. The aim of this chapter is to develop a debate around the main economic indicator approaches and paths to SD, by conducting a critical analysis of potentialities and weaknesses identified in the literature. This chapter also explains these different approaches and how they may influence SD discourse and the role of economic indicators in this process.

João Henrique Paulino Pires Eustachio

Papers

Sustainability leadership in higher education institutions: An overview of challenges

Systemic indicator of sustainable development: Proposal and application of a framework

A hybrid approach to sustainable development competencies: the role of formal, informal and non-formal learning experiences

Economic approaches to sustainable development: exploring the conceptual perspective and the indicator initiatives

Comparission of development levels between rural and industrial areas in the state of são paulo