*3.3.1 Multiple levels of leadership and threat of disconnection*

Organisation theorists assert that there are three levels in the leadership system of any organisation. According to the seminal work of Katz [34], these three levels or categories of leadership are the tactical, operational and strategic levels nested or embedded within one another. Tactical leadership focuses on the 'here and now', with short-term decisions and risk management for immediate gains [35]. Operational leaders guide teams in analysing and comprehending the organisation's strategic and tactical realities. These leaders design the infrastructure and framework (e.g. operational processes, structures and systems) that enable employees and enhance systems to work tactically toward the organisation's strategy. Lastly, there are strategic leaders at the top of the organisation who constitute the upper echelon. Samimi, Cortes, Anderson and Herrmann [36] are cogent that strategic leaders provide long-term direction (e.g. vision, mission and strategy), motivate and influence employees, create and change organisational culture and drive and align strategy during execution. Strategic leaders form the top management team (TMT) of the organisation and perform symbolic and ceremonial roles (e.g. attending or representing the organisation at functions) and relational work (e.g. building relationships and trust across sectors and organisations, networking with key external stakeholders) [37]. While all three levels of leadership are essential to embedding sustainability in an organisation, members of the TMT are critical as all the other members take cues from them. The upper echelon theory, the theoretical root and seminal work by Hambrick and Mason [38] on strategic leadership, underscores that 'organisational outcomes – both strategies and effectiveness – are viewed as reflections of powerful actors' values and cognitive bases in the organisation'. Thus, strategic leadership theories are about the leadership 'of' organisations and their changing aims and capabilities [37].

A multi-level phenomenon of sustainable leadership implies a commitment to unravel processes embedded in contexts, providing explanations for changes traced to higher and lower levels of the system. Sustainable leadership is not restricted to one

#### *The Nature of Sustainable Leadership: Pitfalls, Insights and New Model DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108833*

person or level within the organisation. The dominant assumptions that sustainable leadership is for those in the upper echelon of the environmental specialists alone to express are both unhelpful and yet widely promoted by current work on leadership. Assumptions like these have negative implications for developing a decentralised or distributed leadership network at all levels.

Mechanical and psychological employee empowerment is helpful for leaders to avoid vertical and horizontal disconnections between actors, levels and sectors and the short-term from long-term aspects of organisational sustainability. Extrinsic, structural and top-down cascading of power to lower levels constitute mechanical empowerment. In contrast, psychological empowerment is intrinsic and focuses on the intrapersonal aspects of employees. Psychological empowerment dwells on how employees think of their work, gain experience, believe in their job, and impact their organisation [39].

#### *3.3.2 Components and interrelationship of sustainable leadership in an open system*

Sustainable leadership is exercised in an open organisational and social system. A 'system' is created when the level of connectivity between actors fosters interdependence on one other [23]. Open social systems have permeable boundaries that allow information and resources to flow in and out, interdependent subsystems and processes of communication, feedback, and management linking the subsystems. Conversely, the closed system approach allows leaders and organisational theorists to analyse problems by examining the hard elements (e.g. strategy, structure and systems) and soft elements (e.g. shared values, skills, staff and styles) of the organisational architecture with little consideration of the external environment.

Hallinger and Suriyankietkaew [7] are explicit that while research on organisational leadership has made impressive progress over the two past decades, the literature continues to emphasise and study leadership effectiveness within 'closed systems'. In this case, 'effective leadership' is most frequently defined and measured in terms of effects on internal organisational measures (e.g. staff job satisfaction, commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour, task performance). It has been less common for scholars to conceptualise the effects of organisational leadership in terms of leader and organisational impact on the broader society. This limitation of leadership research comes to the fore when we examine 'sustainability' in organisations and society. The exercising of sustainable leadership needs to start from the individual level- from ourselves and subsequently involve the complexity arising from interactions and interrelationships between numerous elements of team, organisation and society, as shown in **Figure 3**.

The model of sustainable leadership by [40] acknowledges emergent inter-organisational and cross-sector collaborations across the elements in different subsystems. Individuals improve their sustainability by developing creativity and personality before they can lead others in the organisation and society. Qualified and loyal staff, sustainable relationships between employees and teamwork are the basis of organisational sustainability. Organisational culture includes others to limit the negative impact of organisational activities on people, the planet and profit [39]. Social responsibility is oriented towards sustainability in an already broader context and the perception of a sustainable organisation. Social responsibility implements the ideas of sustainability as the basis for a better organisational image.

More importantly, the model of sustainable leadership [40] highlights the departure from leaders' traditional top-down, hierarchical and direct social influence to

#### **Figure 3.** *The model of the factors of sustainable leadership. Source: Šimanskienė and Župerkienė [40].*

systems leadership. Systems leadership catalyse, enable and empower collective action among networks of plural leaders and diverse actors to achieve common sustainability goals through widespread action and innovation. With clarity on the concept of sustainable leadership, the following section focuses on the selection of the different frameworks of sustainable leadership analysed in this review.
