Eco-Leadership Qualities and Leadership Theories
Option #2: Eco-Leadership in an NGO
Discourse as a method to study leadership has proven to be a viable tool. In the required reading and videos, it is suggested that eco-leadership is a discourse of "new leadership for a new time."
Imagine that you are an organization development and leadership consultant who has been hired to work with the Executive Director (ED) of a global non-governmental organization (NGO), the work of which primarily occurs throughout Africa and Central and South America. English is the most common language used in the NGO.
The NGO is part of a larger grouping of corporations, non-profits, and NGOs working in the area of children’s health. The NGO has long held the belief that distributed leadership is the only way for its programs to reach intended clients and to survive over time.
You and the ED agree to explore the eco-leadership concepts within the context of the NGO’s history, current status, and vision, before opening up discussions with other NGO and partner leaders. You and the CEO agree to the four qualities listed below.
The four qualities include:
Connectivity and interdependence
Systemic ethics
Leadership spirit
Organizational belonging
You and the ED agree that an explanation of the four qualities and then associating each quality with either an organizational theory or a leadership theory would be a great place to begin the dialogue.
You will prepare a consulting report and executive summary and discuss it with the ED in 10 days.
Requirements:
A consulting report consisting of 4-6 pages including a one-page executive summary. Title and references pages are required and are not included in the page count. Cite two real-world examples of NGOs and networks that might exemplify one or more components of eco-leadership.
One organization or leadership theory applied to each of the four qualities (for a total of four theories).
Include at least 2-5 scholarly references in addition to the course textbook. The CSU Global Library (Links to an external site.) is a good place to find these references.
Format your entire presentation according to APA guidelines in the CSU Global Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
Review the grading rubric, which can be accessed from the Module 4 folder, to understand how you will be graded on this assignment. Reach out to your instructor if you have questions about the assignment.
Executive Summary
Eco-leaders define an organization as networks and connections that lead to a specific ecosystem. The NGOs should establish shared values to enhance societal and organizational growth. The NGOs should also focus on motivation and social purpose. The key qualities of eco-leadership are interdependence and connectivity, systemic ethics, leadership spirit, and organizational belonging.
Interdependence and connectivity between the external and internal ecosystems are fundamental for eco-leadership since they enhance the achievement of different societal goals. Therefore, there should be collaboration and connectivity between different stakeholders and society.
Systematic ethics combines well with servant leadership theory to promote ethical values. It is effective for NGOs to consider the values such as collaboration, diversity, passion, and integrity. Besides, the eco-leaders should have definite values to uphold systemic ethics and improve global health.
Eco-leaders must also incorporate the human spirit and democratic leadership theory. They should also acknowledge mythos and friendship and pays attention to the community instead of focusing on material gain. Leadership spirit creates a dynamic relationship between the natural world and humanity. Organizational belonging involves participation during challenges or joys of the communities. NGOs should be available during problems or community achievement. Lastly, the eco-leaders must commit to the NGOs and understand the relationship between spaces and places.
Introduction
Eco-leadership discourse is a fundamental approach focusing on the external and internal ecosystems of an organization. Eco-leadership combines the network and environmental metaphors in the leadership literature (Western, 2019). It is becoming a critical discourse since it addresses the key elements of ecosystems and how the leaders should conceptualize them. The term 'Eco' resembles leaders who work in well-established and open networks instead of closed systems. In Eco-leadership, an organization is defined as networks and connections that lead to a specific ecosystem. Organizations such as NGOs must establish shared values to enhance societal and organizational growth. Therefore, organizations should focus on motivation and social purpose. The leaders must also create eco-mindsets throughout the organizations to address ethical issues and environmental issues. The paper addresses eco-leadership concepts and qualities within the context of an NGO dealing with children's health.
Eco-Leadership Qualities and Leadership Theories
Connectivity and Interdependence
Connectivity and interdependence are significant qualities of eco-leadership. The basis of eco-leadership is connectivity and understanding the social networks (Western, 2019). There must be interdependence between the external and internal ecosystems to fully define eco-leadership. Interdependence has become essential in most NGOs to enhance the achievement of different societal goals. For instance, improving children's health requires collaboration and connectivity of different stakeholders and society, as noted in UnitaidExplore, which is a real-world example of an NGO. Therefore, connectivity and interconnectedness form the basis of eco-leadership.
The leadership theory that combines well with connectivity and interdependence is transformational leadership theory. Transformational leadership is a leadership theory that focuses on changes in social ecosystems (Demir & Budur, 2019). Therefore, it enhances connectivity and interdependence by promoting change in social ecosystems and individuals. It also relates some aspects such as networks, ethics, self-organizing systems, ecology, and system thinking which are fundamental for NGOs and social growth. Besides, eco-leadership resolves challenges in the ecosystems. The challenges are manageable by initiating changes through the transformational leadership theory. Therefore, connectivity and interdependence combine adequately with the transformational leadership theory, which is relevant for the NGO.
Systemic Ethics
Systemic ethics is the second quality of eco-leadership. Systemic ethics focuses on expanding the responsibilities beyond the obvious. It addresses the major issue of the leaders hiding behind specific values. It is effective for NGOs since it promotes leader-fo...