leadership literature. Noting the significant similarities between my findings and the emerging literature on regenerative leadership, the merit of adopting regenerative leadership as a distinct leadership discourse becomes further evident.
6.2.3.1 Discussing how personal prejudices may have influenced the findings
Despite the primarily inductive approach of my study and the use of open line-by-line coding to overcome personal prejudices, I acknowledge that my prior knowledge of the emerging literature on regenerative leadership may have affected my research design and findings. However, while there is a significant correlation between the findings of this study with the existing notion of regenerative leadership, it is worth nothing that the focused codes, 2nd order concepts and the core categories are linguistically distinct from the language found in the current literature (Hardman, 2013; Hutchins &
Storm, 2019). Although referring broadly to the same ideas, the literature makes use of concepts such as self-organizing and locally attuned (Hutchins & Storm, 2019), where my codes are named distributed leadership and interdisciplinary approach. Noting that most of the literature review centered around different leadership discourses, and that the distinct codes were generated in thorough grounded theory approach, I would argue that my findings are relevant and give credence to the conceptual validity of regenerative leadership.
found in the other progressive leadership discourses, the placement between the inner and outer circle shows that it may function a hitherto unseen intervening condition that can enable organizations to overcome TBD. While figure 4 shows how ReL relates to other leadership approaches, figure 3 in the previous section can give insights into the sensemaking that underpin the ReL approach. It is important to note that the concept is developed based on limited empirical findings and that further studies are needed to examine possible discrepancies between the sensemaking of the ReL approach and the actual organizational practices in relation to TBD.
Figure 4: Leadership orientations and the scope of their perspective vis-à-vis the Big Disconnect
6.3.1 Benefits and challenges with the new notion of regenerative leadership
Noting the relevance of perceiving ReL as a distinct leadership approach, it becomes relevant to briefly hypothesize some of the benefits and challenges that may relate to its implementation. Firstly, the perhaps most vital benefit is that ReL actively seeks to combat global issues by aligning organizational practices with macro-level considerations, which is urgently needed (Dyllick & Muff, 2016; Sjåfjell, 2018). Secondly, besides global societal benefits, the distributed leadership approach
that encourages interdisciplinary co-creation and mutual learning within a diverse community, may led to organizations with ReL to become more adaptive and have a higher capacity to innovate. These capabilities may be vital in the future to ensure that an organization can navigate within an increasing changing and complex environment (Hutchins & Storm, 2019; Laloux, 2014; Western, 2008).
Thirdly, the focus on personal prosperity can be expected to reduce employee burnout and stress, which affects over 12% of the Danish workforce (NFA, 2018) and leads to loss of in-house skills and resources (Michie, 2002; Tuten & Neidermeyer, 2004). Fourthly, as aligning the organizational activities with a higher purpose is seen to increase motivation and meaning for internal stakeholders, ReL aligns with the growing tendency of employees prioritizing a meaningful work rather than financial gain when choosing jobs (Geldenhuys et al., 2014; Yeoman, 2014), which inadvertently also lowers the likelihood of burnout and stress (Landells & Albrecht, 2019). Fifthly, as agency and knowledge is distributed to more internal actors, the organization can be perceived to become less vulnerable if a decision-making gatekeeper is unavailable. This is a benefit because it makes the organization more resilient to change as well as making decisions quicker.
However, it is also expected that certain challenges related to the ReL approach. Firstly, as noted in the findings the focus on a higher purpose and the idea of economic wealth as a tool for reaching that purpose rather than a goal in itself, may decrease the chances of this approach being adopted by many organizational leaders that view the business of business as business (Friedman &
Friedman, 1990). This was evident in the interview with MB, who noted how the shareholders focus on short-term financial gains restricted the CEO’s attempts to develop a stronger approach to sustainability (Appendix F, L). Secondly, the need to distribute power and let go of control may be challenging for leaders who are used to be at the top of the organizational hierarchy, for leaders who are used to being the organizational gatekeeper or who leads by micro-managing. Likewise, this leadership approach may be difficult to implement in organizations that have rigid procedures, as an embedded part of ReL seems to be a high degree individual independence and co-creating new solutions. Thirdly, the interviews suggest that a lack of explicit communication about the strategy and purpose, and the inability to engage in interpersonal conversations about non-work-related topics, could reduce the employee’s satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. Following this, a fourth challenge may be building relationships with mutual trust and maintaining internal alignment as the organization grows larger. Fifthly, as it can be expected that many organizations will hire a CEO to help them with a sustainable transition, the data also suggest that organizational change takes time to implement and that it cannot happen without the support of internal stakeholders. Sixthly, adopting a
strong notion of sustainability may be especially challenging for leaders working within industries that favor an instrumental CSR approach or that are used to adapting to institutional pressures rather than proactively making change. Lastly, since the findings are indicating how internal motivation can be a key driver towards a strong sustainability approach, leaders in organizations without a higher meaning connected to their purpose may find it challenging to get internal support for their sustainability initiatives, since there may be a latent preference for business-as-usual.
Hypothesizing about potential benefits and challenges connected with the regenerative leadership approach helps understand the complexity of aligning an organizational with a stronger notion of sustainability.