To create innovative organizations, five guidelines for business leaders were presented in the Strategy Blog last week. These guidelines are: (1) Provide a vision, (2) Engage and empower employees, (3) Create a learning organization, (4) Encourage diversity and (5) Be concerned about Corporate Social Responsibility.
It can however be argued if Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a seperate guideline equal to the other four guidelines? Perhaps CSR can also be the perspective to view the other four guidelines. In the new article “Individual competencies for managers engaged in corporate sustainable management practices” published in the last edition of the Journal of Cleaner Production, CSR is taken as a perspective. The tasks and competences of managers that are described in the article are very much in line with the four guidelines presented last week.
In another new article “How did the recession change the communication of Corporate Social Responsibility activities?” that is published in the current edition of Long Range Planning, it shows that managers have become more intrinsic about sustainability. Could this mean that modern business leaders are becoming sustainable business leaders who integrate sustainability in all their business decisions and activities, as described in “Redefining Strategy in the Age of Sustainability and Social Responsibility” ?
Image courtesy of Twobee at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Norbert Bol 