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Introduction and Statement of the Problem
State of the Art Summary
The global community is becoming increasingly concerned about the environmental changes together with social and economic problems. UNEP (2020) identified 2019 as the year when the past harms to nature have caught up with the present, and humanity had to deal with the significant impact of climate change in forms of weather disasters. In 2020, all the countries felt how environmental problems made the response to COVID-19 pandemic less efficient. Thus, the call for sustainable development became even more urgent as the number of people affected by ecological issues increases.
The idea behind sustainable development is satisfying the current needs of humanity without interfering with future generations ability to meet their needs (United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development [UNWCED], 1987). The most recent UN conference on sustainable development identified seventeen goals in different spheres, including economics, equality of opportunity, healthcare issues, and food supply. Achievement of sustainable development is possible only with the engagement of all stakeholders, including universities and other education facilities, financial institutions, government, business, non-government organizations (NGOs) and communities.
Responsible leadership arises in the practice of corporations and other organizations in connection with the phenomenon of social responsibility of the company. The essence of such responsibility is that the company must take into account the interests of many parties in the implementation of activities, as well as comply with the norms of society (Maak & Pless, 2012). In the literature, it is proposed to decompose the concept of responsible leadership into formulas that reflect those areas to which organizations are responsible, and therefore their leaders are responsible. Richardson (2015) argues that there are four classes of responsibility for a company in relation to society: economic, legal, ethical, and what he called discrete responsibility. In this case, responsible leadership can be expressed as a formula:
Responsible leadership = f (Economics, Politics, Ecology, Morality).
This formula of responsible leadership is interpreted as follows: responsible leadership is a function of the interaction of the firm and society in the economic, sociopolitical, environmental, and moral spheres (Richardson, 2015). Responsible leadership can enrich and align each of these areas. Responsible leadership can also be seen as a function of the personality of the leader (who adheres to the principles of responsibility when making decisions), a responsible company, and a responsible group of all stakeholders surrounding the organization (investors, consumers, competitors, regulators, etc.). This aggregate responsibility of all participants in the business world can be called business ecology and displayed using the scheme shown in the figure below. This figure shows a holistic view of responsible leadership, in which all its participants are in the process of communication, seeking and moving towards equality, mutually participating in the process of contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals.
The basis of modern business ethics is considered to be the social contract and social responsibility of the company. The social responsibility of entrepreneurs consists not so much in generous donations for the education of the people, but in the organization of a business that would provide the working people with a stable property status, social protection, opportunities for education and spiritual growth (Parry et al., 2019). Social responsibility is a concept that reflects the voluntary decision of an organization to participate in the improvement of society and the protection of the environment. This is a set of obligations that an organization must fulfill in order to strengthen society. Today, not all companies adhere to business ethics and social responsibility included in this concept (Parry et al., 2019). This is due to the fact that with a very developed competition, many companies begin to chase not the quality of the goods and the number of consumers, but the maximization of profits. Any created commercial organization has a primary goal in its creation to enrich itself.
However, in the pursuit of revenue, many organizations cease to comply with any moral or social principles: for example, they pollute the environment, or the quality of the goods begins to deteriorate. This often happens in large companies with little competition in the market. Thus, the business etiquette of the company suffers, enterprises simply begin to forget about their responsibility to society. In addition, opponents of the socio-ethical approach believe that this kind of business policy primarily leads to a violation of the principle of profit maximization (Parry et al., 2019). Their opinion is based on the fact that funds allocated for social needs are costs for the enterprise. Among the arguments against also highlight the lack of ability to resolve social problems. The companys staff lacks the experience to make meaningful contributions to solving social problems. The presence of such opposing arguments explains the lack of an unambiguous attitude to social responsibility. This is a very critical issue that needs to be addressed.
As a solution, he proposes a model of responsible leadership, thanks to which it is possible to motivate managers and employees and make them responsible for their actions. Motivation can be both positive and negative. The pessimistic direction and motivation is mainly widespread in the world. For example, when a large corporation takes on the problem of the environment and how to overcome critical points, any presentations or projects touch on the topic of disasters. If the impact will show, for example, how profits and the number of consumers will fall then the opposite is possible (Parry et al., 2019). With the right motivation, the focus of companies on maintaining social responsibility will only grow. Perhaps it will even become a mandatory feature, as it is now beginning to spread in foreign companies.
Despite the fact that the state supports social policy and tries with all its might to maintain and control the market, risks are possible. Excessive bureaucratization and corruption in public authorities are also common, due to which the state closes its eyes to the lack of social responsibility that all companies should theoretically bear. To reduce such effects, attention should be paid to leadership in the field of ethics and social responsibility. Organizations and businesses should follow certain rules and try to engage in non-profit activities whenever possible. Any person can understand that they do not want to give their profits to the social good or the state, while feeling great risks and costs (Parry et al., 2019). But if organizations do not trust charitable foundations or the state, then they should take the initiative in their own hands and begin leadership activities to effectively support social culture. The more numerous the composition of the middle or upper strata of the population, the better it will be for producers, because the product will sell even better (Parry et al., 2019). Moreover, at the mention of the company, people will have positive associations.
If the society begins to feel that it helps the society and does it also for its own benefit, then the companys fame is ensured. For well-known companies, Intel is a good example of a leadership motivator. In 2008, Intel received the Business Ethics Award for Leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility (Parry et al., 2019). This is the first time this award has been established, and Intel Corporation has thus become its first laureate. Business Ethics magazine, in the words of its editor-in-chief Marjorie Kelly, recognized Intels leadership and success in the field of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (Parry et al., 2019, p. 197). It should be clarified that the corporation participates in more than 50 socially responsible mutual funds of various kinds. In the world, only a few companies are so actively engaged in this kind of activity. In addition, the companys achievement is that, as part of the worldwide Global Reporting Initiative, Intel was one of the first organizations in the United States to introduce the practice of reporting on its activities to ensure corporate social responsibility and environmental protection (Parry et al., 2019). Such a reputation immediately begins to positively influence consumer psychology.
Today, corporate leaders of NGOs are required, first of all, to be able to work effectively in conditions of uncertainty and to coordinate the interests, needs, and requirements of all stakeholders. Responsible leaders recognize, respect, and reconcile the multiple interests, needs, demands and conflicts that arise between employees, customers, suppliers and other contractors, different communities, other non-governmental organizations, regulators, the environment and society at large (Lawrence & Beamish, 2012). In an era of economic globalization, corporate leaders find themselves in a dynamic and complex multicultural business environment characterized by increasingly close interconnections between technology, people, organizations and society at large. Leadership models created for more traditional and stable eras have lost their relevance. Leadership in the conditions of widespread dissemination of the idea of sustainable development and related regulatory and advisory norms should be systemic and flexible enough to adapt to the extreme complexity and dynamics of the external environment, as well as the peculiarities of the internal environment of NGOs.
It is interesting to note that among non-governmental organizations, the World Wildlife Fund (28% of expert votes) and Greenpeace (18% of expert votes) continue to hold global leading positions (Schinzel, 2018). The experts highly appreciated their efforts to effectively engage stakeholders and actively interact with other organizations. This is clear evidence of the importance of effective leadership in contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals. In addition, NGO leaders have, one might say, a double responsibility, since by their example they should inspire leaders of commercial organizations, their employees, and other citizens to apply the principles of CSR, corporate citizenship and responsible leadership on a large scale. In these conditions, the interaction of NGOs with communities is of particular importance, determining the need to identify and clarify the relationship between NGOs and the community in achieving sustainable development.
Recently, scholars began to realize the growing impact of sustainable development on NGOs. Thus, a phenomenological approach will be used to establish causal relationships between the sustainable development of an NGO and its relationship with the community. The study uses semi-structured interviews to answer research questions formulated to acquire a holistic understanding of the relationship between NGOs and the community in building sustainable development.
Background Information
Environmental Concerns
The global community is experiencing a significant rise in concern about environmental changes. According to the United Nations environment report, the global temperature has risen by 1°C compared to the pre-industrial era, causing significant economic losses associated with environmental and weather disasters, such as heatwaves and wildfires, hurricanes, and droughts (UNEP, 2019). The UNs under-secretary-general and UNEP executive director wrote that 2019 was the year when our past finally caught up with us and science provided an unambiguous call for urgent action (UNEP, 2020, p. 3). In 2019, the world continued to see the devastating effects of mindless consumption resulting in storms, melting of ice sheets, and floods (UNEP, 2020). Even though most governments understand the importance of reducing the impact on the ecology of the planet, most of them fail to accomplish it. In 2019, only the countries of the European Union (EU) were able to slightly decrease greenhouse gas emissions, while other top greenhouse-gas emitters failed to do so (UNEP, 2019). If the countries continue to ignore global environmental emergencies, the number of natural disasters, threats to public health, and biodiversity loss will continue to grow rapidly.
In general, there are ten crucial environmental problems most commonly mentioned by scholars and organizations. They include climate change, pollution and associated health problems, protection of oceans, energy consumption, sustainable food model, protection of biodiversity, sustainable urban development and mobility, water scarcity, overpopulation and waste management, and extreme meteorological phenomena (Abernethy, Maisels, & White, 2016). All these problems are interconnected, and their root cause is human activity. Since humanity is responsible for environmental changes, the issues mentioned above can be addressed by altering human activity on all levels. UN (2020) calls on all the countries for immediate action to protect the planet and slow down or reverse the current processes leading to environmental problems.
The main challenge for the development of society, wrote Mahbubul-Haq in the first Human Development Report in 1990, is to create an environment conducive to people enjoying long, healthy, and constructive lives (ul-Haq, 1995, p. 19). According to him, the true wealth of nations is people. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the generally recognized supranational task of the world community was the movement towards sustainable development, which is understood as the preservation of the environment in unity with social and economic well-being in the interests of the present and future generations. Today ensuring sustainable development is impossible without a radical renewal of the management of social processes, norms and traditions of the community, without replacing the market economy with an economy of values. The development of an optimal scheme of social relations in the interconnected world with a limited resource base has moved from the plane of scientific discussions to the plane of urgent practical problems. However, despite certain positive results achieved in a number of highly developed countries, a radical change in social management did not occur. There are many reasons for this, including the underdevelopment of the fundamental foundations of leadership by sociological science, the transition period from the modern era with a goal-oriented community to postmodern with a human value orientation, interpersonal relations, and interaction between society and nature.
Based on the law of proportional development of social systems, for the system to acquire the properties of sustainable development, a relative change in all elements of this system is necessary. Violation of this law, regardless of the subjects intentions, leads to the subsequent inhibition of development, followed by destruction of the entire system (David, 2012). There is no alternative to sustainable development, but today the participation of all actors in the UN Global Compact is insufficiently coordinated. There was no proper transition from discussions and concepts to the level of methodological and technological support of distributed leadership for value-oriented social management, a sustainable economy of values (Sachs, 2015). In addition, the corresponding system of indicators has not been fully formed, which often leads to sustainable development management based on common sense management, increasing entropy.
Meanwhile, at the level of organizations, the concept of sustainable development actually coincides with the implementation of the concept of management based on knowledge and CSR, and at the level of the individual, the leader with the understanding of human dignity and the resulting value orientations in the nature-society-human system. Today, there is no doubt that any conceptual scheme can remain unrealized if the organization does not have dynamic leadership that is optimally distributed among all personnel at all levels of the organization, and this applies to both the micro level (that is, the company level) and the macro level (community). In this regard, an in-depth understanding of the theoretical foundations of leadership in the context of providing an effective relationship between NGOs and the stakeholders in building sustainable development, when leadership acts as a link between human and social capital, the main element of social management, seems to be highly expedient and urgent.
Sustainable Development
Defining deep roots and the very essence of sustainable development, one can say that this concept is the key to resolving the environmental issues discussed above. In 1987, the UNWED (1987) defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (para. 27). Sustainable development principles require that more economically advantageous people adopt life-styles within the planets ecological means (UNWCED, 1987). The changes should be made in the amount of consumed resources to ensure equity (UNWCED, 1987). In order to achieve sustainable development, the UN (2015) set seventeen comprehensive goals associated with 163 targets to achieve by 2030 to address the problems related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. Even though the new agenda that came in effect in 2016 is a set of intergovernmental commitments, it gained support from many actors, such as public policy bodies, NGOs, and many public sectors and private sector organizations (Bebbington & Unerman, 2018). Sustainable development goals are commonly referred to as the Global Goals (Bebbington & Unerman, 2018).
The UNs agenda prioritizes changes associated both with the environment and the global community. All the seventeen goals are briefly outlined below:
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No poverty: making economic growth more inclusive to provide sustainable jobs and promote equality;
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Zero hunger: decreasing food waste and support to local agricultural producers;
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Good health and well-being: promotion of vaccination and preventive care;
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Accessible education: helping to educate children in communities around the globe;
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Gender equality: empowering of women and girls to ensure their equal rights;
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Clean water and sanitation: promotion of efficient water use;
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Affordable and clean energy: promotion of utilization of only energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs;
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Decent work and economic growth: creating job opportunities for youth;
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Industry, innovation, and infrastructure: funding projects that provide necessary infrastructure and innovation;
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Reduction of inequality: supporting the marginalized and disadvantaged;
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Sustainable cities and communities: providing access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation, and more for everyone;
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Responsible consumption and production: recycling paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum and using recyclable materials;
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Climate action: action to stop global warming;
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Preservation of oceans: avoiding pollution of the worlds essential resource;
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Preservation of life on land: carefully managing forests, combating desertification, halting and reversing land degradation, and halting biodiversity loss.
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Peace justice and strong institutions: building effective, accountable institutions at all levels.
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Partnerships: revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development (UN, 2015).
As seen from the goals described above, sustainable development does not mean only environmental sustainability. Instead, the UNs agenda aims at addressing all the problems that may prevent future generations from meeting their needs. However, even though the idea behind the goals is evident, it is unclear how the UNs directives should be translated into action. In other words, the role of these goals may seem vague for an unprepared reader. According to Leal Filho et al. (2018), sustainable development goals are important for two central reasons. First, clear articulation of priorities revitalized researchers worldwide to work together to find practical solutions for the fundamental problems before humanity (Leal Filho et al., 2018). Scholars working in one of the seventeen areas mentioned above have improved chances of receiving financial and institutional support to close the current gaps in knowledge that prevent sustainable development (Leal Filho et al., 2018).
Second, the fact that the UN set a relatively tight timeframe for achieving the goals added a sense of urgency to the problem (Leal Filho et al., 2018). This urgency created an imperative not only for researchers but also for policymakers and other actors to put the results of the latest research into use (Leal Filho et al., 2018). Sustainable development goals provided significant incentives for institutions and research teams to collaborate to benefit people, partnerships, justice, prosperity, dignity, and the planet.
Achieving the goals set by the UNs framework is impossible without engaging all the stakeholders to work efficiently together. The benefits of engaging all the stakeholders are evident: it leads to achieving maximum productivity and effectiveness, it ensures equity in decision-making, and it allows the ideas to be tested before implementation (Leal Filho & Brandli, 2016). Without the engagement of all stakeholders, it is impossible to reach the balance of rare and human resources (Wojewnik-Filipkowska & Wgrzyn, 2019). However, there are various barriers that abstract the engagement of all stakeholders at a needed level. First, even though there are many methods for stakeholder engagement, the current engagement process lacks a unified scheme (Leal Filho & Brandli, 2016). Second, groups of stakeholders have varying interests, which may contradict each other leading to a conflict of interest (Kent, 2010). Third, different stakeholders have insufficient capabilities, as the transition to proactive forms of stakeholder management requires additional resources (Rhodes, Bergstrom, Lok, & Cheng, 2014). Fourth, a growing number of stakeholder participation leads to stakeholder fatigue and cynicism (Leal Filho & Brandli, 2016). Fifth, all the steps of governments require disclosure, which may lead to additional risks for them due to intense scrutiny (Kent, 2010). Finally, some stakeholders are challenging to have a direct dialog with for various reasons (Leal Filho & Brandli, 2016). However, these barriers are to be addressed to ensure that all sustainable development goals are achieved.
Changing Role of Governments
While the engagement of all stakeholders is crucial, governments play a central role in facilitating sustainable development. UN (2015) recognizes the critical role of governments in engaging citizens and stakeholders and providing them with relevant information on all aspects of sustainable development. In general, governments central roles are policy development, regulation, facilitation, and internal sustainability management (Young & Dhanda, 2013). When developing policies, governments need to set and prioritize realistic goals aligned with the overall strategy to achieve sustainable development (Young & Dhanda, 2013). As facilitators, governments stimulate breakthroughs and set boundaries for other stakeholders by establishing clear criteria for governmental support and creating financial and non-financial incentives (Young & Dhanda, 2013). Under regulation, scholars understand all governments initiatives in legislation, administration, and enforcement used to set legal frameworks supporting sustainable development (Young & Dhanda, 2013). Finally, when managing internal sustainability, governments should promote social responsibility among all governmental bodies (Young & Dhanda, 2013). Currently, however, governments started to realize the wide variety of roles they play beyond the central ones described above.
When cooperating with other stakeholders, governments need to help set vision and strategy to promote sustainable development. Second, governments should continuously improve their environmental performance to set an example for other stakeholders (Kent, 2010). Third, governments need to create open, competitive, and rightly framed markets that would include pricing of goods and services, dismantling subsidies, and taxing waste and pollution (Young & Dhanda, 2013, p. 217). Fourth, governments should commit to fiscal reforms that amend businesses for their commitment to sustainable development goals (Young & Dhanda, 2013). Finally, governments should understand their role as a catalyst that should promote innovation on all levels, as sustainable development demands much change to be adopted (Young & Dhanda, 2013). Thus, the role of governments is shifting towards close cooperation with different stakeholders.
Non-government Organizations
One of the most controversial stakeholders in sustainable development is NGOs, as their role in sustainable development initiatives is unclear. NGOs include a wide variety of organizations, in particular, private voluntary organizations, civil society organizations, and nonprofit organizations (Young & Dhana, 2013). While during the first sustainable development conferences organized by the UN acknowledged states as primary actors, current research started to accept the idea that the decision-making process is no longer the responsibility of governments (Pacheco-Vega, 2010). NGOs started to play a significant role in international conferences dedicated to sustainable development. Evaluating the degree of NGOs influence on sustainable development is a challenging task that is yet to be achieved. At the same time, as it is evident from the features of leadership with regard to sustainable development, considering this influence in frames of NGOs leadership practices can serve as a basis for phenomenology analysis and constructivist paradigm application.
NGOs are believed to be one of the most active groups of partners playing supportive roles in the implementation of sustainable development initiatives (Muazu & Abdullahi, 2019). Simultaneously, they are more effective than governments to get attached with the grass root level developmental initiatives (Muazu & Abdullahi, 2019, p. 1). While numerous studies appeared not able to evaluate how many governments failed to acknowledge and appreciate the impact of NGOs on sustainable development, numerous studies confirm that their impact keeps growing worldwide (Muazu & Abdullahi, 2019). According to Sustainability Degrees (2014), influential NGOs that facilitate the achievement of sustainability goals outlined by the UN are Ceres, Conservation International, Doctors without Borders, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and others. All the organizations have different agenda supporting the achievement of one or several of the seventeen goals. For example, Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable business practices and solutions by working with companies around the world (Sustainability Degrees, 2014). It is worth noting that the above firms have a close relationship with society, since they promote and study the interests of citizens. This is evident in their practice of interacting with community leaders, polling citizens on certain topics, and tailoring their actions in line with the expectations of the majority (Leinarte, 2021). By exercising responsibility, these firms create quality and lasting credibility. It is realized in the opinion among people, for example, that WWF serves to protect humanity and animals from disasters and aims to improve the world (Leinarte, 2021). The vision of the organization is to transform the economy to build a sustainable future (Ceres, 2020). The company developed a unique change theory that aims at moving investors, companies, policymakers, and other influencers to act on four global challenges: climate change, water scarcity and pollution, inequitable workplaces, and outdated capital market systems (Ceres, 2020). The company utilizes Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability as a comprehensive framework for leading change with a special commitment to inclusion and equity (Ceres, 2020).
Relationship between NGOs and Communities
One of the NGOs central roles mentioned above is to interact with local communities to achieve sustainable development. Bashir (2016) defines community development as voluntary participation of local community individuals in a systematic process to bring some desirable improvements, especially health, education, housing, recreation in the targeted community (p. 124). Today, community development is seen as the central practice in social development as it creates social capital and supports the self-dependency of communities (Bashir, 2016). Therefore, local communities often benefit from participating in the activities and programs designed by NGOs. The benefits can be financial; as local representatives may start working for the NGOs. Thus, NGOs can be seen as potential employers for the representatives of the local community, which contributes to the overall financial sustainability of communities. However, this impact is rather small in comparison with other spheres of influence.
According to Bashir (2016), when interacting with local communities, NGOs seek to achieve the following goals:
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Improve the various aspects of community well-being including health, education, housing, and recreation;
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Motivate communities to create and implement community-based plans to address their issues;
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Help the communities identify their strengths and resources to implement the plans;
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Develop community leaders through employment, leadership programs, and participation in volunteer programs.
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Build cooperation between communities and governments;
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Develop functional community groups and organizations.
However, community development is a laborious endeavor that requires a number of planned interventions strategically aligned to meet the needs of every specific community. The implementation of these interventions is impossible without positive relationships between the NGOs and the community. However, some communities have a strong resentment towards NGOs, which undermines the achievement of sustainability goals. For
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