Faculty Research on Sustainable Leadership: Honeybee Practices at an Asia’s Leading Industrial Conglomerate

A research report on Sustainable Leadership at an Asia's leading industrial conglomerate and one of the world's most sustainable enterprises, by CMMU's Associate Professor Dr. Sooksan Kantabutra and Professor Gayle C. Avery of Macquarie University in Sydney has been accepted for publication by Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, an international journal indexed by Scopus.

This paper reports on the first examination of Avery and Bergsteiner’s 23 sustainable leadership elements in a developing economy. It shows that even a publicly-listed company can resist pressures to conform to business-as-usual practices and adopt the long-term, socially responsible principles of ‘honeybee’ sustainable leadership. All six sets of practices, which sharply contrast with the prevailing business model of short-term maximization of profitability but are consistent with the 23 sustainable leadership practices, were found to apply in varying degrees to the conglomerate. Nineteen applied strongly, with three others moderately strong.

The analysis was conducted by grouping Avery and Bergsteiner’s principles into six categories, namely taking a long-term perspective, investing in people, adapting the organizational culture, being innovative, exhibiting social and environmental responsibility, and behaving ethically. Adopting a multi-data collection approach, research teams supplemented case study data with non-participant observations from visits to the conglomerate and its training sessions. Multiple stakeholders were interviewed in semi-structured interviews.  Documentation and information supplied by, or published about, the conglomerate was consulted.

Given that sustainable leadership principles are associated with enhanced brand and reputation, customer and staff satisfaction, and financial performance, the new Sustainable Leadership Grid provides corporate leaders with a useful checklist for this purpose.

The acceptance of this report confirms CMMU as a leading business school in Asia.