Organic leadership: The co-creation of good business, global prosperity, and a greener future

This study carries forward the exploration of leadership in "green organizations," or in other words for-profit organizations that are pursuing increased corporate responsibility, environmental sustainability, and social justice while simultaneously striving for improved organizational performance and superior financial returns. The goal of the research was to understand if leadership in these organizations is different from traditional leadership approaches and theories and to document those differences (and similarities), specifying how this knowledge can contribute to leadership and organizational theory and practice.; Grounded theory methods coupled with generative theory conventions were used in the collection and analysis of data from 18 interviews of founder/CEOs from well-documented green organizations and rich secondary data sources (e.g., written speeches) that were collected during the project. The rigorous data coding process revealed a number of resonant categories that provided insight into the intricate web of relationships flowing through these green organizations and served as the basis for a re-conceptualization of leadership called organic leadership.; Organic leadership is defined as a series of dynamic, open, complex relational and dialogic processes focused on facilitating the emergence of high performance environments that organize human experience around social change agendas. Through ongoing conversation, transformational interactions, and synergistic relationships inside and outside the organization, recurrent and novel organizational patterns and forms emerge that both enable and constrain future action and provide meaning and sense making to organizational members. As a result of the unpredictable, non-linear dynamics inherent in organic leadership, specific individual or organizational prescriptions are not provided; rather, inquiries into the nature of engagement, relationship, conversation, reflection, individual mindfulness, and self-organization are suggested as opportunities for deep discussion. This allows the organization to better understand its own experience, which can then lead to different kinds of individual and collective enactments.