Leadership Capabilities for Sustainable Organizations: A Systematic Review and Multilevel Framework
Keywords:
sustainable leadership, leadership capabilities, sustainable organizations, multilevel framework, qualitative research, thematic analysis, organizational sustainabilityAbstract
This study aimed to identify and conceptualize the leadership capabilities required for building sustainable organizations and to develop a multilevel framework explaining how these capabilities operate across individual, organizational, and ecosystem levels. This qualitative study used an interpretive design based on semi-structured interviews with 24 senior managers, middle managers, sustainability specialists, human-resource professionals, and organizational-development experts working in public and private organizations in Tehran. Participants were selected through purposive and theoretical sampling to capture diverse managerial experiences in sustainability-oriented organizational transformation. Interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached at the twenty-first interview, and three additional interviews were conducted to confirm the stability of the emerging categories. All interviews were audio-recorded with participants’ consent, transcribed verbatim, anonymized, and analyzed using thematic analysis supported by NVivo software. The coding process included open coding, axial categorization, constant comparison, memo writing, and iterative refinement of themes. The findings revealed five main leadership capability categories: systems-oriented strategic sensemaking, ethical and stakeholder-integrative governance, sustainability-oriented innovation and learning, human capability development and culture building, and cross-level orchestration and accountability. These categories indicate that sustainable organizational leadership is not limited to individual leader traits but emerges through the interaction of cognitive, relational, cultural, strategic, and institutional capabilities. The proposed multilevel framework shows how leaders translate sustainability values into organizational routines, performance systems, stakeholder relationships, and long-term strategic renewal. The study concludes that sustainable organizations require leaders who can integrate long-term thinking, ethical responsibility, stakeholder engagement, innovation capacity, and multilevel coordination. The framework contributes to leadership and sustainability literature by explaining leadership capabilities as dynamic, distributed, and context-sensitive mechanisms that connect individual cognition, organizational systems, and external sustainability demands.
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