Sustainable Leadership, Environmental Turbulence, Resilience, and Employees' Wellbeing in SMEs

Abstract

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and contingency theories of leadership, this study aims to investigate how sustainable leadership (SL) influences employees' wellbeing (WB) through employee resilience (ER) and to examine the moderating effect of environmental turbulence (ET) on the “sustainable leadership-employees' wellbeing” relationship. Data were collected from 593 employees and 373 supervisors adopting two-wave design among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. The authors used structural equation modeling to empirically test the hypothesized model in this study. The research shows that SL is significantly related to the employees' WB in SMEs. Regarding mediating effect, SL also indirectly influences employees' WB through ER. Moreover, the impact of SL on employees' WB becomes more prominent in the presence of lower ET. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no prior study is available about the integrated relationship of SL, ER, ET, and employee WB.

Relations between entrepreneur’s social identity and strategic entrepreneurship: Sustainable leadership as mediator

“…It has been found in previous research that sustainable leadership practices, such as a strong and shared vision, were significant drivers and positive predictors of enhanced long-term firm performance ( Suriyankietkaew and Avery, 2016 ), and this finding is also confirmed in this study. This study also finds that sustainable leadership practices can effectively promote the implementation of strategic entrepreneurial behavior, and ultimately improve overall enterprise performance ( Sahai and Mahapatra, 2020 ; Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ) through the opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking activities of the enterprise such as new customer acquisition, new product R&D, cost control and quick response capability.…”

“…Sustainable leadership originated from Rhineland management ( Avery and Bergsteiner, 2016 ) and effective leadership theory ( Iqbal et al, 2018 ), in the assumption of which organizations are viewed as a part of an open system that emphasizes the responsibilities of the organizations to the society and stakeholders. As an emerging type of leadership, sustainable leadership contributes to the organizational performance in the context of current and future environmental, economic, and social goals( McCann and Holt, 2010 ; Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ), sustainable leaders, stimulate and inspire followers focusing on their needs, and-like participative leaders-involve employees in decision-making. They use positive behaviors as a method to guide others which is in line with positive leadership( Salmi et al, 2014 ; Gerard et al, 2017 ; Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ).…”

“…As an emerging type of leadership, sustainable leadership contributes to the organizational performance in the context of current and future environmental, economic, and social goals( McCann and Holt, 2010 ; Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ), sustainable leaders, stimulate and inspire followers focusing on their needs, and-like participative leaders-involve employees in decision-making. They use positive behaviors as a method to guide others which is in line with positive leadership( Salmi et al, 2014 ; Gerard et al, 2017 ; Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ).…”

“…As an effective leadership style to improve the competitive advantage and overall performance of an organization, sustainable leadership has impacts on many resources. It enhances knowledge sharing, development of employees, participation, and empowerment ( Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ; Iqbal and Ahmad, 2020 ; Gjerde and Ladegård, 2019 ). Finally, sustainable leaders construct positive narratives in organizational context leading to increase in subordinates’ energy ( Di Fabio, 2017 ).…”

“…This finding also echoes and sublimates the research conclusion of existing research that sustainable leadership, such as amicable labor relations, valuing employees and balancing short-and long-term goals ( Suriyankietkaew and Avery, 2016 ; Awan and Khan, 2021 ) behaviors can make employees speak up in different ways. At the same time, stakeholders improve community relations through positive and meaningful cooperative behaviors ( Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ), and ultimately achieve the improvement of overall performance at the individual, organizational and community levels ( Iqbal et al, 2018 , 2020 ; Sahai and Mahapatra, 2020 ; Iqbal and Piwowar-Sulej, 2022 ) through relationship governance and contractual governance ( Awan and Khan, 2021 ).…”