SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP: HONEYBEE PRACTICES AT A THAI SMALL BEVERAGE ENTERPRISE

Abstract

This thematic paper adopts Avery and Bergsteiner’s 23 sustainable leadership practices derived from sustainable organizations as a framework to examine the leadership practices of Thailand small enterprise. The principle includes developing people, labor relations, retaining staff, succession planning, valuing staff, CEO and top team speaker, ethical behavior, long or short term perspective, organizational change, financial markets orientation, responsibility for environment, social responsibility (CSR), stakeholders, vision’s role in the business, decision making, self-management, team orientation, culture, knowledge sharing, trust, innovation, staff engagement and quality, providing the framework for analysis of the small enterprise. Adopting a multi-data collection approach, the researcher supplemented case study data with participant observations and reference to documentation and information supplied by or published about the company. Semistructured interviews were held with multiple stakeholders. 23 element sets of practices inconsistent with 9 sustainable leadership practices are identified: retaining staff, succession planning, ethical behavior, long or short term perspective, responsibility for environment, social responsibility (CSR), vision’s role in the business, culture and quality. Since sustainable leadership principles link to enhanced brand and reputation, customer and staff satisfaction and financial performance, the Sustainable Leadership Grid provides small enterprises with a useful checklist. This paper contains the first examination of sustainable leadership in the higher beverage industry sector. It reflects that beverage organization should consider the long-term, socially responsible principle of sustainable leadership to apply it in future. KEY WORDS: LEADERSHIP / SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP / RHINELAND PRINCIPLES / HONEYBEE LEADERSHIP