Humanistic leadership and support for the sustainable development goals

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to use humanistic management theory to examine the conceptual space of leaders who support sustainable development goals (SDGs) within their organizations. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzes interviews with four Iberoamerican leaders conducted by the creating emerging markets project at Harvard Business School. This study’s results show a range of humanistic management principles across the four leaders, coinciding with varying support for the SDGs. This study discusses the impact of cultural values on these differences. Findings This study finds leaders who embrace all four humanistic management principles also supported a greater number of SDGs and an increased variety of SDGs. This study’s findings support the three overarching dimensions uncovered by previous research into champions in other organizational domains, including gender equality and health. These three dimensions are depth of embracement, scope of embracement and leverage of engagement. Originality/value The authors’ hope is that this study will help further the discussion of how organizations can contribute to the 17 SDGs.