Innovation in Environmental Leadership

3    The Eco-Leadership Paradox

Simon Western

Introduction

This chapter examines the new paradigm of Eco-leadership and the paradox that arises for many leaders when trying to implement it. Eco-leadership refers to an emergent leadership discourse found within organizations at the beginning of the 21st century. Eco-leaders conceptualize organizations as “eco-systems within eco-systems,” departing from the organizational machine metaphors of the 21st century. They focus on distributed and networked forms of leadership within organizational eco-systems in order to ensure the inter-dependent parts of the whole are connected (Western, 2008/2013; Western, 2010).

Eco-leaders also take an ethical stance on the environment and social issues, both ...