Balda, Janis Bragan and Stanberry, Joanna
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1184-2874
(2025)
Building sustainability leadership from the bottom up: Ma 間 and the power of many.
In: Guo-Brennan, Linyuan, Guajardo, Maria, Guo-Brennan, Michael, Arar, Khalid and Rosser-Mims, Dionne Michelle, (eds.)
Global leadership for a sustainable future: issues and solutions in public and non-profit organizations.
Emerald Publishing, Leeds, UK, pp. 13-26.
Full text not available from this repository.
Abstract
This chapter explores how leaders act to meet local needs and achieve organizational goals that contribute to sustainability. Examining local leaders’ personal commitments, skillful practices, and shared purposes to create change, the authors use the Japanese aesthetic and concept of Ma 間 as a heuristic to identify this phenomenon as Ma 間 leadership. In the same way that white space – what appears as emptiness in design – is conceived of as an energy that gives life, Ma 間 identifies leadership that is powerful and real, giving life to the form of interactions, but not necessarily visible unless perceived. The space – seen usually to be white space which appears unoccupied, is full of possibilities and promises. The chapter argues that leaderful groups, more than individual leaders, hold this same capacity for possibility and in engaging in sustainable innovations in practices, processes, functions, and policy adaptations that are critical to significant societal change. This group dynamism enables a different and more encompassing perspective of sustainability leadership that frames local sustainability efforts as well as partnerships for sustainable development and enables powerful forces directed at sustainable and just futures for humanity and the planet.
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Publisher: | Emerald Publishing |
ISBN: | 9781836626473 / 9781836626466 |
Departments: | Institute of Business, Industry and Leadership > Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) |
Additional Information: | Joanna Stanberry, Sustainability Research Fellow and Postgraduate Researcher, Initiative for Leadership and Sustainability, University of Cumbria, UK. Janis Bragan Balda, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, US. Chapter one within book. |
Depositing User: | Insight Administrator |
SWORD Depositor: | Insight Administrator |
Date Deposited: | 29 Sep 2025 09:47 |
Last Modified: | 29 Sep 2025 09:47 |
URI: | https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/9076 |