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Faculty Supervisor: Shirley-Ann BehraveshHailey Campbell, B.S. Sustainability – Ecosystems Track

How Corporate Leaders can Learn from Beavers and Termites

Introduction

Transformational Leadership A leadership approach designed to inspire change across individual and social systems

Ecosystem EngineerNon-human, biotic organisms that create, alter, destroy, or preserve an ecosystem within which they live

Corporations both create sustainability challenges and offer key leverage points for solutions due to their influence on the supply chain, consumption and production patterns, and waste disposal1. For a corporation to successfully transition to sustainable practices, sustainability principles should be embedded within their organizational culture2. Transformational Change Theory explains that organizational change requires that people change their perceptions of their roles, responsibilities, and relationships in an organization and requires altering the norms, values, and assumptions under which an organization functions3. Within industry, such transformative change is typically observed when leaders demonstrate ‘transformational’ characteristics such as being positive, upfront with others, selfless, and charismatic4. The emerging field of biomimicry, defined as the process of emulating biological processes to find innovative solutions to complex challenges5,6, offers an opportunity to learn from nature’s transformational leaders – termed ecosystem engineers – to better design strategies for positive change in organizations. Specifically, my research aims to connect transformational leadership and biomimicry by investigating the following question:

What lessons, if any, can be learned from ecosystem engineers to inspire and facilitate transformational leadership toward corporate sustainability?

Methods – Analysis of LiteratureTransformational Leadership Analysis Ecosystem Engineer Analysis

Select ecosystem engineers and review transformational strategies

Collect transformational leadership literature

Compile literature resources

Review transformational leadership strategies

Assess AskNature.org (7)

Search ‘ecosystem engineers’

Examine intersection between transformational leadership in corporations and in nature.

Translate ecological knowledge to leadership language

Leadership Strategies from Transformational Leadership Literature

Idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and Individualized consideration

Agreeableness, extraversion, and openness to experience

Charismatic, risk-taking, trust building, and collaborative

Lessons Learned From Nature

Conclusion & Future Research Resources1. Augustin-Behravesh, S. A., and Dooley, K. “Differentiating Sustainably” Conference paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, in August 2018. 2. Henderson, G. M. (2002). Transformative learning as a condition for transformational change in organizations. Human Resources Development Review, 1(2), 186-214. 3. Loorbach, D., and Wijsman, K. (2013). Business transitions management: Exploring a new role for business in sustainability transitions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 45, 20-28. 5. 4. Rolfe, F. (2011). Transformational leadership theory: What every leader needs to know. Nurse Leader, 9(2), 54-57. Fechyr—Lippens, D., Hsiung, B. K., Niewiarowski, P., and Kolodziej, M. (2015). Biomimicry: A path to sustainable innovation, Design Issue, I 31(3), 66-72. 6. Mcgregor, S. L. T., (2013). Transdisciplinarity and biomimicry. Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering and Science, 4, 7-65. 7. The Biomimicry Institute. (2019). AskNature. Retrieved from https://asknature.org/

Ecosystem Engineering – Termite Mound

Beavers and termites were chosen as the ecosystem engineers due these organisms having the largest amount of information about them available on the database.

Leadership Approaches

AttributesPersonality Factors

Ecosystem Engineer - Beaver

The literature on both transformational leadership and biomimicry have been disparate to date. Through analyzing these two areas of research and practice, I found that nature offers insight into new strategies corporate transformational leaders can adopt as they seek to transition to more sustainable practices.

Future research could focus on how corporate leaders apply nature’s transformational strategies in practice to determine if they do in fact aid the organization’s transition to more sustainable practices.