Sustainable Leadership And Change

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Table of Contents

Sustainable leadership and change - an in depth analysis in the food industry

Aim

The overall aim of the proposed project is to investigate the current situation in the food industry, the issues faced by food producers and supply chains, and the extent to which sustainable leadership and change strategies can be applied to ensure future sustainability in food production.

Context and reasons for choice

The food industry has encountered difficulties in recent years, with rising food prices and global food scarcity occurring despite ever more land being used to grow food, and thus indicating fundamental issues with the way the industry is organised and managed (Vidal, 2012). This has led Forum for the future (2013) to claim that: "Right now, our global food system is unsustainable. It does not meet the basic needs of the world’s rising population, it is a major contributor to climate change, and demand is growing at the same time as availability of key resources, including water and productive land, decreases". This in turn indicates the need to achieve greater levels of sustainability. However, with the food industry being a major global industry with significant links to society and significantly influenced by social norms, it is clear that this issue will not be easy to address.

The majority of arguments in this area have focused on the reduction of production waste in the food industry. For example, Nasr (2012, p. 26) argues that "industrial efficiency processes and sustainable production principles could be implemented with greater value chain coordination between producers, processors, and sellers". This requires a fundamental shift away from the desire to produce food with minimum short term costs, and towards a model where long term factors of production such as resources, land and water are given more weighting. According to Longhurst (2010, p. 15), this will require sustainable green leadership across the industry. This will not only affect the production aspect of the industry, but also the consumer and marketing aspects. This is because a shift to more appropriate methods of production will require changes in how food is consumed and marketed, with many of the new production methods resulting in different food products being brought to consumers’ tables (Longhurst, 2010, p. 15).

Whilst this may seem like a major challenge, there have already been successful efforts in this area. For example, the company Whole Foods was founded over 35 years ago, and has become a major brand in the natural food industry (Fox, 2011, p. 118). Whole Foods has succeeded in implementing major sustainable sourcing initiatives, and has adopted a broad stakeholder model, which recognises the connections between customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and the wider environment. This has led to a model of conscious leadership and a company culture which focuses on driving sustainable outcomes in the food production chain (Fox, 2011, p. 118).

This discussion thus indicates that there is a market for more sustainable food production efforts, and long term consumer trends act to make this market viable. However, the market currently represents a relatively small proportion of the global food production volume. This work will hence look to explore the potential for sustainable leadership and change practices to be adopted in the food industry, and hence drive higher levels of sustainable and environmentally sound performances. This is important, because food production is becoming less sustainable, and more vulnerable to shocks, at a rapid pace (Vidal, 2012).

Critical literature review

The primary need for change in the food production industry is the lack of sustainability in current practices. According to Tencati and Zsolnai (2012, p. 345) "The current and prevailing paradigm of intensive agricultural production is a straightforward example of the mainstream way of doing business". Whilst this approach is suitable for industrial production, in the case of agriculture the mainstream approach to business produces negative impacts on the natural environment, which harms the future success of food production efforts. This is particularly reflected in the use of resources along the food production chain. Zanoni and Zavanella (2012, p. 731) notes that energy resources in particular play a strategic role in food productions, with energy often expended in large volumes to obtain benefits such as longer product lives and storage times, which allow food to be transported globally. However, this use of energy creates negative environmental impacts, harming overall agriculture production levels. Similarly, "agriculture plays a key role in relation to global water stresses", with water usage being another key factor influencing the level of sustainability of the food industry (Herath et al, 2013, p. 232). Fortunately, advances have been made in production in this area, including the development of new energy efficient food processing plants with combustion control technologies (National Provisioner, 2010, p. 55). Similarly, Manning (2013, p. 22) argues that new methods of production, such as more effective broiler meat production methods, can offer similar levels of nutrients with higher levels of sustainability and lower usage of energy, water and other resources.

The success of these new production methods, as with any innovations or new developments, will be strongly influenced by the willingness of consumers to accept the new methods of production, and embrace their benefits. This in turn is particularly influenced by the perceived levels of sustainability of the new production methods, which is further influenced by the effectiveness of marketing and public awareness around sustainability. However, this is an area of significant confusions, with consumers often tending to be sceptical around unfamiliar labels and generic claims of sustainability. As such, it is important for marketers to develop effective sustainability standards, in line with the accepted organic and fair trade standards which already exist (Sirieix et al, 2013, p. 143). Unfortunately, the majority of sustainability assessments that could be used to support such an initiative are lacking in the necessary levels of detail. Relatively basic methods such as food miles fail to recognise other factors such as packaging and consumption trends, and the value of food trade as a driver of economic development in poorer countries. As such, there is a need to develop more effective sustainability assessments which "can enrich policy making and support tailored policy measures to improve food chain sustainability" (Van Passel, 2013, p. 2).

Some efforts have been made in this area, such as the increasing use of tools to calculate the energy and resource cost and efficiency of food production techniques. However, even where these systems exist, they are not always sufficient to drive the necessary reduction in resource usage, as consumer demands for unsustainable production methods still persist (Sekulova, 2013, p. 1). The approach to reducing the intensity and increasing the efficiency of farming and food production is referred to as sustainable de-growth, and studies in this area have shown that feeding a population is generally an inefficient process (Infante and González de Molina, 2013, p. 27). This is primarily due to the length and complexity of food supply chains, with every unit of resources consumed in food production being matched by two units spent on transportation, preservation, preparation and packaging. De growth thus refers to the process of reducing unnecessary usage of resources, through new consumption patterns which can improve efficiency. In addition to this, Sekulova (2013, p. 1) argues that there is a need to move way from current focuses on fulfilling food related desires, and towards the acceptance of sufficiency in food consumption as an organising societal principle. This would thus represent a major change in patterns of consumption, and would likely involve resistance from consumers and the industry in general. Ultimately, achieving such a change in patterns and behaviours is likely to be impossible, but any sustainable leadership and change efforts will need to create at least some changes in human behaviour in order to be successful.

The example of Whole Foods, discussed in the introductory section, potentially provides a template for how this type of sustainable approach could be realised in practice. In particular, not only does the company have a sustainable culture, but also the top management at the company functions in a very democratic way, and decisions are made by consensus (Fox, 2011, p. 118). This thus helps drive more sustainable decision making, as the views of many stakeholders are considered and more innovative viewpoints and arguments are encouraged. Similar efforts have been seen at other food companies, where leaders are trained to be innovative and always consider concepts such as sustainability and value when making decisions. For example, Reardon (2011, p. 44) discusses how the Campbell Soup Company trains its leaders to achieve high levels of sustainability in their decision making, in order not only to fulfil short term profit and organisational goals, but also to help the organisation grow and prosper in the future. Another important area where progress is being made is in university campuses, where sustainable food projects recently have expanded rapidly (Barlett, 2011, p. 101). These programs take advantage of the fact that many students’ consumption habits have not yet been set or fully developed, and hence they can be encouraged to think about food in a more sustainable manner, thus helping to drive long term change in society.

Objectives

The primary objective for this research project is to critically evaluate the extent to which sustainable leadership and change strategies can be applied to ensure future sustainability in food production. This will necessitate an analysis of current strategic thinking; current levels of sustainability in food production; and the viability of the given strategies and approaches to actually create more sustainable outcomes. This will be achieved by addressing the following sub objectives:

To critically evaluate sustainable leadership and change strategies in terms of their potential relevance to food production

To analyse current food production chains to determine current sources of inefficiency and resource wastage

To evaluate consumer preferences with regards to food and food sustainability, and the extent to which consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to ensure more sustainable food production outcomes

To create a framework through which sustainable leadership and change strategies can be applied to the food industry in order to increase levels of sustainability in food production

Methodology

The proposed methodology for this research project is to use a survey based strategy. This is valuable because a survey based strategy supports "the collection of a large amount of data from a sizeable population in a highly economical way" (Saunders et al, 2003, p. 92). This will thus be most appropriate for the case of the food industry, where production chains are large and broad, and the important factor in ensuring sustainability is to understand consumer demands and expectations around the subject. Within the specific survey strategy, there are four main methods of data collection which can be used. These are questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, and desk research. Of these four, the questionnaire method is the one which tends to offer the highest level of breadth and scope to the data collection, but can be limited in terms of depth due to the lack of probing and interrogation of the participants. In contrast, interviews allow for a higher and deeper level of investigation, providing richer data but often data which is limited in scope due to the smaller pool of respondents. Focus groups can help balance breadth and depth, but tend to be vulnerable to problems including the potential for bias and group think (Saunders et al, 2007, p. 125). Finally, desk research can be valuable when secondary data is available, but can be limited by the extent to which this data can be accessed and verified.

In light of this discussion, the proposed research will use three main methods of data collection. The first will be a set of questionnaires of food consumers, in order to evaluate their preferences with regards to food and food sustainability, and the extent to which consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to ensure more sustainable food production outcomes. The second will be a series of interviews with food production managers and marketers, intended to provide insight into the current situation in food production, and the potential relevance of sustainable leadership and change strategies in this context. The third will be desk research of analysis of current food production chains in order to determine current sources of inefficiency and resource wastage. This desk research will also be supported by interviews with the managers to determine their own views on food production and waste levels. These three methods will be combined using triangulation analysis in order to provide overall levels of insight and ensure high levels of reliability and validity in the study (Remenyi et al, 1998).

The scope of the study will be limited to the UK, in order to provide the necessary level of focus and try to minimise the impact of cultural factors. However, this still leaves a large potential population for the study which arguably spans the entire UK population of consumers, and all food producers operating in the UK market. This hence creates a vast potential population for the project, and necessitates the use of sampling techniques in order to obtain a manageable and representative body of data. The most appropriate sampling technique will be to use a convenience sample. This is due to the difficulties associated with gaining access to the entire UK population in order to carry out a probability sample. The issue of access to the research subjects will be addressed in the case of the consumers by approaching individuals outside the major supermarket chains of Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s in order to obtain as balanced a view as possible. A sample size of 200 will be chosen to maximise breadth. Interviewees will be approaches at major food companies operating in the UK, with HR departments being approached to obtain access. A total of 12 individuals will be interviewed if possible, to obtain a reasonable level of breadth and depth (Bryman and Bell, 2007).

Ethical issues

The fact that primary data will be collected for the purposes of this research means that ethics are a significant concern. The primary requirement in any project where primary data is collected directly from respondents is the need to obtain informed consent. This can be done in the case of the questionnaires by ensuring that each questionnaire contains a brief introductory statement setting out the purposes of the study, the reasons for collecting the necessary data, and what the data will be used for. This statement will also indicate what will happen to the data, as well as the fact that the data will be handled sensitively, with the confidentiality and privacy of respondents being respected at all times (Bryman and Bell, 2007). In addition to this, the questionnaires will also contain statements making it clear that respondents are under no pressure to complete the questionnaires and are free to refuse if they so desire. This will help ensure that the work does not cause any distress to individuals, and that they are completing their work under their own free will. In line with the promises made to respondents, all data will be kept confidential and no personally identifiable information will be revealed in the final work.

In terms of the interviews, a similar ethical standard will be adhered to. However, as the interviews will not involve a questionnaire being presented to the respondent, the necessary ethical statement will instead be read out to the respondent at the start of the interview. The interview will then not proceed until the respondent has indicated that they understand the statement and the purpose of the interview, and that they are happy to proceed under this basis (Bryman and Bell, 2007). In addition to this, as the interviews are being carried out with companies, issues such as commercial confidentiality also become important. As such, care will also be taken to avoid revealing any information around the nature of the company and its business operations or strategies when writing up and analysing the interviews. Also, any formal ethical approval which may be required to obtain data from company representatives will also be obtained before the research proceeds.

Tasks

The main practical steps which will be involved in implementing the proposed methods will be to carry out a full review of the literature, draw up a questionnaire instrument, create an interview protocol, approach interview respondents to ask them to participate in the study, carry out the questionnaires, carry out the interviews, and analyse the data then write up the project. These steps will require a significant amount of time and effort, and hence it will be necessary to devote a significant amount of time to their completion. With this in mind, it is proposed that the project will last at least for a total of four months following approval of the proposal, and that this time will be split as per the Gantt chart below.

In terms of the practical approach to addressing these tasks, the review of the literature will require access to academic databases and library resources which will be used to identify the necessary theories and studies to be used in developing the conceptual framework for the research. The creation of the questionnaire instrument and interview protocol will be supported by the results of this review, and will investigate the major areas of concern identified in the literature. Approaching interview respondents will be done via e-mail and telephone, using corporate HR departments as points of contact. Carrying out the questionnaires and interviews will require time and some expenses, including printing forms and acquiring clipboards and other peripherals. The interviews may be carried out via telephone. Finally, the analysis and write up will require access to word processing software, spread sheet and analysis software such as Excel or SPSS.

Time

Task

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

Carry out a full review of the literature

Draw up a questionnaire instrument

Create an interview protocol

Approach interview respondents to ask them to participate in the study

Carry out the questionnaires

Carry out the interviews

Analyse the data

Write up the project