Leadership Capabilities for Successful Implementation of SDG 7 Targets at Energy Company X

Abstract

This chapter sought to identify initiatives that led to the realisation of several Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets by a company referred to as “Energy Company X”, a renewable energy company operating in Southern Africa. The study explored phenomenological perceptions of leadership capabilities that enabled Energy Company X to successfully implement a renewal energy project to facilitate the transition towards clean energy in the region. The insights offered herein were generated through an exploratory qualitative case study research design drawing on semi-structured interviews with key expert participants who played critical leadership roles which contributed to the project’s success. The case study was augmented by documentation including policy briefs, website pages, research publications and company-specific documents. Several SDG targets were simultaneously realised even though the project’s primary pursuit was SDG 7 – Clean Energy. This demonstrates how the pursuit of one SDG results in the concurrent realisation of other related SDGs, thus confirming their interdependence. The findings revealed that transformational attributes, creating shared value (CSV) and bottom-up collaboration (BUC) were central leadership capabilities that enabled the project’s success. This reveals that collective – shared and collaborative – leadership is best suited for the Southern African context, thereby echoing the efficacy of Ubuntu-based collective leadership approaches that are bottom-up in nature.