Leading for human sustainability: An extension of Restricted Employee Sustainability Theory

Abstract

There are multiple topic areas relevant to human sustainability in organizational behavior. These have recently been integrated into Restricted Employee Sustainability Theory (REST). However, REST as currently formulated focuses on individual employees, leaving the theory undersocialized and undercontextualized. Moreover, REST leaves responsibility for human sustainability on individual employees. We extend rest to take a leader-focused perspective. We highlight how leaders can monitor employees who may be in different employee sustainability states, and how these different employees have different needs which should be managed differently. We discuss how leaders can build a culture which values human sustainability. We delineate three different tensions faced by leaders in the context of human sustainability (short term productivity versus long term human sustainability, protecting human capital versus avoiding paternalism, and maintaining lean payrolls versus maintaining a robust capacity for workload spikes). Finally, we close with a discussion of practical implications and future research. In doing so, we discuss how leaders can enhance the human sustainability of their subordinates and their organizations.