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The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the linkage between leadership and sustainability. Recent scandals involving executive leadership have significantly contributed to the topic of sustainability becoming one of the most important concerns of the management literature in the twenty‐first century.

The authors’ approach is to review the extant literature and develop a theoretical model of the connection between leadership, in its many forms, and sustainability.

Most treatments of sustainability have focused on glorifying top executives for their sustainability efforts or vilifying them for their lack thereof. The authors claim that this perspective is oversimplified and flawed.

The authors develop several readily testable propositions to guide future research.

The practical implications of the authors’ model are focused on the engagement of employees at work: the philosophical perspective espoused in the model is one founded on empowerment and active involvement.

The model purports mechanisms through which organizations can develop more robust systems that ultimately can translate into more sustainable organizational practices.

The presented model is original in that the authors propose that broadening management development across all levels of organizations, along the lines of shared leadership theory, will facilitate organizational sustainability.

To examine the relationship between leadership and organizational sustainability.

Presents research on the effects of leadership style on follower behavior and the emergence of managerial malfeasance. Contrasts the impact of shared and centralized leadership on organizational sustainability.

Is the age of heroic leadership coming to an end? Can all those articles interviewing celebrity chief executives and business books about their secrets of successful leadership really be wrong? A recent study argues that this model of centralized, top-down leadership can put the future of the organization at risk. Instead, it advocates selecting and developing the people who will teach others how to lead and suggests that companies that use this approach at every level are the ones most likely to have a sustainable future.

Advocates wider use of management development for shared leadership at all levels of the organization, rather than restricting leadership training to those already in or candidates for leadership positions.

Highlights the need for further theoretical and empirical research into shared leadership in general and its impact on organizational sustainability in particular.