Characteristics of sustainable leadership in international comparison

Sustainability today ranks as one of the most important requirements for the operation of organisations. There is a wealth of research on the subject, but few studies have addressed the requirements of sustainability management. This study fills this gap. It aims to examine the reported practices of SME managers in three nations to assess their preparedness as regards sustainability leadership expectations. In-depth interviews with Hungarian (36), Polish (32) and Slovakian (30) SME managers were conducted using the Voyant Tools method. Among the web-based statistical analysis and visualisation software tools, Document Terms, Word Clouds, WordTree, Trends, Context, StreamGraph, ScatterPlot (t-SNE analysis, Correspondence Analysis), Correlations, and Significance were used. Ethical style, long-term planning, and elements of culture (trust, knowledge sharing, teamwork) that best qualify sustainability leadership were examined. The results show that SME managers still conduct their leadership in the spirit of traditional thinking, in a democratic style according to their assessment. Although they think about the long term, they lack vision. Building trust, a prerequisite for knowledge sharing and teamwork, appears to be difficult. Overall, the requirements of sustainable leadership are applied at different levels but are not yet common practice in any of the nations examined.