Developing collective leadership capacity to drive sustainable practices: Destination case of leadership development in Australia

Abstract

Previous research had already established that sustainable destination outcomes can be realized when stakeholders engage in tourism destination management, yet the state of the needed engagement is still seen as problematic. It is evident that some change is required to enable behavioral change that will awaken a progress. Thus, new knowledge is needed to help advance this important destination management field. The aim of this exploratory case study was to present a new perspective which is underpinned by theories in the leadership and leadership development fields. The case study findings show that tourism-based leadership programs have the capacity to foster development of collective leadership capacity, which is needed to build the effective stakeholder networks that drive change at workplace, tourism destination, and community levels. The study suggests that sustainable development goals and sustained competitive advantage are developed through the bundle of collective leadership capacity and stakeholder causal scope.