Knowledge-Oriented Leadership in Enhancing Corporate Sustainable Performance in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – Development Potential Perspective

Abstract

Corporate sustainability is perceived as a multidimensional construct of social, economic, and environmental development, as well as a business strategy that considers future development needs. It is one of the organization's responses to the new challenges of the turbulent external environment. Currently, the overall business performance also includes the organization's performance in various non-financial aspects, such as ecological or social dimensions of sustainable development, and this approach differs from traditional financial business performance. Thus, the construct of corporate sustainable performance (CSP) is a response to the requirements of stakeholders and society. Top leadership recognizes the importance of CSP in core business from the perspective of environmental, social, and economic issues. The implementation of principles and practices of sustainable development and the measurement and continuous improvement of CSP require advanced knowledge that must be disseminated throughout the organization. Knowledge-oriented leaders can play an essential role in effective CSP management. Knowledge-oriented leadership has increasingly been recognized as an essential element for organizations to enhance knowledge management in every area of business activity, especially at the strategic level. From this perspective, the main aim of the study was to investigate the impact of knowledge-oriented leadership on the CSP in terms of its environmental, social, and economic dimensions, and thus on the organization's development. Following a review of the literature, the questionnaire survey was developed and implemented in 2023. The research sample consisted of 200 small and medium-sized enterprises from Poland. The results of this study confirmed the statistically significant correlation between knowledge-oriented leadership and CSP in all dimensions.