Leadership styles and sustainable performance

Abstract

Leadership styles play a critical role in influencing sustainable performance and shaping organizational dynamics. A nuanced understanding of different leadership styles may have distinct impacts on the long-term success of performance to ensure organizational sustainability. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the trends of leadership styles and sustainable performance through a bibliometric analysis to provide valuable insights into the scholarly landscape surrounding this critical intersection. Using data from the Scopus scientific database for the period between 2010 and 2024, 106 relevant documents are found and visualized via the Vosviewer software to represent the relationships and patterns within the data. The main results found four thematic clusters: (1) red cluster is focuses on authentic leadership, sustainable leadership, knowledge management, sustainable development, and sustainable performance, (2) green cluster is related to organizational culture, job satisfaction, and innovation, (3) blue cluster is associated with transformational leadership, transactional leadership, organizational commitment, and corporate social responsibility, (4) yellow cluster is connected to servant leadership, organizational citizenship behavior, and employee performance. In all clusters, the bibliometric review indicates a robust connection between leadership styles (i.e., authentic leadership, sustainable leadership, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and servant leadership) and sustainable performance. Comparing to another style of leadership, the finding further highlights the prevalence of transformational leadership as a key driver of sustainable performance.