The Implicit Leadership Theory, GLOBE study, and Norton’s Communication Styles frame this study into how employees from different cultures expect leaders to communicate effectively. Survey data collected from 160 college students with prior work experience who represented 56 different countries, identified the three most preferred leadership communication styles (i.e. impression leaving, friendly, attentive), across six cultural clusters (i.e. African, Anglo, Confucian Asian, Latin American, the Middle Eastern, South Asian clusters). Focus group data collected from 25 participants provides insight on how employees expect leaders from these six clusters to enact these styles. Guidelines emerge from the findings.

The current study examined the psychological and social factors that motivate individuals to share and seek wildfire preparedness and resilience-building messages within disaster communication ecologies. California residents who either lived in counties that (a) experienced the 2018 Mendocino Complex or Camp Fires or (b) bordered active wildfire zones were surveyed. Hierarchical regression and serial mediation analysis revealed that descriptive social norms and Pre-event citizen disaster communication mediate the relationship between climate risk perception and intent to contact local, state, and federal government officials to combat wildfire and extreme weather. Results (a) identify disaster-specific factors that facilitate a disaster communication action context and (b) provide evidence that citizen disaster communication is a cross-ecological process that can be used to foster resilience.

Wildfire disaster risks are being heighted globally due to climate change. Here, we present a United States-based wildfire case study of the northern Rocky Mountains to investigate links between wildfire experience, knowledge, and perceived risk due to climate change and potential policy support for two internationally relevant strategies: land management and private/public collaboration. The 2017 fire season was one of the worst on record in the northern Rocky Mountains resulting in billions of dollars in damage and multiple casualties warranting exploration. In order to inform wildfire policy pertaining to forest land management and private/public collaboration, a survey (N = 1154) was conducted in August of 2017 among residents of 34 counties in the northern Rocky Mountains who had either experienced a close proximate large wildfire (n = 611) or had not (n = 543). Consistent with construal level theory, residents who perceived climate change is occurring had a clearer understanding of the link between climate change and local conditions (e.g., drought). Those who experienced a wildfire were more likely to support adaptive policies (i.e., land management changes, increased private/public collaboration). Residents who experienced a wildfire but did not perceive climate change risks (experienced/no risk) were less likely to attribute wildfires to drought conditions and more likely to support land management initiatives. Residents who experienced a wildfire and perceived climate change risks (experienced/risk) were more supportive of collaboration, but not land management initiatives. Theory application and implications are discussed.

This study tests two overarching research questions: 1) Are Democrats more likely to share an environmental video on social media and, if so, why? 2) Does environmental information (e.g. a video on social media) expand or attenuate the partisan gap on environmental issues? Three methods of data collection (online survey, cognitive map drawing, and Dialsmith Perception Analyzer for moment-to-moment reactions) were used. We tested a model that investigated how partisan affiliation, the video's perceived persuasiveness, and the video's perceived benefit to one's social media network influenced respondents' willingness to share the video on social media. We explained 42% of the willingness to share. By picking an environmental issue our respondents knew little about, we showed that an advocacy video can reduce the attitude and behavioral gaps between partisan groups. Our results are important for environmental advocates as well as persuasion and social media theorists.

Threats loom for the global food supply. Food companies are taking action, yet consumer awareness lags. A sustainability materiality (SM) index was created that asked young millennials if issues related to a food company's environmental footprint, ethical governance, community engagement, and nutrition-related actions influenced their product purchasing decisions. In comparison to their peers, those who held new ecological paradigm-related values were more likely to report that the SM index issues influenced their purchasing decisions. They offered more green word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations to their friends. Regardless of their environmental orientation, those who purchase products consistent with the SM index are more likely to provide green WOM recommendations. Purchasing products consistent with SM index issues mediated the relationship between proenvironmental orientation and green WOM recommendations. Perceived personal ability was unrelated to green WOM recommendations. Educating and enlisting young consumers to offer green WOM recommendations will increasingly become a strategic business concern.

There has been an increase in scholarly attention to adolescents' environmental attitudes; however, only a small number of empirical studies address the Adolescent Environmentalist's (AE) personal and collective identity, media usage, and communication orientation. In this study, we investigate differences in young people (aged 12-17) who identify themselves as environmentalists, or the AEs, and those who do not drawing from a national sample of 1096 youth. Results show AEs significantly differ from their peers. The AEs have a different environmental value set, report greater self-confidence and influence among peers, support the stronger display of citizenship behaviors, follow certain news topics more, use and discuss the news more with a variety of others, and report engaging in more dialogue and persuasion.

In response to growing global environmental problems and threats associated with global warming, organizations are recognizing that business-as-usual is no longer sufficient and that it is time to go to scale in responding to impending challenges. Effective communication is absolutely essential. Strategic communication is needed to alert, persuade, and help people enact sustainability initiatives within and between organizations. Strategic communication also orients our consciousness by inviting us to take a particular perspective, by evoking certain values and not others, and by creating referents for our attention and understanding. Sometimes effective communication is characterized by strategic ambiguity. Organizations face multiple challenges in terms of their sustainability-related communication. Some are silenced because of their fear of speaking out. For others, the messages they create are not processed because message recipients are unmotivated. Knowledge regarding the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion and the use of repetition are important tools when designing strategic communication. Communicators need to think critically about where their audience is in their understanding of sustainability and how to present information in an accessible way. Attention to message design and message framing can help. Interview data drawn from Aspen Skiing Company; Heifer International®; the City and County of Denver, CO; the Arbor Day Foundation; and ClearSky Climate Solutions illustrates the concepts being discussed.

This final chapter discusses how the constitutive and pragmatic power of communication allows employees to exert agency and organizations and interorganizational collaborations to change societal-level Discourses. SMART messaging is discussed. Suggestions are provided to researchers and practitioners on next steps each might take. Remaining wisdom drawn from the interview transcripts is shared. Scholarly literature discussing wisdom and spirituality is reviewed. Both must be encouraged within and between our organizations if we are to move forward in creating and expanding truly meaningful sustainability initiatives.

Given the changes forecast to result from global warming, scholars’ and practitioners’ interest in sustainability and organizational change is increasing. Although sustainability-related changes can be piecemeal and incremental, my interest is on transformational change. Transformational organizational changes begin when key individuals become aware of new processes, technologies, opportunities, constraints, and expectations. Once awareness occurs, the challenge becomes transforming information into useable knowledge and diffusing it throughout the system. Factors influencing the adoption of an innovation are reviewed. The characteristics of change adopters and stages of change are identified. Important communication roles during times of change (e.g., board members, top executives, change agents, sustainability champions), the process of communicating about change, guidance for change communicators, and formal structural and communication efforts to facilitate change efforts are discussed. Formal ways to embed a focus on sustainability within an organization include changing an organization’s structure (e.g., creating new roles, creating new inter- and intraorganizational coordinating structures) and designing pathways (e.g., mission and vision statements, goals and plans, formal communication channels). In addition to transformation change, theories or theoretical concepts highlighted include diffusion of innovation theory, the absorptive capacity concept, sensemaking theory, structuration theory, systems theory, transformational leadership, the communication approach to leadership, models of communication and change, and ethos. Interview data spotlights the City of Boulder, the City of Portland, the City and County of Denver, Sam’s Club, Assurity Life Insurance, the HEAL project, the University of Colorado, Portland, the Neal Kelly Company, Tyson Foods, the Portland Trail Blazers, and Aspen Skiing Company.

Sustainability and Communication.- Changing Paradigms, Shifting Societal Discourses and Organizational Responses.- Legitimacy, Stakeholders and Strategic Communication Efforts.- Understanding Pro-environmental Behavior: Models and Messages.- Transformational Organizational Change, Reinforcing Structures and Formal Communication.- Using Communication to Create Environments That Empower Employees.- Facilitating Group Collaboration and Enhancing Supply Chain Conversations.- Our Shared Journey Towards Sustainability.

This chapter is about groups and group communication at the organizational and interorganizational levels. The enactment of sustainability initiatives often requires group collaboration. Characteristics of strong teams are identified. Theory and research related to small group decision-making and problem-solving processes are reviewed. Group-level techniques for frame breaking and building so as to identify creative alternatives are identified. Then, the focus shifts to interorganizational collaboration (IOC) efforts. Complex environmental issues accompanying global climate change require large collaborative efforts. Theory related to the role of communication in the creation of emergent collaborative structures is identified. Theories and research related to learning in IOCs are reviewed. Techniques used to build communities of practice and enhance group learning are discussed. The ways language and texts can contribute to IOC effectiveness are reviewed. A specific case of IOC interaction, the nongovernmental organization (NGO)–corporate alliance, is discussed in terms of their joint external communication efforts. Finally, the focus is on sustainable supply chains. Why do organizations form them, how are they governed, and what challenges exist? Internal and external communication issues are identified and best practices are offered. Interview data spotlights the City of Denver, Aspen Skiing Company, Tyson Foods, Sam’s Club, and Bayern Brewing.

In the winter of 2015 world leaders presented plans for keeping the global temperature rise below 2 °C due to projected climate change threats. These threats present organizations, communities, and citizens with the need to change viewing corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a voluntary luxury to being a necessity. This essay proposes refocusing CSR efforts in light of projected climate challenges and expanding our investigation into the role of communication in such efforts. Communication is more than a tool to craft a positive corporate image so as to gain or protect legitimacy. It is the means through which CSR sustainability-related initiatives are created and disseminated within organizations and among their key stakeholders (i.e., governments, communities, competitors, supply chains, employees). Suggestions for future research exploring CSR, sustainability, and communication are offered.

Policy related to energy efficiency programs implemented by utility companies should be informed by an understanding of building occupant behavior change. This case study utilized a longitudinal design and mixed methodology to assess the effect of curriculum-based experiential learning on elementary school students' environmental literacy and energy-saving behaviors. We found that the students significantly improved their environmental literacy. Normalizing kWh consumption for weather, we observed a decrease in energy consumption of more than 15% in student homes and more than 30% at the focal school.

This study explores factors related to energy consumers' perceptions of government subsidies for utility provided energy efficiency (EE) programs and for utility providers' use of more clean/alternative energy sources. Demographic factors, attitudes, planned purchases, and perceptions of utility provider motives in relation to governmental and utility provider EE initiatives (i.e. providing discounts and coupons for CFL bulbs), plus the influence of gain- and loss-framed messages are investigated. Over 2000 respondents completed a 16 item phone survey. Hierarchical regression explained 38% of the variance in reactions regarding government subsidies of the cost of utility provided EE programs and 43% of the variance in perceptions involving whether utility companies should use of more clean or alternative forms of energy. Gender and party differences emerged. Loss-framed messages were more important when the issue was government subsidies. Both gain- and loss-framed messages were important when clean/alternative energy was the issue.

Although young citizens may not always politically engage in the same fashion as their elders, research suggests they are using Facebook, Twitter, and other newer communication systems to mobilize politically both generally and around environmental issues. Given the declining environmental conditions facing young citizens, a national stratified quota sample of 1,096 U.S. parents and their children between the ages of 12 and 17 was conducted to investigate the factors potentially related to their efforts to persuade members of their online social networks to be more environmental. We believe that online peer persuasion is an important concept to investigate because peer persuasion can create subjective norms that ultimately may influence behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that, although parents influence youth behavior (Adj. R 2 = .11), the greatest variance in behavior was explained by the youth's own environmental self-efficacy, environmental news consumption, political interest, time spent online, gender, and environmental consumerism (ΔR 2 = .29). Youth political interest and environmental consumerism were especially important variables in the final model. Structural equation modeling reinforced that parental influence is primarily indirect. This study appears to be among the first to link environmental consumerism with youth online peer persuasion.