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Leadership for Sustainability, Master's Programme (One-Year)

The course Organising and Leading Sustainable Organisations examines how organising and leadership practices influence sustainability work in contemporary organisational contexts. The course addresses economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability, and introduces equality as an important aspect of how sustainability is understood and practised in organisations.

The course introduces a limited number of central concepts from organisation theory and leadership studies and applies them to sustainability challenges faced by organisations. Attention is given to how organisations deal with uncertainty, competing demands, and questions of responsibility when working with sustainability. Sustainability is approached as an ongoing process that involves learning, sensemaking, and practical decision-making rather than the implementation of fixed solutions.

Leadership and organising are explored primarily as collective and relational practices within organisations. The course examines how leadership, collaboration, and participation shape sustainability initiatives in practice, including how equality and inclusion may enable or constrain organisational change. Cultural and cross-contextual perspectives on leadership and organising highlight global and local dimensions of sustainable development.

The course is based on student-centred learning through lectures, seminars, and case-based discussions in which students actively work with theory in relation to practical sustainability challenges, reflecting on real-world dilemmas, trade-offs, and ethical tensions. The course introduces AI as a support for searching, structuring, and critically discussing material and cases, with attention to its possibilities, limitations, and ethical use in academic work and organisational practice.

Syllabus - here you can also find course literature

Earlier syllabuses

Syllabus with literature list autumn 2027

Malmö University provides students who participate in, or who have completed a course, with the opportunity to express their opinions and describe their experiences of the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarise the results of course evaluations. The University will also inform participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures taken in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students (HF 1:14).