Untangling indigenous leadership competences in sustainability challenged firms: A Sustainable Indigenous Network Leadership commitment toward emission mitigation in Bahrain energy industry

Abstract

This study examines how indigenous leadership competences can be integrated into network leadership frameworks to support emission mitigation in Bahrain's energy sector. Given the lack of culturally aligned leadership models in sustainability-challenged firms, this research addresses a theoretical and practical gap. Drawing on qualitative data from eight firms, the study proposes a Sustainable Indigenous Network Leadership (SINLA) framework comprising four competence dimensions: socio-cultural, socio-political, socio-economic, and socio-knowledge. The findings reveal that embedding indigenous values into network leadership enhances organisational change capacity and supports organisational transformation addressing climate change. This contributes to leadership theory by expanding the applicability of network leadership to non-Western, emission-intensive contexts.