Transformational Leadership: Solving Waste Management in Australia

This report identifies critical leadership issues in Australian waste management and proposes a transformational leadership approach to address these challenges. It highlights problems such as low recycling rates, high operational costs, and a lack of government involvement. The report justifies the use of transformational leadership, emphasizing its ability to inspire teams, promote ethical practices, and drive performance. It also discusses the four elements of transformational leadership—idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and individualized consideration—and their positive impact. The analysis further acknowledges potential barriers to transformational leadership, such as administrative frameworks and individual power views. The report concludes by recommending that the Australian government adopt a more proactive and collaborative leadership role to improve waste management practices and outcomes.

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Leadership
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Executive Summary
The paper will recognize the critical leadership issues necessary to solve the issues of waste
management. It will develop a leadership approach to solving the issues of waste management. It
will justify the need of leader approach to solving the problems of waste management. A
transformational leadership approach can be utilized to find solutions to waste management
issues. This approach is a theory of leadership where a leader performs with the teams to
recognize the required change, making a vision to lead the change by motivation and
implementing the change with the other members of the team. The report will justify the
utilization of transformational leadership by the Australian government to find solutions for the
waste management’s issues. Moreover, it will also provide some recommendation for managing
the waste materials.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Discussion and Justification of Critical Leadership Issues..........................................................................3
Leadership Approach...................................................................................................................................5
Justification of Leadership Approach to Solve the Wicked Problem...........................................................7
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The waste management is the process of controlling waste from its beginning to the disposal of
waste materials. These waste materials could be solid waste, liquid waste or gaseous waste.
Waste management is a major issue in Australia and an appropriate leadership approach needs to
be applied to find the solutions to waste management issues. It has been predicted that the people
of Australia produce almost 3 kgs of waste each person every day. So, the paper will identify and
provide the suitable leadership framework to solve the issues of waste management.
Discussion and Justification of Critical Leadership Issues
The most vital issue of waste management, are connected with the social and business
knowledge, which has been interrupted by the methods adopted in Australia. The Australian
market is at risk and the percentage of recycling is less than the collected percentage
(Tannenbaum & Schmidt, 2017). The recycling cost is vast and as the amount of waste is much
more than expected, so there is a problem for the operational department of waste management
in Australia to control the waste. The greenhouse gas method is effective in this situation, but
long-run decomposition procedure of the wastes would damage the whole nation and even
outside the nation. The levies problem is also essential in that situation and the government has
taken some measures to decrease the methods of waste management. By implementing the
methods of waste management, the situation could be managed to some extent. But still, the
nation would face the difficulties regarding the procedures of waste management.
Another problem of waste management is the waste recycling methods in Australia. The
procedure of dumped landfills is significant and Australia is unable to gather more waste through
this procedure. The dumping of wastes have become unlimited and reached their ultimatum at
present. The main problem at present is the recycling crisis of Australia (Fairhurst &
Connaughton, 2014). The domestic waste is stockpiled and dumped. The generation of waste is
closely connected with the population size, family income, and financial activities. So it is not
shocking that in Australia the waste generation has increased from the last few years. 60 million
tons of waste was generated in 2006–07 and this had increased to 65 million tons in 2014–
15.The lack of the involvement of the government leaders and some non-government
departments to realize the current condition of the nation had stopped the waste exchange.

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The committee of waste management had provided the suggestions for increasing the national
leadership for handling the problems of the waste and recycling industries. As per the Waste
Management Association of Australia (WMAA), it is impossible for the industry single-handedly
to solve all the issues without the help of the government, just as the government could not solve
all the problems without the help of the industry (Shamir & Eilam-Shamir, 2018). So the duties
have to be shared among the government of Australia, the governments of state and territory, the
clients and the operators of the industry to ensure the future of the waste and recycling industries.
The recycling industry is under immense pressure due to lack of sustainable markets for the
recycled materials of Australia, both nationally and globally. The Australian government has
supported the national leadership for the improvement of the economy of Australia, with strong
local markets for the recyclable materials, and goods made from the recycled material. For this,
there is need of funds in the infrastructure and market growth, and the collaboration of
Commonwealth, state, and territory and local laws, strategies and agendas.
The lack of involvement of the Australian government in the waste management field has
reduced the growth of the local markets for the recycled materials. The efforts of the government
are not aligned with present concentrated areas for generating jobs and economic development,
especially in the local areas. The state governments are neglecting their duty of establishing and
implementing the minimum criteria for the market participation and leveling the aspects of waste
management (Tourish, 2014). The clients are not following their responsibility to make sure that
the operators involved by them deliver suitable facilities, following the standards of marketing. It
is the duty of the operators of the industry to fix their rating at such levels, where they can fulfill
their promises and good quality recycling facility.
It has been noticed that Australia is much behind the remaining developed countries in changing
the economy and using the waste as an asset. The government of Australia has not been able to
bring changes to the economy of Australia and utilize the assets in a sustainable method. The
development strategies of Australia in the waste and recycling field are not associated with the
realities of the society and economy regarding their production and usage (Shamir & Howell,
2018). Specifically, it was observed that there is the big gap between the actual practice and
strategy, which has resulted in low outcomes for waste management. The strategy takes waste
and recycling as one sector, which has brought a negative impact on both the sectors. The federal

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government methods have failed to give adequate recognition and assistance to the waste and
recycling management.
The federal government has not played any role in improving the strategies of waste
management and only engaged themselves in generating the policies of responsibilities. It is
completely irresponsible while considering the significance of waste management to the society
and also its significance in the environment and the economy. The government of Australia has a
chance to improve their leadership but with appropriate resource and political help (Collinson,
2014). The lack of alignment is also a challenge of the Australian government. If all the leaders
under the government are not on the same page then it is difficult for the government to carry out
strategies and solve the issues of waste management. The government has to ensure that when
any decision is taken, they have the support of all the leaders of the government. The Australian
government has to choose the suitable leaders to execute the strategies of the government and
find solutions for the waste management problems.
Leadership Approach
A transformational leadership approach can be utilized to find solutions to waste management
issues. This approach is a theory of leadership where a leader performs with the teams to
recognize the required change, making a vision to lead the change by motivation and
implementing the change with the other members of the team. This leadership approach helps to
increase the inspiration, ethics and the performance of the leaders and their teams, by several
different ways (Covin & Slevin, 2017). These consists of associating the team member’s sense of
individual recognition to any business and collective recognition of any company, becoming a
role model for the team members to motivate them and to increase their interest in the venture,
stimulating the team members to take the bigger responsibility of their work, and realizing their
pros and cons of the team members, permitting the leaders to join their team members with those
works that could increase the performance of the company.
The transformational leaders are defined to provide positive expectations to their team members,
relying on them to do the best. This results in providing motivation, empowerment, and
encouragement to their team members to go beyond the normal standards of their performance
(Shamir, Arthur & House, 2018). They also concentrate and take care of the team members and
their personal requirements and improvement. The transformational leaders are appropriate for

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leading and operating with complicated workforces and companies, where on one hand the
leaders are regarded as a motivational guide in an uncertain situation, and on the other hand,
team members are challenged and help them to become trusted and high performers. The
transformational leadership approach is connected with positive results in comparison to other
leadership approaches. The transformational leadership is positively connected with the
performance of the team members consisting of commitment, role, and welfare.
The four elements of transformational leadership; idealized influence, intellectual stimulation,
inspirational motivation, and individualized consideration are regarded as the behaviors of
transformational leadership. These four elements are positively connected with the
transformational leadership (Nyberg & Sveningsson, 2014). The open experience permits the
leader to accept the new concepts and intellectually motivates the team members. The dedicated
leaders are success oriented and like to inspire their team members to successfully achieve their
targets. The extrovert leaders are more open and like to establish a personal unity among the
team members. So, they have the tendency to impact their team members and helpful to them.
The emotionally steady leaders impact their team members better than other leaders due to their
steadiness that allows them to be role models to the team members and constantly involve them
target achievement methods.
The features the transformational leadership blended with the observations of the leader and their
personal circumstances, seems to have a connection between the transformational leadership and
the enthusiasm of the associates to take the responsibilities and be good citizens. If the team
members consider their leader to be perfect, then the transformational leadership will have less
effect on their enthusiasm to involve them in any tasks (Huda, Mat Teh, Nor Muhamad & Mohd
Nasir, 2018). Similarly, if the team members are target oriented and own a traditional concept of
the tasks, they will be less influenced by the transformational leaders. The staffs those who are
self-inspired does not have the necessity of transformational leaders, whereas traditional team
members do not need anything to get motivated as they consider their given tasks are according
to their expectations.
The above aspects perform as both the barrier and replacements of the transformational
leadership. As the barrier, these aspects either individually or collectively can make the existence
of a transformational leader valueless, as the positive behavior of the team members will instead

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be produced by their own inspirations or opinions (Dinh et al., 2014). On the other side, when
these aspects do not exist then the transformational leadership is would have the much greater
effect on the team members. When the preferable circumstances are not present, at that time the
managers and the firms had observed a better profit on the investment from the transformational
leaders. It was observed that the stability of the leaders has improved the influence of
transformational leadership on their roles and commitments, signifying that it consumes much
time for the transformational leaders to put an impact on the team members (Breevaart et al.,
2014).
Moreover, the support of the team members increase the effect of their commitments, showing
the real characteristics of the team members in transformational leadership. There are also some
aspects that might obstruct the methods of transformational leadership, which consists of the
frameworks of the administration, current development, and the working situations and the
higher personal power views of the leaders (Ford & Harding, 2018). The application of
transformational leadership has numerous positive outcomes not only in the firms but also in
other circumstances. The four elements of the transformational leadership are considerably
connected with the team members’ efficiency and higher job satisfaction. The inspirational
motivation and intellectual stimulation are connected with the passion, happiness, and proudness
of the team members’ performances.
Justification of Leadership Approach to Solve the Wicked Problem
Australia is the largest producers of waste in the world. Australia, except the USA, produces
more waste each person every year than any other nation in the world. The disposal of millions
of tons of waste in the environment each year proves current the unsustainable production and
consumption of Australia (Eagly & Heilman, 2016). Most of the major towns of Australia are in
the continuous development process, increasing the citizen’s accommodation and the high living
standard and enjoyment. The urban systems of disposal of waste need to deal with the huge
quantities of rubbish and pollution. Along with the maintenance of the luxuries and present
lifestyles of the Australians, it is also a necessary sustainable process of disposing of the waste
(Claxton, Owen, & Sadler-Smith, 2015). It has been predicted that the people of Australia
produce almost 3 kgs of waste each person every day. These waste could be solid waste, liquid
waste or gaseous waste. With the increasing development of the towns and cities in Australia, the

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levels of all these waste, along with the issues generated with the disposal of waste, are
increasing continuously. The solid waste disposal like the household garbage and by-products of
the industries are generally dumped in a landfill (Tepper, et al., 2018). But the utilization of
landfills as a system of waste disposal has several issues of conservational management.
The need for new landfill sites are becoming difficult and moreover the idea of a landfill not
sustainable process due to its non-longevity. The sewage waste and other domestic waste which
are produced by washing powders of dishwashing and car washing are considered as liquid waste
(Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, & McKee, 2014). The waste produced by industries like the toxic
chemicals are also a liquid waste. Most of the liquid waste is disposed of in coastal areas and
only one percent is recycled. The need of systems of domestic waste recycling in towns and
cities are presently drawing the attention in Australia, as the disposal of liquid waste issues and
need for drinking water are a matter of concern for the people of several parts of Australia. The
growing energy consumption levels have produced higher levels of waste like the harmful
greenhouse gases. This waste is not visible like the solid or liquid waste but the air pollutants are
harmful to the Australians (Bolden, 2016). Australia does not have a good record regarding the
greenhouse gas emissions. The coal, oil and natural gas are our three main energy sources. These
sources are non-renewable resources are the main causes of the greenhouse effect.
The aspects connected with the waste management issues in Australia is that current methods of
unsustainable production and consumption. Some of the peoples think that waste does not affect
them if it is dumped in a landfill or in a drain (Donohoe & Kelloway, 2016). At present, it is
important for Australians to adopt a sensible attitude towards waste management. The change in
the process of waste disposal will not only improve the environment but also help to improve the
quality of the land, air, and water of Australia. The Australian government has to face more
complicated problems of the society and the environment, the overall aim of reform development
and the service-oriented government has put immense pressure on the government for the
solving the issues of waste management. The WMAA are continuously trying to improve the
waste management standards not only for the smooth and effective operations of the committee
but also the entire regional economic and social development (Banks, McCauley, Gardner &
Guler, 2016). So the Australian government could not ignore the transformational leadership.

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The transformational leadership is that type of leadership which changes the individuals and
social structures. Ideally, it produces important and positive change among team members with
the aim of changing them into leaders. Authentically the transformational leadership increases
the enthusiasm, confidence, and performance of the team members in a number of different ways
(Liu & Baker, 2016). These consists of the team members’ sense of individuality to the business
and the sense of collectivity to the company, becoming a role model for the team members to
motivate them and to increase their interest in the venture, stimulating the team members to take
the bigger responsibility of their work, and realizing their pros and cons of the team members,
permitting the leaders to join with their team members with those works that could increase the
performance of the company (Ma, Matsuzawa & Scardamalia, 2016). This attitude of
transformational leadership adopted by the Australian government made the environment
ministers of Australia to sign the National Waste Policy to solve the issues of waste management
and recycling recovery. The Commonwealth, territory and state ministers have decided to
decrease the waste generation amount and increase the recovery systems. All the governments of
Australia have promised that the National Waste Policy would be updated by them regularly and
work together for the waste management (Mailhot, Gagnon, Langley & Binette, 2016).
The transformational leaders have the capability to inspire the team members. The Australian
government has motivated their environment ministers to work for the waste and recycling
management. As a result, they have signed the National Waste Policy of Australia. The Waste
Management Association of Australia (WMAA) has requested the Australian government to
utilize its position to issues of waste management with suitable strategies and legal steps in order
to bring changes in the waste and recycling sector (Crosby & Bryson, 2018). The
transformational leadership approach has made the WMAA and the government of Australia to
actively participate in the strategies to waste management of Australia and protect the society
and environment from the harmful waste materials.

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Recommendations
 The government of Australia has to set up such economy where the waste materials could
be utilized, gathered, recovered, and reused in Australia. They have to present leadership
by application of various plans written in the National Waste Policy. They also have to
reduce the waste materials and recycle the waste, with the help and support of
Environment Ministers of all levels of government and hold meetings regularly.
 The state and territory government and the government of Australia have to ban the use
of plastics to reduce the waste materials. They have to decrease the plastic waste, clean
up the rivers, seas, and oceans and find alternative solutions to the plastics.
 The local governments along with the government of Australia have to distract the
peoples of Australia to stop them from dumping waste material in the landfill, improve
the recovered materials quality by collection programs, improve the recycling services,
and help the manufacturers to increase the usage of recycled waste material.
 The state and territory and local governments of Australia have to implement sustainable
strategies to make sure of holding strong local markets for recycled waste materials. The
government of Australia has to support the state, territory and local governments to
introduce active educational programs to help the people of Australia in realizing the
importance of waste management and recycling of waste materials.

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Conclusion
The paper had recognized the problems of leadership needed to solve the issues of waste
management. It had discussed and justified the problems of leadership aroused during the
evaluation of issues of waste management. It had also provided the analysis of leader approach
needed to solve the problems of waste management. The transformational leadership approach
had been considered in this article. The transformational leadership is that type of leadership
which changes the individuals and social structures. The report had justified the use of
transformational leadership to find solutions for the waste management’s issues. Moreover, it
had also suggested some recommendations for managing the waste materials.