Abstract
In addition to formalized leadership roles within organizations, leadership can also influence members through informal channels. This work argues that multifamily residential buildings can be viewed as organizations and, as such, explores the influence that informal leaders can wield in shaping culture around the motivation for conserving energy. This work draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted in a Brooklyn cooperative building. Findings indicate that the study building benefitted from the leadership of a long-standing board member, which contributed to the implementation of a number of energy efficiency initiatives. Interestingly, this leadership also led to a culture of cost efficiency over environmental concern as the motivating force behind these initiatives. This narrative was well disseminated, with most residents reporting that the building does not have a culture of conservation, despite a strong energy efficiency leaning. Thus, this work posits that leadership can greatly shape perception and culture around energy but can also be leveraged to craft a more environmentally-motivated conservation culture. It also argues that leadership can be complementary to decentralized organizational structures, and that creative mechanisms in residential buildings can capitalize on both, allowing members at all levels of the organization more influence in shaping the building’s culture.
Highlights
Organizations can be viewed as an important scale of analysis for understanding and reducing energy use [1,2]
The building has undertaken a significant amount of capital improvement to address energy efficiency
One ad-hoc leader in the building has effectively shaped a narrative of cost-efficiency as the motivation for energy efficiency investments; as a result, residents do not report that the building is environmentally conscious
Summary
Organizations can be viewed as an important scale of analysis for understanding and reducing energy use [1,2]. Leadership in traditional organizations is typically formalized through roles such as manager or supervisor These structured positions are important; strong leaders play a key part in shaping outcomes and influencing behavior in organizations [3,4,5,6,7]. This work argues that residential multifamily buildings in urban areas can function as organizations and have similar characteristics and operational structures [2]. This lens taps into the social component of residential buildings, and acknowledges a possible network of influence among various actors within the building [8,9,10,11]. Social norms and culture in the building may be shaped by informal conversation, interactions, and narratives
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