Abstract

The oil and gas industry is obligated to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), as agreed under the UNFCCC in Paris, 2016. However, addressing all the SDGs would be challenging especially for oil and gas sector firms facing extreme operational pressures to sustain supplies, maintain healthy margins and ensure price affordability. Such pressures call for a sustainable leadership approach, where one did not exist in Bahrain Oil and Gas industry previously, to help address the sector’s leadership and sustainability challenges. In this paper we examine how the Network Leadership construct and leaders’ perception of it can contribute to developing a Sustainable Transformational Network Leadership Approach to help address the UN SDG implementation challenges faced by the Bahrain Oil and Gas industry. We conceptualise Network Leadership as a shift from the practice of single agent leadership to a more collective leadership practice spanning cross organisational boundaries and contributing to developing more sustainable leadership practices in the energy sector and in a non-Western environment. Future research trajectories are identified for leadership, organisational transformation and change and sustainability studies.