Leadership, Feedback, and the Circular Economy: Aligning Performance Management with Sustainable Organizational Goals

This chapter investigates the interplay among leadership, feedback processes, and circular economy principles in global organizational contexts. Departing from conventional approaches that often oversimplify feedback, our findings highlight the pivotal role leaders play in orchestrating feedback interventions, shaping both the delivery and perceived value of performance insights. It is argued that feedback, when strategically designed, can shift employees' day-to-day behaviors toward resource efficiency and waste reduction—two cornerstones of circular economy initiatives. Moreover, our results challenge the assumption that encouraging feedback-seeking invariably leads to favorable organizational outcomes, revealing how cultural norms, perceived utility, and organizational climate all factor into the feedback process. By analyzing leadership constructs alongside feedback valence, follow-up, and feedback-seeking behaviors, pressure points were identified where leadership style can either amplify or undermine sustainability objectives. This research suggests that leveraging feedback as a targeted tool, rather than subsuming it under broad leadership behaviors, can catalyze cross-functional collaboration, innovation, and collective momentum for circular solutions. Ultimately, the study provides actionable insights into designing performance management practices that align individuals, teams, and broader stakeholder networks around a shared vision of regenerative, resource-conscious business growth. Findings underscore the need for leaders to cultivate feedback cultures that genuinely bolster globally relevant circular economy imperatives.