Call for Papers

Organizations play a central role in transitioning the global economy towards a sustainable mode of operation (Geels, 2011; Ergene et al., 2021). Existing organizational research that addresses this role incorporates sustainability primarily as a ‘measuring stick,’ a criteria to assess organizational impacts, choices and performance. For example, how do organizations perform on specific dimensions, such as climate change mitigation or social equity (Orlitzky et al., 2003, Vishwanathan et al., 2020), how do they respond to stakeholder and consumer demand for sustainability (de Bakker et al., 2013, Jaca et al., 2018), when do they adopt practices and technologies deemed to advance sustainability (Sine et al., 2005) and what is the consequence of these factors for performance (Maletič et al., 2018)?
 
While clearly important, this research only indirectly addresses the question of how organizations should be and can be reconfigured to become comprehensive engines for sustainability. Emerging work shows the importance of embedding sustainability in the everyday “way of organizational life” (Howard-Grenville, 2006; Bertels et al., 2010), but our understanding of the cultural dimension of sustainability transformations remains limited (Assoratgoon & Kantabutra, 2023). Understanding such more fundamental transformations means, for example, studying management principles that are aligned with the idea of sustainability (Etzion, 2018), business models that enshrine sustainability (Pinkse et al., 2023) and change processes that put sustainability into the core of organizing practices (Schaltegger et al., 2024).
 
For this sub-theme, we invite papers that bring the idea of sustainability into the heart of organizations and organizing, that conceptualize sustainability as culture, and study sustainability transformations as culture change. We understand culture broadly, as a distributed meaning system that combines elements such as practice toolkits, values, narratives, identities, semiotic codes, and basic ontological assumptions (Swidler, 1986; Weber & Dacin, 2011; Giorgi et al., 2015). The sub-theme is designed to stimulate scholarship on when and how the idea of sustainability and associated beliefs, values and principles become part of the culture of organizations as well as their occupational and stakeholder communities (e.g., investors, consumers).
 
Enhancing our understanding of sustainability as culture is critical: In the absence of a culture that embodies the principles of sustainability, effort toward reducing specific negative impacts is likely to be reactive to perceived crisis situations, narrowly focused on a few recognized issues, and blind to unintended side-effects. For example, we have seen in recent years the proliferation of organizational commitments to achieving carbon neutrality and to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in employment (Hellerstedt et al., 2024). We also witness the adoption of management tools such as integrated or impact weighted accounting (Cohen & Serafeim, 2020; van Bommel et al., 2023), and decision tools and business models to advance circularity or social justice (van Bommel, 2018). However, it is unclear if these efforts have also amounted to a more fundamental re-orientation of organizational practices, values, and aspirations toward sustainability (Hahn et al., 2023).
 
The question of sustainability as cultural change also brings to the fore the tension between the generally long timescale and uncertain outcome of cultural transformations and the urgency of many sustainability issues. For example, sustainability concerns are often siloed in sub-units or delegated to specialist professionals (Augustine, 2021; Soderstrom & Weber, 2020) while remaining at odds with broader orientations that are slow to change, such as shareholder value-oriented governance, consumerism, and high growth business models. If a ‘sustainability culture’ is what is needed (Bansal & Song, 2017; Bertels et al., 2010), what are creative pathways for culture change that set organizations and their stakeholder on a lasting trajectory toward sustainability, and within a realistic timeframe?
 
This sub-theme brings into conversation scholars that study sustainable organizing and cultural change towards sustainability at diverse levels of analysis and in diverse settings. We invite empirical studies of any methodology as well as theoretical contributions from diverse scholarly traditions.
 
Papers may address topics such as:

• Identifying elements of a sustainable culture: What values, practices, mental models, belief systems or policies correspond to the idea of sustainability? What does a sustainable way of organizing look like? Do systems thinking, stewardship values, or ethics of care make organizations more sustainable? How do we evaluate the centrality of sustainability to cultures?

• Integration of sustainability into the organizational core: When and how does sustainability move from being treated as a peripheral or partial concern toward becoming a widely shared part of core organizational practices? Are there inherent contradictions between the idea of sustainability and modern organizations?

• The process of cultural change for sustainability: Over what time-frames does cultural change toward sustainability occur? What facilitates creative pathways toward sustainability? What is the role of leadership, grass-roots efforts, technologies and organizational structures in this process? What is the role of prefigurative and configurative practices in advancing cultural transformations?

• Expertise and knowledge for sustainability: What role do professionals and experts play in changing cultures? How do different forms of expertise supplement each other or compete with each other? What is the role of experts, charismatic leaders, scientists and professional services firms?

• Sustainability transitions and culture: What is the role of cultural change in existing sustainability transitions frameworks? How can cultural change become part of sustainable business models?

• Policy and politics: What is the role of national and transnational policies in enhancing and inhibiting a culture of sustainability? How can forms of hard and/or soft power affect a culture of sustainability? How do political systems or political polarization affect the development sustainable cultures?

• Stakeholders and institutional context: What influence do stakeholders such as employees, customers, and investors have in driving or preventing a cultural shift toward sustainability? What are institutional and systemic barriers for a culture of sustainability at the organizational level?

• Cultural reproduction and change: How are unsustainable and sustainable cultures reproduced? When does reproduction fail? What is the role of enculturation processes such as socialization, exposure, and education in generating a culture of sustainability?

• Comparative analysis: Are some pre-existing cultures (at the level of the organization, occupation, industry, society) more readily able to integrate sustainability than others?

References

• Assoratgoon, W., & Kantabutra, S. (2023): “Toward a sustainability organizational culture model.” Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 400, 10 May 2023, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652623008247.

• Augustine, G. (2021): “We’re not like those crazy hippies: The dynamics of jurisdictional drift in externally mandated occupational groups.” Organization Science, 32 (4), 1056–1078.
• Bansal, P., & Song, H.C. (2017): “Similar but not the same: Differentiating corporate sustainability from corporate responsibility.” Academy of Management Annals, 11 (1), 105–149.
• Bertels, S., Papania, L., & Papania, D. (2010): Embedding Sustainability in Organizational Culture. A Systematic Review of the Body of Knowledge. Network for Business Sustainability, https://embeddingproject.org/pub/resources/EP-Embedding-Sustainability-in-Organizational-Culture.pdf.
• Cohen, R., & Serafeim, G. (2020): “How to Measure a Company’s Real Impact.” Harvard Business Review, September 3, 2020, https://hbr.org/2020/09/how-to-measure-a-companys-real-impact.
• de Bakker, F.G.A., den Hond, F., King, B.G., & Weber, K. (2013): “Social Movements, Civil Society and Corporations: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead.” Organization Studies, 34 (5–6), 573–593.
• Ergene, S., Banerjee, S.B., & Hoffman, A.J. (2021): “(Un)Sustainability and Organization Studies: Towards a Radical Engagement.” Organization Studies, 42 (8), 1319–1335.
• Etzion, D. (2018): “Management for sustainability.” Nature Sustainability, 1, 744–749.
• Geels, F.W. (2011): “The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: Responses to seven criticisms.” Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 1 (1), 24–40.
• Giorgi, S., Lockwood, C., & Glynn, M.A. (2015): “The Many Faces of Culture: Making Sense of 30 Years of Research on Culture in Organization Studies.” Academy of Management Annals, 9 (1), 1–54.
• Hahn, R., Reimsbach, D., & Wickert, C. (2023): “Nonfinancial Reporting and Real Sustainable Change: Relationship Status – It’s Complicated.” Organization & Environment, 36 (1), 3–16.
• Hellerstedt, K., Uman, T., & Wennberg, K. (2024): “Fooled by Diversity? When Diversity Initiatives Exacerbate Rather Than Mitigate Bias and Inequality.” Academy of Management Perspectives, 38 (1), 23–42.
• Howard-Grenville, J.A. (2006): “Inside the ‘Black Box’: How Organizational Culture and Subcultures Inform Interpretations and Actions on Environmental Issues.” Organization & Environment, 19 (1), 46–73.
• Jaca, C., Prieto-Sandoval, V., Psomas, E.L., & Ormazabal, M. (2018): “What should consumer organizations do to drive environmental sustainability?” Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 181, 20 April 2018, 201–208.
• Maletič, M., Maletič, D., & Gomišček, B. (2018): “The role of contingency factors on the relationship between sustainability practices and organizational performance.” Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 171, 10 January 2018, 423–433.
• Orlitzky, M., Schmidt, F.L., & Rynes, S.L. (2003): “Corporate social and financial performance: A meta-analysis.” Organization Studies, 24 (3), 403–441.
• Pinkse, J., Lüdeke-Freund, F., Laasch, O., Snihur, Y., & Bohnsack, R. (2023): “The Organizational Dynamics of Business Models for Sustainability: Discursive and Cognitive Pathways for Change.” Organization & Environment, 36 (2), 211–227.
• Schaltegger, S., Girschik, V., Trittin-Ulbrich, H., Weissbrod, I., & Daudigeos, T. (2024): “Corporate change agents for sustainability: Transforming organizations from the inside out.” Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 33, 145–156.
• Sine, W.D., Haveman, H.A., & Tolbert, P.S. (2005): “Risky Business? Entrepreneurship in the New Independent-Power Sector.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 50 (2), 200–232.
• Soderstrom, S.B., & Weber, K. (2020): „Organizational structure from interaction: Evidence from corporate sustainability efforts.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 65 (1), 226–271.
• Swidler, A. (1986): “Culture in action: Symbols and strategies.” American Sociological Review, 51 (2), 273–286.
• van Bommel, K. (2018): “Managing tensions in sustainable business models: Exploring instrumental and integrative strategies.” Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 196, 20 September 2018, 829–841.
• van Bommel, K., Rasche, A., & Spicer, A. (2023): “From Values to Value: The Commensuration of Sustainability Reporting and the Crowding Out of Morality.” Organization & Environment, 36 (1), 179–206.
• Vishwanathan, P., van Oosterhout, H., Heugens, P.P.M.A.R., Duran, P., & van Essen, M. (2020): “Strategic CSR: A Concept Building Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Management Studies, 57 (2), 314–350.
• Weber, K., & Dacin, M.T. (2011): “The cultural construction of organizational life.” Organization Science, 22 (2), 287–298.
•