Informing Implementation of Corporate Sustainability Goals through Organization Development

Importance and Key Contribution: This is a topic-oriented paper, seeking to explore the intersection of organization development (OD) and sustainable development (sustainability). It is organized and written for the purpose... [ view full abstract ]

Importance and Key Contribution:
This is a topic-oriented paper, seeking to explore the intersection of organization development (OD) and sustainable development (sustainability). It is organized and written for the purpose of creating a foundational theoretical and academic literature review for a future dissertation on the implementation of next-generation corporate sustainability goals at a global chemical company. Due to the nature and demands of sustainability and the various foci of the sustainability goals, this paper explores a number of relevant management theories that are critical for researching the implementation of corporate sustainability goals. It also provides relevant background on the history of sustainability, and the twenty years of history of sustainability goals at the site company.

Ed Lawler, Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business, notes that he is “convinced that sustainability is one of the most crucial challenges facing contemporary managers.” (Savitz & Weber, 2013, p. xi) Andrew Savitz and Karl Weber note that while many sustainability professionals are highly skilled at the technical aspects of sustainability, they lack the skills necessary to “reshape business cultures, values, systems, policies and processes to meet the demands of the age of sustainability.” (Savitz & Weber, 2013, p. xxi) Lawler, Savitz and Weber are in good company; over seventy articles with “sustainability” in the article title have been written in organization development and management journals in the past five years alone and more than one hundred and forty mention sustainability in the journal abstract.

Theoretical Base:
The intersection of Organization Development and Sustainability academic disciplines provides fertile ground for advancing both the field of sustainability through a better understanding of core organization development foci such as culture (Hofstede & Minkov, 2010; Lewis, 2010; Kreitner & Luthans, 1984; Zohar & Luria, 2003; Weisbord, 2012; Probst et al., 2008; Yaeger, Head & Sorensen, 2006; Golembiewski et. al, 2005), cognition and sensemaking (Hahn, Preuss, Pinkse & Figge, 2015; Tenkasi, 1994; Lüscher & Lewis, 2008; ), teaming and collaboration (Sharma & Kearins, 2011; O'Mahony & Bechky, 2008; Evans, 2010; Srivastava & Banaji, 2011), legitimacy (Colyvas & Powell, 2006; Huy, Corley & Kraatz, 2014; Buono & Subbiah, 2014; Maguire and Hardy, 2013; Peloza et al., 2012), strategy and strategy formation (Sitkin et al., 2011; Worley, 1996; Holmberg, 1998; Greiner & Cummings, 2009; Benson & Craig, 2014; Yager & Sorensen, 2009), innovation and psychological safety (Edmonson, 2012; Morrison and Wheeler-Smith, 2011; Gardner, 2012). While all of the aforementioned theories of organization development are directly applicable to understanding how organizations manage for sustainability, my research cannot and will not address all of them simultaneously. For this paper, the following theories and their application to corporate sustainability goals will be addressed: culture, legitimacy, psychological safety, teaming and collaboration, cognition, and sensemaking.

Planned Research Methods:
This paper expounds on the theoretical foundations and methods of my ongoing research. At a high level, my research utilizes a mixed methods approach: tests of a-priori hypotheses utilizing a quantitative approach followed by qualitative research to provide necessary context for the differing performance at the site and business unit level.
There are five significant sources of information that can illuminate how a company has performed over time as well as some of the key organizational factors that may have resulted in the performance. 1) Employee Opinion Surveys 2) Performance against goals at the site level. 3) Internal documentation on goal performance for the first and second set of goals. 4) Externally available annually reported data on goals and narrative on goal accomplishments. 5) Senior leaders who were instrumental in the first and second goal implementations, at various sites globally.

Implications:
The purpose of the study is to understand what the key organizational factors are that lead to varying levels of goal achievement throughout an organization, specifically an organization in the chemicals industry. The site company under investigation is at the beginning of a new 10-year period of sustainability goals, having successfully completed 2 sets of 10-year goals. Considering that each goal period has increased the breadth of the intended goals, and looking to learn from past experiences, the site company has a practical use for knowledge on successful approaches for sustainability goal implementation. This research seeks to fill a gap in the scholarly conducted within industry addressing nonfinancial corporate goal implementation and resultant performance.

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sustainability, EHS, EH&S, goals, OD, organization development, literature review, culture, cognition, sensemaking, teaming, collaboration, legitimacy, strategy, innovation, psychological safety [ view full abstract ]

sustainability, EHS, EH&S, goals, OD, organization development, literature review, culture, cognition, sensemaking, teaming, collaboration, legitimacy, strategy, innovation, psychological safety