Theme
Corporate Sustainability and Innovation
Track
Corporate Sustainability Strategies
Justification of the paper
There is a need for business to integrate sustainability into business models, and product and process design, creating new markets and a way to engage consumers. This creates opportunities for businesses to adapt, de-risk operations and find new models of value creation. However, the need also requires change and change can be disruptive, which, in turn, cause tensions in organisations.
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to understand more about the root causes of tensions experienced by employees and leaders during sustainability adoption and integration into business. Empirical research was the conducted by gathering information from a South African based retailer, and consultants and practitioners working with the broader retail industry.
Theoretical framework
The paper is mainly focussed on organisation change issues as part of business strategy, and the roles, and requirements of various stakeholders, and thus builds on literature such as:
Linnenluencke MK, Griffiths A, 2010. Corporate sustainability and organisational culture. Journal of World Business, 45, 357-366.
Purnell LS, Freeman RE, 2012. Stakeholder theory, fact/value dichotomy, and the normative core: How Wall Street stops the ethics conversation. Journal of Business Ethics, 109, 109-116.
Results and conclusions
Adaptive leadership skills and organisational culture alignment is required for sustainability adoption. Capitalism defines the rules of business success, often contradicting the values of sustainability. This causes ethical dilemmas for business and thereby a dichotomy between values and profit imperatives. New rules are required for business in order to deliver shared value and intergenerational equity to both society and the environment. A number of recommendations are made accordingly.
Implications for tipping points
Whilst these tensions and their root causes were identified in retail, many of these tensions may well be applicable to other industries. Only by addressing these tensions meaningfully, can industry transition to a sustainable path.
Keywords
Adoption, Tensions, Root Causes, Business.
