Despite lacking a universal definition, the term “corporate sustainability” (CS) indicates the effort of business practitioners of integrating issues related to sustainable development (SD) into their day to day activities. Such issues are commonly translated in the corporate language along the traditionally tri-dimensional structure of SD – the three Ps of People, Planet and Prosperity (PPP). However, it is pointed out that principles of inter-generational equity and holistic understanding of productive processes along value chains should steer companies towards the integration of the PPP with additional perspectives of Time and Place. The scholarly debate on corporate sustainability urges organisations aiming for “all inclusive” integration of Corporate Sustainability Strategies (CSSs) to be aware of their own dual embedded nature, comprehensive of physical dynamics (the impact of products and services on the external environment) and social dynamics (taking place within the company and between the company and the other societal actors). However, although several authors in the last decades remarked the relevance of cultural and behavioural dynamics within organisations for a successful integration of CSSs, the lack of a strong link between such dynamics and the physical impacts on the external environment is acknowledged. This phenomenon is mostly due to the fact that organisations tend to focus more on the quantitative measurement of their physical impacts, rather than working towards a thorough understanding on their internal social dynamics: as a consequence, the potential link between internal social dynamics and the external impacts exerted by companies on the 3 Ps remains largely overlooked. The cornerstone of the presented work lies within the conceptualization of the dual nature and taps directly into this gap. The research carried multiple aims: first, the article seeks academic value by providing methodological insights on how to stress such “missing link” more strongly. Secondly, the practical value of the research lies in the hint sent out to business practitioners, for a more thorough self-reflection on the relevance of social dynamics for their organisations’ sustainability performance. Such objectives are pursued in the article through the depiction of examples retrieved along a Participatory Action Research (PAR) in a large Colombian dairy company. First, two key performance inidcators (KPIs) were selected according to the company’s materiality matrix. Secondly, three related projects were retrospectively addressed by means of semi-structured interviews through the dimensions of organisational structure, culture and learning envisioned by the adopted analytical framework. On one hand, the cases covered by this study show that shortcomings in managing social dynamics can cause cultural bottlenecks between departments that can ultimately hamper improvements in sustainability KPIs. On the other hand, activities that put at their core the participation of employees from different structural levels along with their creativity, education and culture on sustainability can lead to notable outcomes in terms of reduced impacts on 3Ps issues.
Keywords: Corporate Sustainability, Strategy Integration, Physical Dynamics, Social Dynamics, KPIs
5a. Corporate sustainability and CSR
