IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i4p1157-d140778.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Proposing a Definition and a Framework of Organisational Sustainability: A Review of Efforts and a Survey of Approaches to Change

Author

Listed:
  • Rodrigo Lozano

    (Department of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gavle, 80176 Gavle, Sweden
    Organisational Sustainability, Ltd., Cardiff CF116EQ, UK)

Abstract

Organisations (civil society, companies, and public-sector organisations (PSOs)) have been instrumental in driving sustainability. In the last five years, there has been an increasing interest in organisational sustainability, where the importance of sustainability’s dimensions depends on an organisation’s nature and purpose. A large body of literature on organisational sustainability has focused on companies, followed by education institutions, in particular higher education. Limited, yet increasing, attention has been directed to PSOs and other civil society organisations. Although there have been some attempts to define a sustainable organisation, there is still a need to define and establish the principles of how organisations can address and contribute to sustainability. The sustainability efforts in the different types of organisations were reviewed and then analysed in this paper by using hermeneutics. This was complemented with a survey on sustainability changes. The survey was sent to a database of 1574 contacts from different organisations. In addition, 106 anonymous links were sent out. From the total list of emails, 118 full responses were obtained, with 39 from civil society (37 from higher education and 2 NGOs), 66 corporations, and 13 PSOs. This research distils the key system elements of the efforts in each of the organisations in order to synthesise and propose a definition and a conceptual framework of organisational sustainability. These can help organisations understand where their efforts are and how they could better embed sustainability into their systems, thus contributing to the well-being of societies and the environment for this generation and future ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodrigo Lozano, 2018. "Proposing a Definition and a Framework of Organisational Sustainability: A Review of Efforts and a Survey of Approaches to Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:1157-:d:140778
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/1157/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/1157/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rodrigo Lozano, 2015. "A Holistic Perspective on Corporate Sustainability Drivers," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 32-44, January.
    2. Daniel J. Tschopp, 2005. "Corporate social responsibility: a comparison between the United States and the European Union," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 55-59, March.
    3. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Griffiths, Andrew, 2010. "Corporate sustainability and organizational culture," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 357-366, October.
    4. María del Mar Alonso‐Almeida & Josep Llach & Frederic Marimon, 2014. "A Closer Look at the ‘Global Reporting Initiative’ Sustainability Reporting as a Tool to Implement Environmental and Social Policies: A Worldwide Sector Analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(6), pages 318-335, November.
    5. Wendelin M. Küpers, 2011. "Integral responsibilities for a responsive and sustainable practice in organization and management," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), pages 137-150, May.
    6. Martina K. Linnenluecke & Sally V. Russell & Andrew Griffiths, 2009. "Subcultures and sustainability practices: the impact on understanding corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 432-452, November.
    7. Pfeffer, Jeffrey, 2010. "Building Sustainable Organizations: The Human Factor," Research Papers 2017r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    8. Tom Thomas & Eric Lamm, 2012. "Legitimacy and Organizational Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 191-203, October.
    9. Jouni Korhonen, 2003. "Should we measure corporate social responsibility?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 25-39, March.
    10. Sumit Lodhia & Kerry Jacobs & Yoon Jin Park, 2012. "Driving Public Sector Environmental Reporting," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(5), pages 631-647, June.
    11. James Guthrie & Federica Farneti, 2008. "GRI Sustainability Reporting by Australian Public Sector Organizations," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(6), pages 361-366, December.
    12. Stuart Cooper & Carole Parkes & John Blewitt, 2014. "Can accreditation help a leopard change its spots?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(2), pages 234-258, February.
    13. Alamo Alexandre da Silva Batista & Antonio Carlos de Francisco, 2018. "Organizational Sustainability Practices: A Study of the Firms Listed by the Corporate Sustainability Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, January.
    14. Kim Ceulemans & Rodrigo Lozano & María Del Mar Alonso-Almeida, 2015. "Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education: Interconnecting the Reporting Process and Organisational Change Management for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-23, July.
    15. Walker, Helen & Brammer, Stephen, 2012. "The relationship between sustainable procurement and e-procurement in the public sector," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 256-268.
    16. Manila Marcuccio & Ileana Steccolini, 2005. "Social and environmental reporting in local authorities," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 155-176, June.
    17. John Dumay & James Guthrie & Federica Farneti, 2010. "Gri Sustainability Reporting Guidelines For Public And Third Sector Organizations," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(4), pages 531-548, July.
    18. Rodrigo Lozano, 2013. "Are Companies Planning their Organisational Changes for Corporate Sustainability? An Analysis of Three Case Studies on Resistance to Change and their Strategies to Overcome it," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(5), pages 275-295, September.
    19. van der Voet, Joris, 2014. "The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 373-382.
    20. Thomas Dyllick & Kai Hockerts, 2002. "Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 130-141, March.
    21. Demsetz, Harold, 1988. "The Theory of the Firm Revisited," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(1), pages 141-161, Spring.
    22. Lynch, Barbara, 2010. "An examination of environmental reporting by Australian state government departments," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 32-45.
    23. Barbara Lynch, 2010. "An examination of environmental reporting by Australian state government departments," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 32-45, March.
    24. Bernd Siebenhüner & Marlen Arnold, 2007. "Organizational learning to manage sustainable development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 339-353, July.
    25. D. H. Drury & A. Farhoomand, 1999. "Innovation Diffusion And Implementation," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 133-157.
    26. R. Edward Freeman & Andrew C. Wicks & Bidhan Parmar, 2004. "Stakeholder Theory and “The Corporate Objective Revisited”," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 364-369, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rodrigo Lozano, 2023. "Analysing organisations' engagement with and impacts to sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5721-5733, December.
    2. Rodrigo Lozano, 2020. "Analysing the use of tools, initiatives, and approaches to promote sustainability in corporations," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 982-998, March.
    3. Rodrigo Lozano & Maria Barreiro‐Gen, 2023. "Civil society organisations as agents for societal change: Football clubs' engagement with sustainability," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 820-828, March.
    4. Witjes, Sjors & Lozano, Rodrigo, 2016. "Towards a more Circular Economy: Proposing a framework linking sustainable public procurement and sustainable business models," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 37-44.
    5. Natacha Klein & Tomás B. Ramos & Pauline Deutz, 2022. "Factors and strategies for circularity implementation in the public sector: An organisational change management approach for sustainability," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 509-523, May.
    6. Kim Ceulemans & Rodrigo Lozano & María Del Mar Alonso-Almeida, 2015. "Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education: Interconnecting the Reporting Process and Organisational Change Management for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-23, July.
    7. Aurelio Tommasetti & Riccardo Mussari & Gennaro Maione & Daniela Sorrentino, 2020. "Sustainability Accounting and Reporting in the Public Sector: Towards Public Value Co-Creation?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-19, March.
    8. Syed Awais Ahmad Tipu, 2022. "Organizational change for environmental, social, and financial sustainability: A systematic literature review," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(6), pages 1697-1742, August.
    9. Witjes, Sjors & Vermeulen, Walter J.V. & Cramer, Jacqueline M., 2017. "Assessing Corporate Sustainability integration for corporate self-reflection," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 132-147.
    10. Rodrigo Lozano, 2015. "A Holistic Perspective on Corporate Sustainability Drivers," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 32-44, January.
    11. Martin, Graeme & Farndale, Elaine & Paauwe, Jaap & Stiles, Philip G., 2016. "Corporate governance and strategic human resource management: Four archetypes and proposals for a new approach to corporate sustainability," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 22-35.
    12. Arménio Rego & Miguel Pina e Cunha & Daniel Polónia, 2017. "Corporate Sustainability: A View From the Top," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 133-157, June.
    13. Aisma Linda Kiesnere & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2019. "Sustainability management emergence and integration on different management levels in smaller large‐sized companies in Austria," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1607-1626, November.
    14. Maria Barreiro-Gen & Rodrigo Lozano & Afnan Zafar, 2020. "Changes in Sustainability Priorities in Organisations due to the COVID-19 Outbreak: Averting Environmental Rebound Effects on Society," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-13, June.
    15. Ioana Gutu & Daniela Tatiana Agheorghiesei & Alexandru Tugui, 2023. "Assessment of a Workforce Sustainability Tool through Leadership and Digitalization," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-30, January.
    16. Rodrigo Lozano & Robin von Haartman, 2018. "Reinforcing the Holistic Perspective of Sustainability: Analysis of the Importance of Sustainability Drivers in Organizations," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 508-522, July.
    17. Anselm Schneider, 2015. "Reflexivity in Sustainability Accounting and Management: Transcending the Economic Focus of Corporate Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 525-536, March.
    18. Hinrika Droege & Andrea Raggi & Tomás B. Ramos, 2021. "Overcoming Current Challenges for Circular Economy Assessment Implementation in Public Sector Organisations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-22, January.
    19. Kazunori Kobayashi & Gabriel Eweje & David Tappin, 2018. "Employee wellbeing and human sustainability: Perspectives of managers in large Japanese corporations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 801-810, November.
    20. Patrizia Gazzola & Roberta Pezzetti & Stefano Amelio & Daniele Grechi, 2020. "Non-Financial Information Disclosure in Italian Public Interest Companies: A Sustainability Reporting Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-16, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:1157-:d:140778. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.