The Process of Making Change Stick for Corporate Sustainability

Abstract: Nowadays companies need to consider sustainability issues if they wish to operate in harmony with society and the environment and to leverage their resources efficiently in the long run. Sustainability issues often become the drivers for organizational change due to external pressures and demands. As it takes time for sustainability efforts to bear fruit, companies need to remain committed to the cause for the long haul. However, not many companies are able to persevere till the end of the journey allowing change to stall or relapse. Our research aims to find out how organizations engaged in corporate sustainability ensure that changes stick. We first established the theoretical linkage between organizational change and corporate sustainability, and described possible ways to make change stick. Thereafter, we examined what actually happens during the implementation of corporate sustainability change by conducting in-depth interviews with managers involved in environmental sustainability work using an interpretive approach. The empirical data was hermeneutically interpreted and the findings derived with a critical twist. The interviewed company seems to fulfil the theoretical conditions for environmental sustainability change to stick but tends to leverage more heavily on structures and processes for change implementation. This top-down approach is exacerbated by the obligatory usage of the Kotter model for change management in the company. Although structures and processes facilitate management control and the eventual embedding of change, they also result in inflexibility and reduced agility. The company needs the right balance between rigor and speed to attain environmental excellence and business viability in the long run.