Organizations as Functioning Social Systems : A Review of Social Sustainability in Management and Organizational Research

Abstract: One of the reasons, why it is difficult to implement the concept of social sustainability into organizations, is its inherent complexity and vagueness. The new Social Sustainability Principles (SSPs) within the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) offer a clear definition of success for the social system. This study aims to put the new SSPs into an organizational context. It investigates how people-related issues within organizations, discussed in six organizational and management journals, published between 2009 and 2014, are related to the SSPs. One fourth of the 3305 reviewed articles were found to relate to social sustainability. Most of the articles focused on improving performance through aspects related to social sustainability. The articles mainly discussed aspects related to barriers to the SSPs as problems, solutions or positive aspects that could remove barriers to the SSPs. The results show that for organizational research to be able to support organizations moving towards social sustainability, there is a need for a clear definition of success as well as a frame that takes the whole social system into consideration. The FSSD and the SSPs could help to structure the diverse topics, put research problems in a bigger context and discern relevant problems and solutions.