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Sanne Frandsen

Assistant head Organization, Department of Business Administration

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Adopting sustainability in the organization: Managing processes of productive loose coupling towards internal legitimacy

Author

  • Sanne Frandsen
  • Mette Morsing
  • Steen Vallentin

Summary, in English

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between sustainability adoption and internal legitimacy construction.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper is designed as a critical inquiry into existing research and practice on sustainability adoption, illustrated by two corporate vignettes.



Findings – Prior studies tend to assume that awareness raising is a sufficient means to create employee commitment and support for corporate sustainability programs, while empirical observations indicate that managerial disregard of conflicting interpretations of sustainability may result in the illegitimacy of such programs.

Originality/value – The authors suggest that a loosely coupled approach to sustainability adoption is a productive way to understand internal legitimacy construction, as it appreciates complexity and polyphony.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

236-264

Publication/Series

Journal of Management Development

Volume

32

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • Loosely coupled systems.
  • Employees
  • Implementation
  • Internal legitimacy
  • Sustainability
  • Organizational culture
  • Employees behaviour

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0262-1711