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

Corporations and their leaders are increasingly recognising their role in making societies more sustainable. This has fostered the development of voluntary tools and initiatives (mainly based on ‘hard’ technocentric solutions) to help them address sustainability. However, discussions on ‘soft’ issues have been limited. This paper analyses the organisational change efforts for corporate sustainability (CS) of three case studies. It was found that CS drivers catalyse change from the unsustainable status quo (SQ) towards more sustainable activities. Barriers to change usually block these efforts; identifying them can help to apply appropriate strategies to overcome them, thus helping to better incorporate and institutionalise CS. This would bring the system to a more sustainability oriented state (MSOS). In time, the MSOS becomes the SQ novo, and the process starts again. Planning such organisational changes could help companies better overcome resistance to change and integrate their efforts for was sustainability more holistically, including technological and human changes.