Work as a Lever for Sustainability Transitions: Measuring Experienced Workplace Sustainability and Its Link to Agency and Well‐Being

Humanity's environmental and social trajectory is substantially shaped by routinised decision‐making in professional contexts. At work, individuals engage in public‐sphere actions, simultaneously embedded in structural conditions limiting or catalysing potential impact. Despite its relevance for societal learning and sustainability transitions, the experience of sustainability in socio‐material work environments has not been assessed at a representative national scale. In this study, we introduce the validation and large‐scale application of an instrument to assess experienced workplace sustainability. For this, we apply the Whole Institution Approach (WIA) to the context of work, transferring the validated WIA‐Scale to workplaces (WIA‐Work‐Scale, six items). The representative assessment in Germany ( n = 1747) indicates that individuals who experience more sustainability at their workplace describe higher subjective well‐being and a stronger sense of sustainability‐related agency beyond their work contexts. Based on the findings, we consider implications for sustainability in work environments and associated organisational development processes. In this, we specifically focus on pathways towards a more effective empowerment of individuals with both internal and external capabilities to contribute to socially just and environmentally viable societies.