Gestão da Sustentabilidade em Contexto Organizacional: Integrando Sensemaking, Narrativas e Processo Decisório Estratégico

Abstract

Resumo Historicamente, faz sentido para as organizações, especialmente para aquelas envoltas pelas abordagens extremistas da sustentabilidade, priorizarem lógicas decisórias evolucionárias e instrumentais. Estas, voltam-se ao sentido que reforça o enfoque em ganhos financeiros imediatos a partir dos investimentos realizados na esfera socioambiental. Mas, essa postura, mostra-se insuficiente em suprir exigências relacionais e espaço-temporais cabíveis a uma gestão sistêmica e estratégica dos pilares econômico, ambiental e social inerentes à sustentabilidade. Estes pilares exigem decisões customizadas e inter-relacionadas que considerem trade-offs, particularidades espaciais e diferentes escalas de tempo. Nesse contexto, espera-se, a partir das contribuições do sensemaking e da abordagem das narrativas, jogar luz em sentidos alternativos para o processo decisório organizacional que circunda a sustentabilidade, discuti-los e retratá-los em frameworks.Palavras-chave: Sustentabilidade Organizacional. Sensemaking. Narrativas. Lógica Decisória. Framework. Abstract H istorically, it makes sense for organizations, particularly those surrounded by extremist approaches to sustainability, to prioritize evolutionary and instrumental decision logics. These logics reinforce immediate financial gains from investments on social and environmental spheres. However, this attitude is insufficient for meeting relational and spacetime requirements that are inherent in the strategic and systematic management of sustainability pillars (economic, environmental, and social). To cope with this challenge, customized and interrelated decisions are required to consider individuals and different time scales. Based on the contributions of the sensemaking and narrative approaches, this study sheds light on the alternative senses of the decision-making process and presents them in different frameworks.

Sustainability in organizational context

“…However, adopting a concept of sustainability is no guarantee that an organization is actually sustainable; it is necessary to acknowledge that organizations and individuals depend on the natural environment (Silva et al, 2011). Sustainable management involves more than the attempt to establish accepted meanings: it requires comprehensive approaches that reconcile different visions and respect the different time scales of the social, environmental and economic pillars of sustainable business (Munck, 2015). This is because sustainable development seeks to achieve a steady balance between social, economic and environmental objectives, as well as to respect their interactions and different timelines; in other words, it serves to provide reference points and calls for strategic decisions in the organizational context to be aligned (Munck and Borim-De-Souza, 2009b).…”

“…However, according to Bansal and DesJardine (2014), most strategic management theories are designed to describe initiatives and organizational decisions by analyzing the results on a business level only, ignoring the macro system of which organizations are part. Munck (2015) reported that, by registering and analyzing the dominant logic in the narratives on sustainability, managers can undertake new projects and become agents capable of creating pathways that promote new meanings aligned to the principles of sustainability. Sachs (1993) proposed four fundamental premises to guide strategies for transitioning toward sustainable development.…”

“…Companies may now issue statements on sustainability, but few are fully focused on actually implementing these principles (Munck, 2015). If we can understand the meanings and relationships between sustainability narratives and practices, we can then build up an identity of a recognized sustainable company, hence the justification for this study.…”

“…Therefore, the decision-making process with regard to sustainability is made up of approaches and perspectives that make it possible to understand sustainability in an organizational context, and associates these with the relevant time frames. In this regard, Munck (2015) summarized three approaches: the economic radical, which prioritizes financial objectives and prefers strategic cost-benefit relationships; the environmental radical, which rejects human domination over nature; and the integrative radical, which suggests ways to modify our values and articulates a world view centered on reconciling the interests of the three pillars.…”

Internal Migrations Theory Application in Corporate Governance

“…Sustainability research involves three approaches: one of a more instrumental nature seeking to investigate organizations' antecedents considered as sustainable in tems of their values, beliefs and ways of interpreting and responding to environmental issues through management; another, based on quantitative analysis, focuses on the impacts of sustainable actions on organizational results, such as financial performance, competitive advantage, toxic waste management and certification adoption; and a third one, which involves reflections on underlying aspects usually ignored when success in building sustainable organizations is expected, engaging in the production of discussion or management sense making (Munck, 2015;Sonza & Kloeckner, 2014). Ávila and Bertero (2016) observe the measures between the application of good corporate governance practices and their performance in which they are dealt with, mainly those of large size or still open capital having professional administrations and presenting an evident agency conflicts existence possibility (central nucleus power decentralization by organizational cultures cellular formation distinct from the dominant).…”