After Paris: Changing corporate behaviour to achieve sustainability

Abstract

The 2015 UN Paris Agreement on Climate Change set challenging sustainable development targets. The aim of this article is to examine how key organisational barriers to implementing these targets can be overcome. In particular, it draws attention to the necessity of changing corporate behaviour so that it supports rather than undermines sustainability and enables organisations to abandon profitability as their paramount goal in favour of a Triple Bottom Line approach of People, Planet and Profit. Design/Methodology/Approach The article uses the organisational change literature to examine key barriers faced by organisations in pursuing the UN's sustainability goals. It draws attention to the current low level of success of most change initiatives, the need for greater stakeholder involvement in identifying how sustainability should be achieved, the development of increased change competency in organisations, and the need for more long-term, stable and consistent leadership. Findings The article concludes that most organisations will encounter severe difficulties in aligning their corporate behaviour with the need to achieve sustainability. In order to change successfully, they will have to create a virtuous circle of change that comprises Readiness for Change, Leadership, Participation, Goals and Tenacity. Though it is the role of their leaders to ensure that the available options and choices are identified, organisations will not be able to do this without the full participation of all the stakeholders who represent People, Planet and Profit. Limitations The article is based on a review of the literature on organisational change, most of which has little to say about sustainability. Therefore, though what it says about change in general is based on a great deal of theoretical and empirical evidence amassed over many decades, its applicability to sustainability has still to be empirically tested. Implications Regardless of its limitations, this article does indicate that unless current corporate behaviour changes, it is likely to impose severe restrictions on organisations' ability to achieve sustainability. The article also identifies the main barriers to changing corporate behaviour and how these might be overcome. Contribution The article represents an attempt to examine key obstacles that most organisations will face in pursuing sustainability and how, by drawing on a wide range of stakeholders, these might be overcome.

Electricity consumers in regional Australia: Social acceptance of coal-fired power and renewable energy

“…It is recommended that misconceptions about coal-fired power be addressed, for instance through community-based programs, if Australia is to make a transition to a low-carbon electricity market. (Burnes, 2017). One of objectives of the Paris Agreement is to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change (United Nations, 2015).…”

Değişim Yönetimi ile Ücret ve Ödüllendirme Sistemi Arasındaki İlişki: Sivil Havacılık Sektöründe Faaliyet Gösteren Yer Hizmetleri İşletmelerinde Bir Araştırma

“…Burnes ve Todnem (2012) yapmış oldukları çalışmalarda; liderlik, etik ve değişim süreçlerini incelemişlerdir. Yine Burnes (2017) yapmış olduğu çalışmada, değişime hazırlık, liderlik, çalışanların katılımı ve hedef kavramlarını değişim döngüsü ile ilişkilendirmiştir. Todnem, Kuiper ve Stephen (2018) ise; işletmede bulunan ekiplerin, değişim süreçlerindeki rolünü belirlemeye çalışmışlardır.…”

Organisational leadership and/for sustainability: Future directions from John Dewey and social movements

“…Thus, the pursuit of sustainability will require leaders to expand their boundary-spanning role (s) to embrace a wide range of internal and external stakeholders or, to put it another way, widespread participation in decision-making will be required if a clear, achievable and effective sustainability agenda is to be constructed and implemented (Burnes, 2017a).…”

“…1 In addition, as the Paris Agreement has signalled, there is pressure from governments, campaigning groups and public opinion for organisations to expand their boundaries even further to interact with-and take seriously-the needs of the communities that they affect. In addressing this issue, and in seeking to re-frame organisational leadership, we draw on Dewey's (1927) work on publics, which, we consider, is consistent with the need for involving greater stakeholder involvement in identifying how sustainability could be achieved (Burnes, 2017a;Raelin, 2016). For Dewey (1927:15-16), a 'public consists of all those who are affected by the indirect consequences of transactions to such an extent that is it deemed necessary to have those consequences systematically cared for'.…”