TY - JOUR

T1 - Toward holistic corporate sustainability-Developing employees' action competence for sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises through training

AU - Schroeder, Sophia

AU - Wiek, Arnim

AU - Farny, Steffen

AU - Luthardt, Philip

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Business Strategy and The Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - To advance holistic corporate sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) requires employees to fully engage in sustainability efforts, which, in return, means to develop employees' action competence for sustainability. Little empirical evidence, however, exists on how to do this considering well-known constraints SMEs face (time, expertise, resources). We present a transdisciplinary project that developed, delivered, and evaluated a sustainability training for the workforce of the Bohlsener Mühle, an SME that has pioneered corporate sustainability in Germany. The training was piloted for the business' apprentices and combined different learning modes to build participants' sustainable action competence. The pre-post evaluation, supported by observations and qualitative interviews, revealed that employees' action competence for sustainability can be fostered through such trainings and is most effective if organizational factors that enable a corporate culture of sustainability are aligned. We conclude that a human-centered and action-oriented approach to training is needed to unleash the full potential of the workforce to advance corporate sustainability.

AB - To advance holistic corporate sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) requires employees to fully engage in sustainability efforts, which, in return, means to develop employees' action competence for sustainability. Little empirical evidence, however, exists on how to do this considering well-known constraints SMEs face (time, expertise, resources). We present a transdisciplinary project that developed, delivered, and evaluated a sustainability training for the workforce of the Bohlsener Mühle, an SME that has pioneered corporate sustainability in Germany. The training was piloted for the business' apprentices and combined different learning modes to build participants' sustainable action competence. The pre-post evaluation, supported by observations and qualitative interviews, revealed that employees' action competence for sustainability can be fostered through such trainings and is most effective if organizational factors that enable a corporate culture of sustainability are aligned. We conclude that a human-centered and action-oriented approach to training is needed to unleash the full potential of the workforce to advance corporate sustainability.

KW - employee engagement

KW - sustainability-oriented workforce

KW - sustainable human resource management

KW - sustainable workforce education

KW - transdisciplinary case study

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/4e1fbe19-aaaa-3eba-a555-b65e00b564de/

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135853851&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/bse.3210

DO - 10.1002/bse.3210

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 32

SP - 1650

EP - 1669

JO - Business Strategy and the Environment

JF - Business Strategy and the Environment

SN - 0964-4733

IS - 4

ER -