TY - JOUR

T1 - Employee roles in sustainability transformation processes A move away from expertise and towards experience-driven sustainability management

AU - Süßbauer, Elisabeth

AU - Maas-Deipenbrock, Rina Marie

AU - Friedrich, Silke

AU - Kreß-Ludwig, Michael

AU - Langen, Nina

AU - Muster, Viola

N1 - Funding Information: The examples presented in this paper stem from four transdisci - plinary research projects that ran from 2015 to 2018 within the funding measure Sustainable Economy of the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) (box 1). All projects involved practice partners from businesses and, in some cases, public institutions and business associations but focusing on different sectors (e.g., tourism, food service) and contexts (e.g., rural areas, eco-pioneers, small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs). Thus, sustainability fields and specific research questions differed among the projects. However, all projects aimed at initiating, accompanying and analysing processes of sustainability transformation1. Funding Information: We thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the financial support of the projects Green Travel Transformation, IMKoN, NAH-GAST, and RegioTransKMU within the Social-Ecological Research(SOEF)funding priority of the BMBF and the SOEF funding measure Sustainable Economy. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 E. Süssbauer et al.

PY - 2019/1/1

Y1 - 2019/1/1

N2 - Corporate sustainability management usually relies on innovation experts ‐ that is, it relies on top-down and staff-unit approaches. Seeking out the involvement of employees from all company departments can substantially contribute to corporate greening. “Ordinary” employees are not trained as sustainability experts, yet it is precisely their experience within their own field and within the organisation that can give rise to knowledge that is essential for transforming the economy towards sustainability. Hence, employees need to be empowered by appropriate structures and organisational culture. Transferring practical experience to expertise can prove very helpful in assisting and stimulating sustainability transformations in various business fields.Although ordinary employees are typically regarded as an important stakeholder group for enhancing corporate sustainability, they are seldom seriously addressed in business or research practice. To learn from the practical experience of what takes place at workplaces, we analysed four transdisciplinary research projects all aimed at initiating, accompanying and analysing processes of sustainability transformation within companies, but which focused on different sectors and organisational contexts. Based on the assumption that ordinary employees can hold three different roles in processes of sustainability transformations (implementers, ambassadors and recipients of corporate sustainability practices), we compared the findings from practices of employee involvement within the four projects. Based on these findings, we examined the implications for companies and highlighted future research needs.

AB - Corporate sustainability management usually relies on innovation experts ‐ that is, it relies on top-down and staff-unit approaches. Seeking out the involvement of employees from all company departments can substantially contribute to corporate greening. “Ordinary” employees are not trained as sustainability experts, yet it is precisely their experience within their own field and within the organisation that can give rise to knowledge that is essential for transforming the economy towards sustainability. Hence, employees need to be empowered by appropriate structures and organisational culture. Transferring practical experience to expertise can prove very helpful in assisting and stimulating sustainability transformations in various business fields.Although ordinary employees are typically regarded as an important stakeholder group for enhancing corporate sustainability, they are seldom seriously addressed in business or research practice. To learn from the practical experience of what takes place at workplaces, we analysed four transdisciplinary research projects all aimed at initiating, accompanying and analysing processes of sustainability transformation within companies, but which focused on different sectors and organisational contexts. Based on the assumption that ordinary employees can hold three different roles in processes of sustainability transformations (implementers, ambassadors and recipients of corporate sustainability practices), we compared the findings from practices of employee involvement within the four projects. Based on these findings, we examined the implications for companies and highlighted future research needs.

KW - Tourism studies

KW - Employee roles

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Corporate sustainability

KW - Obstacles to sustainable

KW - Sustainability transformation

KW - Worker participation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072059343&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/43d7390c-3772-3b7d-b8eb-06fa9fb80876/

U2 - 10.14512/gaia.28.S1.7

DO - 10.14512/gaia.28.S1.7

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85072059343

VL - 28

SP - 210

EP - 217

JO - GAIA

JF - GAIA

SN - 0940-5550

IS - SUPPL.1

ER -