Abstract
This study used an international sample of 137 firms to examine the relationship between organizational culture and an organization's emphasis on, and its outcomes related to, financial, social, and ecological well-being. The study draws on configuration theory, the Competing Values Framework, and the Triple Bottom Line approach to suggest that: (1) a hierarchy culture is associated with greater emphasis on financially sustainable organizing and with better financial outcomes, (2) a clan culture is associated with greater emphasis on socially sustainable organizing and with better social outcomes, (3) a market culture is associated with greater emphasis on ecologically sustainable organizing and with better ecological outcomes, and (4) an adhocracy culture is associated with greater emphasis on holistically sustainable organizing and with better holistic outcomes. Using a case survey methodology and objective performance measures, the findings provide support for the hypothesized relationships between the hierarchy culture and financially sustainable organizing, the clan culture and socially sustainable organizing and outcomes, and the market culture and ecologically sustainable outcomes. These results suggest that organizational culture is related to sustainability in predictable ways, that a configuration theory approach is useful in understanding this relationship, and provide a basis for future research to explore additional configuration elements in sustainable organization typologies.
Highlights
Scholars agree that sustainable business has three key dimensions: financial, social, and ecological (e.g., Dyck et al, 2018, Glavas and Mish, 2015, Joyce and Paquin, 2016)
Among the variety of factors that could contribute to sustainability, this study focused on the role of organizational culture
The study demonstrated how configuration theory could be used to understand the link between organizational cultures and sustainable organizing
Summary
Scholars agree that sustainable business has three key dimensions: financial, social, and ecological (e.g., Dyck et al, 2018, Glavas and Mish, 2015, Joyce and Paquin, 2016) This threedimensional understanding is becoming the norm among practitioners, where it is often called the “triple bottom line” (TBL) approach (Elkington, 1997, McWilliams et al, 2016). Since organizational culture refers to the set of shared values and norms that influence how members perceive and interact with each other and their environment (Schein, 1985), it follows that differences in organizational culture could be associated with differences in firms’ sustainability beliefs and practices (Baird et al, 2018). The four organizational cultures of the Competing Values Framework (CVF) – hierarchy, clan, market, and adhocracy (Quinn, 1990, Quinn and Kimberly, 1984, Quinn and Rohrbaugh, 1983) – were linked to four different types of organizational sustainability: financial, social, ecological, and holistic (Russell et al, 2007)
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