Abstract
Much of the literature on sustainability has tried to define the “virtuous behaviour” of “agents” (man and his social and economic organizations) so that it respects the “sustainability constraint.” This paper provides a “mirror-image” approach, based on the idea that it is above all necessary to understand why men and organizations tend to develop, at times unconsciously and dishonestly, damaging behaviour that turns into non-sustainability. In other words, to orient man toward sustainable behaviour it is indispensable to understand the “reasons” for the behaviour that produces non-sustainable effects. Regarding sustainability problems, we shall introduce the hypothesis that non-sustainable behaviour is not irrational in an absolute sense but derives from the action of three connected “behavioural archetypes” that accurately describe the “natural” behaviour of individuals in pursuing their aims: behaving in a way that will provide evident short-term advantages, both individual and local, while ignoring the disadvantages and harm such behaviour produces in the long run, at the collective and global level. To solve the problem, we shall try to identify the “levers” that weaken the archetypes and reverse their effects, thereby requiring sacrifices which are unacceptable to some. The paper presents four emblematic cases of non-sustainable behaviour and demonstrates that sustainability must become a fundamental strategic driver.
Highlights
In recent years firms have been subject to increasing pressure in terms of sustainability and sustainable development—according to the well-known definition given by the WCED-the “Brundtland Commission” [1] (p. 43): “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”—as regards both current processes as well as those being developed
To understand the modus operandi of the Myopia Archetypes, it is necessary to present as the first case the Temporal Myopia archetype, which acts in all parts of the world to determine the destinies of a large number of people that make recurring use of substances that bring great immediate benefits while producing irreversible long-term harm: the hardened smokers who, to gain the benefit of nicotine intake cigarette after cigarette, year after year, increase their chances of serious long-term health damage (Figure 4)
Myopia archetype, which guides the action of the average person who, instinctively, feels the need to reproduce, thereby gaining the immediate individual advantages of joy and pride from the birth of a child, advantages that reduce the perception of the global disadvantages and harm to the environment, society and the economy from non-sustainable overpopulation
Summary
In recent years firms have been subject to increasing pressure in terms of sustainability and sustainable development—according to the well-known definition given by the WCED-the “Brundtland Commission” [1] (p. 43): “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”—as regards both current processes as well as those being developed. It is possible to reformulate the hopes of the Brundtland Commission as follows: if, on the one hand, agents—men and organizations—have to continually develop, on the other they must avoid non-sustainable environmental, economic and social behaviour. If such behaviour already exists, they should try to remedy the damage and above all avoid its repetition. This definition was vague but it cleverly captured two fundamental issues, the problem of the environmental degradation that so commonly accompanies economic growth and yet the need for such growth to alleviate poverty [2] The Systems Thinking approach will be used to construct this model based on Peter Senge’s approach in The Fifth Discipline [3] (recently formalized by Mella [4]), one of the most effective instruments for observing, modeling and understanding human and organizational behaviour since it links a coherent conceptual framework and simple, symbolic language that allows one to build and quickly interpret operational sense-making models to describe, understand and simulate the behaviour of a wide range of dynamic phenomena [3,4,5]
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