Toward an organizational theory of sustainability culture

Abstract

While it is widely recognized that organizational culture is critical in ensuring corporate sustainability, no comprehensive theory on such a culture exists. To fill in the theoretical gap, the present study proposes an integrated theory of sustainability organizational culture as an interim struggle. Following a theory building approach, relevant literature is critically reviewed to identify relevant factors on sustainability organizational culture, their causal relationships, and theoretical and/or empirical reasons they are related. The study's key contributions are: (1) a comparative review of sustainability-productive organizational culture models; (2) sustainability assumptions, an under-studied topic, are identified and discussed; (3) a dynamic theory of sustainability organizational culture is introduced, comprising sustainability assumptions, sustainability vision and values, vision, and values communication, emotionally committed organizational members, culture-reinforcing people management practices, corporate sustainability practices and sustainability performance; (4) a theoretical model and its associated propositions are developed for future research; and (5) managerial implications are also discussed.