RT Article
T1 Managing Corporate Sustainability with a Paradoxical Lens: Lessons from Strategic Agility
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 148
IS 2
SP 347
OP 361
A1 Ivory, Sarah Birrell
A1 Brooks, Simon Bentley
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2018
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1785663909
AB Corporate sustainability introduces multiple tensions or paradoxes into organisations which defy traditional approaches such as trading-off contrasting options. We examine an alternative approach: to manage corporate sustainability with a paradoxical lens where contradictory elements are managed concurrently. Drawing on paradox theory, we focus on two specific pathways: to the organisation-wide acceptance of paradox and to paradoxical resolution. Introducing the concept of strategic agility, we argue that strategically agile organisations are better placed to navigate these paradox pathways. Strategic agility comprises three organisational meta-capabilities: strategic sensitivity, collective commitment, and resource fluidity. We propose that strategically agile organisations draw on strategic sensitivity and collective commitment to achieve organisation-wide acceptance of paradox, and collective commitment and resource fluidity to achieve paradoxical resolution. For each of these meta-capabilities, we identify three organisational practices and processes specifically related to corporate sustainability that organisations can leverage in pursuit of strategic agility. We offer a conceptual framework depicting the strategic agility meta-capabilities, and associated practices and processes, which organisations draw on to successfully manage corporate sustainability with a paradoxical lens.
K1 Tensions
K1 Strategic agility meta-capabilities
K1 Strategic agility
K1 Paradoxical lens
K1 Paradox
K1 Corporate Sustainability
DO 10.1007/s10551-017-3583-6