UN Global Compact as Means for Sustainable Value Creation
Original version
Keitsch, Martina Maria [Eds.] Proceedings of the 20th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference (ISDRC 2014), Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Product Design, 2014Abstract
Organizational barriers to sustainable value creation are analysed and discussed in this paper. Furthermore, a central objective is to present managerial recommendations on how to increase sustainability performance. The internal implementation process related to strategic objectives within sustainability is chosen as unit of analysis, and thus theoretical concepts within change management are emphasized. A case study conducted in the maritime sector show that organizational resistance is a substantial risk when implementing sustainability initiatives such as UN Global Compact. One explanation could be that relations between strategic objectives such as market growth and profit optimization become unclear. Furthermore, there will most likely be different attitudes and behavioural traits between different employee groups. It seems reasonable that people working with external stakeholders perceive relevance for their own tasks differently than people working closely with production-oriented activities. An efficient way of reducing barriers can be to relate new initiatives to existing policies and routines within Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), quality management, and general work on legal compliance. In addition, managers should involve employees actively and early in the process of developing performance targets and establishing new guidelines in order to establish ownership and local anchoring.