Sustainability Management in Practice: Organizational Change for Sustainability in Smaller Large-Sized Companies in Austria

To facilitate organizational change and improve corporate sustainability, this study identifies change agents and factors driving sustainability integration in the core business of companies. The survey on corporate sustainability management in Austria, with focus on smaller large-sized companies (revenue of €50–300 million, at least 250 employees), fills the research gap between studies commonly concentrating on the largest companies and on SMEs. Companies mainly established integrated cross-departmental sustainability management teams, which required change in the routines of employees and change agents to drive the projects. Possible locations of these change agents were identified. We drafted a process model that visualizes how change agents multiply their impact on the organizational level through interaction. The main sustainability implementation drivers are rooted in personal and organizational values, e.g., organizational culture and personal interest; the main inhibiting factors are the lack of resources or locked-up resources, originating from organizational inertness and other barriers to change. Companies can reduce the barriers by, e.g., providing extra resources in role and routine adaption phases and creating incentives to use sustainability-related skills. Austrian companies focus on established environmental and energy management topics. To implement themes that do not necessarily bring financial return, adopting paradox perspective on tensions between conflicting objectives might be useful.