What is the Paper About?
This paper explores how sustainability managers in Germany’s financial industry understand corporate sustainable transformation and how they enact it within their organisations. Drawing on a Grounded Delphi study with 28 experienced sustainability managers, it shows that sustainable transformation is understood as more than a collection of individual sustainability initiatives. Instead, it involves a fundamental and strategic realignment of the organisation, including its business model, culture, operations and decision-making. The study also identifies three interconnected dimensions of the sustainability manager’s role: strategic, cultural and operational, encompassing activities such as strategy development, regulatory alignment, internal communication, knowledge transfer, reporting, innovation and acting as an internal change agent.
Why is it Important?
Sustainability managers are increasingly expected to play a central role in corporate sustainable transformation, yet relatively little research has examined how they themselves understand this process or the responsibilities they perform in practice. By focusing on a highly regulated and economically influential sector, the study provides practitioner-based insight into how broad sustainability ambitions are translated into organisational action and highlights the tension between the high strategic expectations placed on sustainability managers and the limited formal authority they may have. It therefore helps bridge the gap between theoretical discussions of sustainable transformation and the realities of implementation, while also offering practical insight into how organisations can better position and support sustainability managers.
Journal Article
Open Access Post Print
Robin Bell 