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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1508818
This article is part of the Research Topic Increasing Environmental Sustainability in Organizations with Systems Research View all articles

Organizational Journeys toward Strong Cultures of Sustainability: A Qualitative Inquiry

Provisionally accepted
Manuel Riemer Manuel Riemer 1,2*Joel Marcus Joel Marcus 3Kai Benjamin Reimer-Watts Kai Benjamin Reimer-Watts 2
  • 1 Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
  • 2 Viessmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability, Waterloo, ON, Canada
  • 3 School of Administrative Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: There is widespread belief that organizational culture plays a crucial role in transitioning organizations for sustainability, but we currently lack understanding of how supportive cultures develop. The goal of this study is to empirically investigate how a culture of sustainability (COS) develops within a varied sample of real-world organizations. Methods: A qualitative cross-sectional design was utilized in this study using 14 semi-structured qualitative interviews with leaders of organizations perceived as having a strong COS or being on a good path towards that. The interviews explored how the leaders from various organizations experienced the development process of a COS from the initial emergence to the time of the interview. The qualitative data were analyzed using template analysis combined with applying a team-based approach to open coding. Results: The results indicate that while COS development is not a direct, clear, or linear process, there are several common factors that descriptively capture the process of COS formation. The analysis revealed four general stages of COS development (emergence; visibility and engagement; institutionalization and system alignment; ingrained and habitualized practice) and three key contextual moderators (organizational characteristics; external stakeholders/societal culture; business case). Discussion: This study makes an important contribution to the limited empirical literature on the development of organizational culture over time. Understanding key factors, relationships between factors, and COS stages can help leaders establish realistic expectations and strategies for developing and strengthening COS within their organizations.

    Keywords: culture of sustainability, Organizational Culture, sustainability, qualitative study, Stages of development, organizational leaders, Systems-thinking

    Received: 09 Oct 2024; Accepted: 03 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Riemer, Marcus and Reimer-Watts. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Manuel Riemer, Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.