Articlehybrid2021

The Professional Logic of Sustainability Managers: Finding Underlying Dynamics

Tommy Borglund · Magnus Frostenson · Sven Helin · Katarina Arbin

25 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Business Ethics

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Management and Organizational Studies Ethics in Business and Education Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Abstract

Abstract The role of the Sustainability Manager (SM) is expanding. Whether SMs are turning into a new profession is under debate. Pointing to the need for a distinct professional logic to qualify as a profession, we identify what is contained within a professional logic of SMs. Through analyzing ambiguities present in the role of the SMs, we show that there is no specific distinct professional logic of SMs, but rather a meta-construct building on market, bureaucratic, and sustainability logics. In addition, we point to the complex configurations of and relationships between these underlying logics. The complexities also explain why the SMs differ from traditional professions and why it is problematic to talk about a ‘SM profession’. Rather, SMs are ‘organizational professionals’. The article builds on 21 interviews with SMs working for Swedish companies.

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References

1983The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields 2012Seeking Qualitative Rigor in Inductive Research 1984Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top Managers 1988The System of Professions 2007Strategy and society: the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility 1992The new institutionalism in organizational analysis 1991Bringing Society Back In : Symbols, Practices, and Institutional Contradictions 2002Professionalism: The Third Logic

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