Organisational Change Management for Sustainability

Organisational change aims to move from the current state to one that is more desirable. It is complex, continuous, iterative, and uncertain. The rate of change is dependent on the organisation’s context, nature, and external events. Addressing sustainability issues in organisations is a complex process, where creativity is a precondition for organisational change, and innovation is key in inside-out changes. Innovation is linked to creativity through invention, which is the creation of a new idea, an innovation is the process of developing and implementing the new idea. There have been proposals regarding the evolution of sustainability in organisations that range from three to six stages. In organisations, sustainability is generally driven equally by external stimuli and internal factors, followed by mainly by internal factors, but with some external stimuli, mainly by external stimuli, but with some internal factors. Change management for sustainability must encompass all the system elements in a process where the status quo is disrupted and a new, more sustainability-oriented state, is achieved. The process is iterative, multi-levelled, and highly dynamic. Change management is most relevant for organisational sustainability, since it addresses the time dimension by providing a dynamic perspective and goes beyond technocentric and management approaches.