Mechanisms for Sustainability Change in Organisations: Leadership, Governance, and Assessment and Reporting

Three mechanisms are instrumental for Organisational change management for sustainability (OCMS): Leadership, Governance, and Assessment and reporting. Leadership plays a key role in organisational changes towards sustainability. Even though leaders are sine qua non in change efforts, they need to be aided by an individual or group, i.e. a champion or champions. Governance, also called institutional framework, has been recognised as instrumental implement sustainability in organisations. Governance refers to the setting and accountability of an organisation’s purpose operated through a governing body. It includes the strategies, governance policies, decision-making structures, and accountabilities through which an organisation’s governance functions. Sustainability Assessment and Reporting (SAR) provides a starting point on sustainability for OCMS. SAR is a voluntary activity, which must include an assessment of the economic, environmental, and social dimensions, as well as the inter-linking issues and dimensions Research has shown the relationship between SAR and OCMS in corporations, Higher Education Institutions, and Public Sector Organisations, where it has been shown that SAR and OCMS are interconnected, where SAR provides a starting point for OCMS, but the changes taken must be reassessed to provide a new starting point for new changes.