Incorporation and Institutionalisation of Sustainability Changes in Organisations

There have been many efforts aimed at how organisations have been addressing sustainability; however, there have been few studies on how organisations have incorporated and how they have been institutionalised. Incorporation refers to the initiation of change and may be driven internally. When change is adopted and put into practice for long enough, and increasingly, by different members of the organisation, until widespread implementation and stabilisation is achieved, it is institutionalised. There are two main hierarchy approaches when dealing with sustainability change top-down and bottom-up. Top-down approaches can lead to faster incorporation of sustainability, whilst bottom-up approaches might take longer but would better facilitate its institutionalisation. Without bottom-up support, institutionalization might take longer, or not take place. Bottom-up without the support of the top levels slows down, or even blocks sustainability incorporation. Ultimately, both approaches need to be complementary. Empirical research in the contexts of Higher Education Institutions, football clubs, and the results from a survey are presented in this chapter.