Abstract:
There can be little doubt that sustainability has become one of the most important issues
in business in recent years. In spite of sustainability’s importance, there is agreement amongst
leaders and practitioners that sustainability is not as embedded as desired. This study reports a
framework on inhibitors that limit sustainability embeddedness in organizations. The framework
can assist management to address the non-achievement antecedents of embeddedness specifically
and holistically. This study obtained empirical data from employees on all management levels in a
stock exchange-listed company. Through in-depth analysis in a case organization, valuable insights
about embeddedness were inductively identified, interpreted and presented using descriptive labels,
namely: “Professing What Is Right”; “Green Distraction”; the belief of “Not My Job”; “Firefighter”;
the “Past Performance Anchor”; “Strategy Discourse” and “Harmony”—a mediator to sustainability
embeddedness. All these were also found to be altered by the transformation of culture and the
communication of the strategy message by sustainable leadership—the moderator. The findings were
also corroborated by related and supporting literature as part of our contribution and pursuit for
better understanding of this phenomenon.
