Understanding the sustainability concept in organizations

Abstract

Organization faces difficulties in order to associate speech and practices with the complete definition of sustainability. The objective of this study is to identify what is sustainability for the employees of two organizations and to analyze the factors that influence the interpretation. The factors selected to be tested were: education, task in the organization, organizational speech and organizational practices. In total, seventy employees, of two different organizations, were interviewed through a structured questionnaire. The results show that individuals with high education level in organization with social practices understand sustainability in its completeness. There exists a negative effect of economical practices in the individual interpretation. This study concludes that sustainability is a concept widely discussed, however its meaning encompassing the social, economic and environmental dimensions is not clear for most of the people. The misinterpretation about the concept can impede effective changes towards sustainability in practice.