Employee roles in sustainability transformation processes: A move away from expertise and towards experience-driven sustainability management

Abstract

Although ordinary employees are typically regarded as an important stakeholder group for enhancing corporate sustainability, they are seldom seriously addressed in business or research practice. To learn from the practical experience of what takes place at workplaces, we analysed four transdisciplinary research projects all aimed at initiating, accompanying and analysing processes of sustainability transformation within companies, but which focused on different sectors and organisational contexts. Based on the assumption that ordinary employees can hold three different roles in processes of sustainability transformations (implementers, ambassadors and recipients of corporate sustainability practices), we compared the findings from practices of employee involvement within the four projects. Based on these findings, we examined the implications for companies and highlighted future research needs.

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210210 RESEARCH
Employee roles in sustainability
transformation processes
A move away from expertise and towards experience-driven
sustainability management
Corporate sustainability management usually relies on innovation experts – that is, it relies on top-down and staff-unit approaches.
Seeking out the involvement of employees from all company departments can substantially contribute to corporate greening.
“Ordinary” employees are not trained as sustainability experts, yet it is precisely their experience within their own field and
within the organisation that can give rise to knowledge that is essential for transforming the economy towards sustainability.
Hence, employees need to be empowered by appropriate structures and organisational culture. Transferring practical experience
to expertise can prove very helpful in assisting and stimulating sustainability transformations in various business fields.
Elisabeth Süßbauer, Rina Marie Maas-Deipenbrock, Silke Friedrich, Michael Kreß-Ludwig, Nina Langen, Viola Muster
Employee roles in sustainability transformation processes.
A move away from expertise and towards experience-driven
sustainability management
GAIA 28/S1(2019): 210– 217
Abstract
Although ordinary employees are typically regarded as an important stake-
holder group for enhancing corporate sustainability, they are seldom seriously
addressed in business or research practice. To learn from the practical experi-
ence of what takes place at workplaces, we analysed four transdisciplinary
research projects all aimed at initiating, accompanying and analysing processes
of sustainability transformation within companies, but which focused on
different sectors and organisational contexts. Based on the assumption that
ordinary employees can hold three different roles in processes of sustainability
transformations (implementers, ambassadors and recipients of corporate
sustainability practices), we compared the findings from practices of employee
involvement within the four projects. Based on these findings, we examined
the implications for companies and highlighted future research needs.
Keywords
corporate sustainability practices, employee roles, obstacles to sustainable
economy, sustainability transformation, worker participation
n organisational studies, there is a broad consensus that com-
prehensive corporate greening requires initiatives and engage-
ment by employees at all levels of a company (Daily et al. 2009,
Lamm et al. 2013, Lülfs and Hahn 2013). Human resource man-
agement is regarded as key for the successful implementation of
corporate sustainability (Lam and Khare 2010, Sarvaiya et al. 2018).
Although most workers are, according to their job descriptions,
not explicitly considered responsible for developing sustainability
innovations or realising sustainability activities (Kesting and Ul-
høy 2010), “ordinary” employees certainly can contribute to cor-
porate sustainability in at least three ways (Muster and Schrader
2014):
1. Through everyday experience with their employer’s technical
operations and products, they gain valuable tacit knowledge,
which can be used to implement changes within the organisa-
tion, such as through detecting sources of toxic emissions in
the fabrication process (Wolf 2013, Becke 1998) or creating new
eco-friendly products and services (Buhl et al. 2016, Ramus
2003).
2. Because employees interact and communicate with external
stakeholder groups, including customers and suppliers, they
can be ambassadors of the company’s products and services
I
Dr.Elisabeth Süßbauer |Technische Universität Berlin |Center for Technology
and Society (ZTG)|Hardenbergstr. 16–18, HBS 1 |10623 Berlin |Germany |
+49 30 31429822 |suessbauer@ztg.tu-berlin.de
Rina Marie Maas-Deipenbrock, MSc |Leuphana University of Lüneburg |
Department of Tourism Management |Lüneburg |Germany |
maas-deipenbrock@posteo.de
Silke Friedrich,BSc |Münster University of Applied Sciences |iSuN – Institute of
Sustainable Nutrition |Münster |Germany |silke.friedrich@fh-muenster.de
Michael Kreß-Ludwig, MA |ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research |
Transdisciplinary Methods and Concepts |Frankfurt am Main |Germany |
kress-ludwig@isoe.de
Prof. Dr. Nina Langen |Technische Universität Berlin |Institute of Vocational
Education and Work Studies |Department Education for Sustainable
Nutrition and Food Science |Berlin |Germany |nina.langen@tu-berlin.de
Dr.Viola Muster |Technische Universität Berlin |Institute of Vocational
Education and Work Studies |Berlin |Germany |viola.muster@tu-berlin.de
©2019 E.Süssbauer et al.; licensee oekom verlag. This Open Access article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CCBY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).
https://doi.org/10.14 512/gaia.28.S1.7. Submitted November 26, 2018; revised version accepted July14, 2019.
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GAIA 28/S1(2019): 210– 217
Elisabeth Süßbauer et al. 211RESEARCH
(Hasu et al. 2015). Through talking with colleagues, friends
and acquaintances, they also influence the perception of the
company within the communities where they live.
3. Employees are at the same time recipients of internal corpo-
rate sustainability measures aimed at achieving good working
conditions (Muster and Schrader 2011) and green workplaces
(Süßbauer and Schäfer 2018, Ruppert-Winkel et al. forthcom-
ing). These measures are important for matching a company’s
official sustainability strategy with appropriate organisation-
al structures and culture (Harris and Crane 2002).
In sum, theoretically, integrating ordinary employees into corpo -
rate sustainability practices is regarded as crucial for sustainabil -
ity transformation of the economy and even as a linking element
between environmental and social aspects of sustainable labour
(Becke and Warsewa 2018, Brandl and Hildebrandt 2002). How-
ever, in business as well as in research practice, ordinary employ -
ees are rarely seriously considered. For example, when it comes to
their innovation activities, most companies still rely on top-down
investments in their research and development departments (Birk -
ingshaw and Duke 2013) and other innovation experts. This is why
ordinary employees, for example, those working in contact with
consumers, do not necessarily recognise the innovative potential
of their practices (Hasu et al. 2015).
We argue that ignoring the potential of ordinary employees can
be an obstacle to a sustainable economy. Thus, we present practi -
cal examples of how to address and involve workers in processes
of sustainability transformations in different industry sectors and
organisational contexts.We discuss the findings from these pro -
cess es for corporate sustainability management and formulate
recommendations for each employee role. Based on these insights,
we point out future research questions as well as needs for future
transdisciplinary projects.
Case studies
The examples presented in this paper stem from four transdisci -
plinary research projects that ran from 2015 to 2018 within the
funding measure Sustainable Economy of the German Ministry
of Research and Education (BMBF) (box 1). All projects involved
practice partners from businesses and, in some cases, public in-
stitutions and business associations but focusing on different sec-
tors (e.g., tourism, food service) and contexts (e.g., rural areas, eco-
pioneers, small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs). Thus, sus-
tainability fields and specific research questions differed among
the projects. However, all projects aimed at initiating, accompa-
nying and analysing processes of sustainability transformation1.
In the four projects, different methods were used to analyse
employees’ knowledge and partially integrate it into the sustain-
ability transformation process: staff surveys, innovation work-
shops, qualitative interviews, real experiments and focus groups
(table 1, p. 212). These methods were either part of the original
research design or were adopted during the transdisciplinary re-
search process.
Furthermore, context-specific instruments were developed by
the project teams to foster sustainability transformations within
each project’s respective business field (table 1). In some cases,
the developed instruments were based on the expertise of ordinary
employees (e. g., innovation toolbox, guideline for rural SMEs),
whereas others were informative tools (e.g., sustainability infor - >
1 With sustainability transformation we refer to “recent political, socio -
economic, and cultural shifts resulting from attempts to address the
social-ecological crisis […] challenging not only existing technologies and
market structures, but also the underlying patterns of production and
consumption” (Brand and Wissen 2017, p.1).
BOX 1: The four transdisciplinary projects and
their research aims
A Model for an Integrated Transformation Process towards Sustain -
able Business Practices in Tourism (Green Travel Transformation)
Green Travel Transformation worked together with small, medium
and large enterprises (travel agencies, tour operators) as well as
travel asso ciations to analyse how to more effectively use the po-
tential of travel agencies as a distribution and communication chan-
nel for sustainable travel options.
Integrating Employees as Consumers in Sustainability Innovation
Processes (IMKoN)
IMKoN involved large enterprises and several smaller eco-pioneers
from diverse business-to-consumer sectors (cosmetics, energy sup-
ply, mail order, cleaning devices, publishing) to develop a method
for integrating consumer-based employee knowledge into genera-
tion of sustainable product and workplace innovations (Muster et
al. 2016).
Developing, Testing and Disseminating Concepts of Sustainable
Produc tion and Consumption in the Field of Out-of-Home Catering
(NAHGAST)
NAHGAST aimed at initiating, supporting and distributing trans-
formation processes within the hospitality and food service sector.
Small, medium and large enterprises and several public institutions
(schools, universities, hospitals, business canteens, event gastron-
omy) participat ed in the proj ect. Different intervention types were
implemented in canteens, including provi sion of information regard -
ing the sustainability per formance of meals (e. g., via a three-level la-
bel), participatory approaches wherein customers developed means
to guide themselves and others towards more sustainable choic es
(e.g., assigning the role of food hero to older pupils who then acted
as models for youngsters) as well as nudges that aimed to uncon-
sciously lead customers towards choosing the most sustainable
meals (e.g., descriptive food names).
Regional Transformation through Corporate Socio-Ecological
Activities (RegioTransKMU)
RegioTransKMU focused on regional transformation through the so-
cial-ecological actions of companies, involving SMEs in rural areas
from diverse sectors (e. g., energy supply, financial services, labora-
tory analysis and consult ing, passenger transport, engineering) as
well as associated universities and vocational schools. The main
question was: how can SMEs in rural regions contribute to the at-
tractiveness of these regions and enterprises as places to work and
live?
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Elisabeth Süßbauer et al.212212 RESEARCH
mation in booking systems, NAHGAST calculator) not based on
employee knowledge, but according to their experience and work
environment.
Considering ordinary employees in sustainability
transformation processes – a synthesis
In the following, we give examples of how ordinary employees
have been addressed within the four research projects present-
ed above. Based on Muster and Schrader (2014), we differentiate
between employees’ roles as implementers, ambassadors or re-
cipients of corporate sustainable practices.
Employees as implementers
The NAHGAST project aimed at transforming practices in the
German hospitality and food service sector. Initially, potential con-
tributions of ordinary employees within this process were not con-
sidered but, rather, came to researchers’ attention during the trans-
disciplinary study itself. For example, for interventions in canteens,
it became clear that harmonised menus across all participating en-
terprises were necessary, to compare the effects of interventions
in different settings. Menus had to be viable for all target groups
of the participating canteens (e.g., school children or hospital pa-
tients) and should fit into the ongoing operations of companies.
Thus, the project team decided to organise a joint workshop with
workers from different areas of the involved companies. The proj-
ect teams’ aim was to, first, agree on a harmonised menu for the
intervention period and, second, harmonise meal-optimisation
means – including reducing portions and meat and relying on or-
ganic/regional ingredients and fairtrade spices – throughout the
menu. In the following step, employees brought in their specific
knowledge: kitchen managers revised recipes to optimise meals
in favour of sustainable supply; the purchasing department or-
dered new products and even looked for new suppliers; the mar-
keting department edited the (digital) menus; and workers at serv-
ing counters revamped communication with consumers. This in-
tensive cooperation among different employee groups was a key
ingredient in successfully improving meals, the effects of which
lasted beyond the project period. This experience illustrated how
heterogeneous knowledge from all areas of the companies was
crucial for developing sustainable services, while also showing
that it is possible to adapt research design towards employee in-
tegration.
Another example from NAHGAST regarding employees as im-
plementers occurred in one participating enterprise from the ca -
tering sector, where cashiers kept tally sheets of sold components
for sustainable meals. Contrary to normal cash-register data, which
is not examined by the cashiers themselves, these tally sheets en-
abled direct feedback about the effects of sustainable-meal chang -
es made in the kitchen on sales and the popularity of particular
meals. This experience reveals that workers value being able to di-
rectly modify workplace structures or working routines. Although
such “small” adaptations on the ground level are limited in terms
of their immediate benefits for a company, they can have a huge
positive effect on employee perceptions of self-efficacy.
The IMKoN project, by contrast, concentrated from the begin -
ning on employees as implementers (figure 1). It aimed at test-
ing a method for developing sustainability innovations for vari-
ous organisational contexts and sectors, based on employees’ con-
sumer knowledge (Muster et al. 2016, Buhl et al. 2019). During the
research process, it turned out, that for most of the companies,
involving employees in developing and implementing corporate
sustainability measures is still far from being a matter of course.
Moreover, various factors are relevant for whether and how em-
ployees can effectively contribute to innovation development. One
important factor is the core business of the company. As the re-
sults suggest, in highly specific and technically sophisticated busi-
TABLE 1: Overview of the four case study projects with regard to involved practice partners, involvement of employees, methods used to analyse and integrate
(knowledge of)employees, and instruments for sustainability transformations. SMEs = small and medium-sized enterprises.
PROJECT
Green Travel
Transformation
IMKoN
NAHGAST
RegioTransKMU
INVOLVED SECTORS AND
TYPES OF ORGANISATIONS
small, medium-sized and
large enterprises and business
associations from tourism
sector
large enterprises and eco-
pioneers from diverse business
to customer sectors
small, medium-sized and
large enterprises and public
institutions from hospitality
and food service sector
SMEs in rural areas from diverse
sectors, associated universities
and vocational schools
METHODS OF INTEGRATING
EMPLOYEES DURING THE
PROJECT
focus groups and qualitative
interviews with travel agents;
stakeholder workshops
focus groups; interviews;
innovation workshops
real field experiments in
transition labs; stakeholder
workshops
online survey among employ-
ees in different rural SMEs
ADDRESSED
EMPLOYEE
ROLE(S)
ambassador
recipient;
implementer
implementer
recipient
DEVELOPED INSTRUMENTS FOR
CONTEXT-SPECIFIC SUSTAINABILITY
TRANSFORMATIONS
on- and off-line training for travel agents,
source: https://green-counter.drv.de
database for sustainability information in book-
ing systems, source: https://greentravelindex.com
familiarisation trips for tour operators
innovation toolbox: Design Thinking for
Sustain ability (DT N),source:
www.nachhaltigkeitsinnovation.de
tool for sustainability assessment of meals:
NAHGAST calculator (Engelmann et al. 2017),
source: www.nahgast.de/rechner
guidelines for rural SMEs on the implementation
of social and ecological activities (Ruppert-Winkel
et al. 2017)
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Elisabeth Süßbauer et al. 213RESEARCH
ness areas, employees can hardly contribute to the development
of the product itself. For example, if the company produces natu -
ral cosmetics, employees can rarely implement changes, because
the product’s composition is highly regulated. In contrast, in com-
panies with less complex products or as well with regard to work-
place conditions and processes, it seemed to be easier for ordinary
employees to contribute their ideas and experiences. These find-
ings seem to reveal that, on the one hand, in their role as imple-
menters ordinary employees are not sufficiently considered and
integrated into business practice. On the other hand, ordinary
employees have innovation potential which is suitable for some,
but not all areas of innovation.
Employees as ambassadors
As experiences in the Green Travel Transformation project indicat-
ed, next to customer requests, budget and availability, personal
convictions about products among employees is a central factor
within travel-agency consultations. Travel agents tend to sell prod-
ucts they know and are convinced of, and focus groups with travel
agency employees showed that they like to recommend products
familiar to them or to their colleagues. Some travel agents were
sceptical about sustainability in general and, thus, would not rec-
ommend corresponding products.
A central concern for travel agents was verification of sustain -
ability standards: for labelling and promoting a product as sustain -
able, travel agents want assurance that standards and quality are
met. Since many travel agents have returning customers who trust
in them, they do not want to risk this relationship.This finding has
been confirmed by a representative survey of customers (Kreil -
kamp et al. 2017): customers trust the expertise of travel agents,
want to assign responsibility to a direct contact person, and even
expect travel agents to be able to consult on sustainable travel, as
they consider this part of the travel agent’s expertise. Therefore,
the project developed extensive on- and offline training for travel
agents regarding sustainable tourism. Additionally, a database was
developed, which through an interface enables sustainability in-
formation regarding products to be fed into informational and
booking tools. As it is considered fruitful to let travel agents expe -
rience sustainable products in order to increase product convic-
tion and, through that, increase recommendation rates for such
products, so-called familiarisation trips (“fam trips”) for tour oper -
ators are very common in the tourism industry. Within the proj-
ect, exemplary concepts for sustainable fam trips were drafted.
In IMKoN, some companies enabled all kinds of employees to
gain experience with the products and services of their own com-
pany, for example via discounts, an employee shop or ubiquitous
opportunities for practical experience of the company’s product
(e.g., annual involvement as harvest workers or obligatory produc -
tion internship during their first week of employment). Such ex-
periences enhanced employee identification with their company
and job satisfaction in general. Thus, employees gaining experi -
ence with products and services may not only be useful for con-
vincing or advising clients about sustainable offers but may also
indirectly positively affect the organisation itself and facilitate dif-
fusion of sustainable consumption patterns among employee mi-
lieus (e.g., family, friends).
Employees as recipients
In the RegioTransKMU project, employees of rural SMEs 2were
addressed via an online survey, which was also given to students
at vocational schools and universities residing in the same region
as the SME. Results of this survey suggest that socio-ecological
measures (as one element of corporate sustainability practices)
are less important to employees compared to other company char-
acteristics, such as salary or job security (Ruppert-Winkel et al. forth-
coming). Moreover, the employees valued social measures (e. g.,
flexible worktime models or measures against discrimination)
much more than ecological measures (e.g., use of renewable en -
ergies or measures to reduce resource use). Perceiving an imme -
diate benefit from measures seemed to be decisive to them – ei- >
2 Those rural SMEs have no focus on sustainability in their core business
and belong to diverse sectors, for example, energy supply, financial services,
laboratory analysis and consulting.
FIGURE 1: Design Thinking for Sustainability (DTN)is a workshop method for
involving employees in sustainability innovations. So-called cultural probes are one
element of this method: observing oneself in everyday life. In the present case, the
participant drew pictures of her electricity meter, her bicycle and her wood stove,
and noted her associations with the theme of energy and sustainability.
©www.nachhaltigkeitsinnovation.de/Beispiele/b1.html
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GAIA 28/S1(2019): 210– 217
Elisabeth Süßbauer et al.214214 RESEARCH
ther directly as employees (e. g., flexible working models) or in
their role as residents of the region or municipality (e.g., financial
support for sports clubs or regional initiatives). Regarding eco-
logical measures, the survey revealed that corporate sustainabili -
ty practices affecting employees personally, such as offering bicy-
cle parking spaces or promoting use of public transport, are more
valued than those that seem more distant or abstract.
Employees’ role as recipients has also been addressed in the
IMKoN project. Company project leaders were allowed to choose
whether they wanted to develop an eco-product innovation or en-
hance workplace conditions, within the scope of the project. For
some companies, innovation workshops on enhancing workplace
conditions were regarded as a chance to raise work quality and use
the creativity of their own employees at the same time. Thus, they
addressed employees in their roles as recipients as well as imple-
menters. For other companies, sustainable workplace structures
and behaviours (e.g., saving paper) were less important, since they
were not part of the core business and its respective tasks. This
implies that integration of employees in their role as recipients
depends on the sustainability culture of the company (Süßbauer
and Schäfer 2019).
Discussion
In the following, we first present the implications of the findings
for corporate sustainability management. Second, we point out the
limitations of our synthesis and formulate future research needs.i
Implications for companies
As illustrated above, ordinary employees can significantly contrib -
ute to sustainability no matter if they were addressed a priori by
the project design or if they only got involved in the course of the
transdisciplinary process. Depending on the focus and context of
the company, employees can disseminate sustainable products and
services in the region, develop sustainable service innovations, cre-
ate green workplaces or communicate sustainable values through
face-to-face contact with customers. In the following, we discuss
the implications of the findings for each employee role: implement -
er, ambassador and recipient of corporate sustainability prac tices.
If companies want to address employees as implementers for
sustainability practices, they should carefully consider which ar-
eas within the company they want to change, for example, inno -
vating their products and services or greening the workplace. Each
modification may impose specific structural and personnel de-
mands as well as entail different employee motivation. Further-
more, the area of change also depends on the practical knowledge
of the employees. As results from NAHGAST and IMKoN projects
suggest, employees can more easily act as implementers if they
feel themselves to be “experts” in what they do (and like to do) in
their daily lives – regardless of whether this knowledge is consid -
ered officially part of their core tasks. For example, they can be ex -
perts on technical issues even when working in a company that
sells naturally produced products. Or, conversely, they can have in-
teresting ideas regarding the reduction of packaging while work-
ing in the IT department. Employees’ innovative potential thus can
be defined by the employees themselves and not by their job de-
scriptions, the management or company-wide sustainability strat -
egies. Companies are therefore well advised to regard their work-
ers as multifaceted personalities with experiences and ideas from
many different areas of life – regardless of their professional po -
si tions. To tap this “hidden” innovative potential of employees,
companies may need to be open to allow for an iterative transfor -
mational process with uncertain outcomes (Süßbauer et al. forth -
coming) and show flexible decision-making structures (Süßbauer
and Schäfer 2019). These prerequisites are more likely to exist in
SMEs with flat hierarchies.
As the synthesis showed, companies that want to address em-
ployees as ambassadors need to create opportunities for employ-
ees to engage with their products, even on the lower levels of the
hierarchy. Possibilities for experimenting privately with sustain-
able consumption practices (e.g., local tourism) should be provid -
ed to employees to influence their daily habits and preferences
(Süßbauer and Schäfer 2018). At the same time, incentive schemes,
such as product-based commissions or sales targets of tourism
operators, should not oppose to sustainable behaviour. Thus, a re-
spective corporate culture and businesses practices can positive ly
influence the identification of workers with company products and,
thereby, indirectly stimulate the other two roles. Besides, the case
studies have shown that informed, empowered and product-con-
vinced employees are essential in the communication and distri-
bution of sustainable services and products. Hence, for ser vice com-
panies, cultivating trust in frontline personnel can be used to over-
come fears of greenwashing among consumers. In the digital age,
it seems that some positive personal contact can enhance trust.m
If companies want to primarily address employees as recipients
of corporate sustainability activities, they should apply sustainabil -
ity principles or targets also to their own organisations and aim at
corporate greening. Corporate greening goes beyond external de-
terminants such as legislation and market structures: corporate
greening also considers company-internal determinants like the
organisation’s culture and structure as well as formal company-
level initiatives such as the implementation of environmental man-
agement systems or the development of human resource pro-
grammes to improve employees’ environmental competencies
(Lülfs and Hahn 2013). Employees might appreciate this attitude
and practices, which could then improve their satisfaction and pro-
ductivity. This, in turn, could stimulate them to act as ambassadors
for the company’s products. Since the role of labour has changed
and people want to find meaning in their work (Becke and Warse-
wa 2018), companies with holistic3sustainability approaches that
also involve employees as recipients might be regarded as more
trustworthy. For SMEs in rural areas with limited financial resourc -
3 A holistic sustainability approach includes social components as well as
working conditions. In addition, a company that claims to offer sustainable
products should also act sustainably in its own business practices and
solutions (keyword “green workplace”).
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Elisabeth Süßbauer et al. 215RESEARCH
Furthermore, regarding organisational culture, the compar-
ison of findings from IMKoN and RegioTransKMU indicate that
eco-pioneers might have a different, more holistic understand-
ing of sustainability than conventional SMEs. While eco-compa -
nies in IMKoN regarded innovation workshops with workers as a
chance for enhancing employee satisfaction and “workplace green-
ing” (Süßbauer and Schäfer 2019), conventional SMEs participat -
ing in RegioTransKMU have not yet identified employees as a tar-
get group for sustainability practices (Ruppert-Winkel et al. 2017).
Thus, future transdisciplinary research could concentrate on trans-
ferring lessons learned from eco-pioneers to conventional SMEs
(located within one single region and/or within one sector).
Another aspect, which could be analysed in more detail, is em-
ployees’ implicit or practical knowledge on sustainable consump -
tion practices. There are many studies investigating formal man-
agement instruments and corporate practices for employee in-
tegration like idea management or trainings (e.g., Ramus 2003).
However, implicit knowledge is often unconscious and requires
specific noncognitive methods like narrative interviews or focus
group discussions that stimulate workers to talk about their every -
day experiences and reveal perceptions of “normal behaviours”.
In this regard, enterprises can learn from transdisciplinarity re-
search – which explicitly aims at integrating different types of
knowledge (Vilsmaier et al. 2015, Bunders et al. 2010, Lang et al.
2012) – how to involve employees better. If applied in the begin-
ning of projects or organisational changes, transdisciplinary meth-
ods can demonstrate employees that their knowledge is valued
and equally important as scientific or, in case of enterprises, ex-
pert knowledge. However, increased involvement of ordinary em-
ployees could lead to overload and resistance (Muster and Schrad-
er 2011). It should be further investigated which forms, and which
intensity of involvement are perceived as appropriate by employ-
ees and employers.
Furthermore, future research could concentrate on the role re -
search ers could play within processes of employee integration. For
example, researchers could act as intermediaries or “process fa-
cilitators” (Pohl et al. 2010) between different groups of employ-
ees or between management and workers. In order to become
such intermediaries and hence to really understand rules, conven -
tions and norms in the organisation and facilitate experience-based
learning, we recommend an initial “praxis phase” where research -
ers gain hands-on experience of the organisation and can better
understand employee interdependencies (Andresen et al. 2000). >
es available for personnel and sustainability issues, the exploita-
tion of this synergy between corporate sustainability practices and
employee recruitment and retention seems particularly recom-
mendable. Respective sustainability measures and engagement
of employees can create synergies in terms of influencing the
region positively as well as attracting more skilled workers. Fur-
thermore, results from RegioTransKMU and IMKoN have shown
that appropriate communication on the part of employers and
opportunities for experimenting with sustainable practices (e.g.,
via trainings, competitions or practice manuals) appear to be
crucial for positive evaluation of sustainability measures.
Limitations and future research needs
Based on the explorative findings from the four projects, we pro-
vided examples for methods and practices of addressing employ -
ees’ roles within sustainability transformation. A limitation of our
synthesis is that we could not zoom into the organisational struc-
tures and cultures of the participating companies and compare
the prerequisites for employee participation and involvement in
detail. However, we can draw some indications.
Findings from NAHGAST and IMKoN indicate that the orga -
nisation and the culture of a company considerably influence the
possibilities of individual employees to foster sustainable actions
within their work and behave according to the normative idea of
sustainable conduct and the company’s sustainability norm. This
room for manoeuvre depends on the unequally distributed respon-
sibilities for certain aspects of sustainable conduct between differ -
ent departments. Flat hierarchies and team-oriented working struc-
tures enable participation in the design of sustainable processes,
products and services. Thus, more research is needed in particu -
lar on the possibilities of larger companies (with more complex
company structures) to empower their employees. Based on oth-
er studies, we suggest that, in these kinds of companies, different
sub-cultures (Linnenluecke and Griffiths 2010) and groups of em-
ployees with different practical knowledge, everyday needs, un -
der standings of the organisation and perceptions of sustainabili-
ty (Hargreaves 2008) co-exist within a single company. Future re-
search could concentrate on existing conflicts between opposing
logics, goals and interests within one company, such as conflicts
between work quality and ecological innovation(Becke forthcom -
ing), between different communities of practice (Hargreaves 2008)
or between socio-ecological transformation and commodification
of work (Barth et al. 2018).
The involvement of ordinary employees in sustainability transfor mation processes
is a chance for companies intending to move from a traditional hierarchical concept
of labour where innovation experts are the main driver to a “subjectivist” one
where work is regarded as meaningful for society, nature and politics –
by both employers and employees.
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GAIA 28/S1(2019): 210– 217
Elisabeth Süßbauer et al.216216 RESEARCH
G wie Genuss
A–Z
Nachhaltigkeit
Die guten Seiten der Zukunft
Immer mehr Menschen essen regelmäßig außer Haus – der Griff zum schnellen
und flexiblen Essen passt zu heutigen Lebensstilen. Bleibt bei diesem Ange-
bot die Nachhaltigkeit auf der Strecke? Oder ist es möglich, diesen Sektor
ökologisch und gesundheitlich hohen Ansprüchen anzupassen? Die Autorin-
nen und Autoren stellen die Herausforderungen und Chancen nachhaltiger
Außer-Haus-Gastronomie vor und erläutern vielversprechende Konzepte.
P. Teitscheid, N. Langen, M. Speck, H. Rohn (Hrsg.)
Nachhaltig außer Haus essen
Von der Idee bis auf den Teller
384 Seiten, broschiert, 29,– Euro, ISBN 978-3-96238-063-2
Erhältlich im Buchhandel oder versandkostenfrei
innerhalb Deutschlands bestellbar unter www.oekom.de
To support such transdisciplinary research on sustainability
transformations of businesses, funding structures and rules
should allow for more iterative research practices. For example,
ad aptation of a project’s research design after an experimental
“praxis phase” could be helpful. According to experiences from
the NAHGAST project, it is possible to adapt methods during the
research process: in the end, the spontaneous adaptation of work-
ing routines by cashiers led to feelings of self-efficacy, which in-
creased their acceptance of the “sustainability calculator” devel-
oped by the researchers. Moreover, establishing research networks
between researchers and businesses and long-term research proj-
ects in this field can help to build trust, which is necessary for act-
ing as intermediaries or mediators.
Conclusions
The involvement of ordinary employees in sustainability transfor -
mation processes is a chance for companies intending to move
from a traditional hierarchical concept of labour where innova-
tion experts are the main driver to a “subjectivist” one (Becke and
Warsewa 2018) where work is regarded as meaningful for society,
nature and politics – by both employers and employees. By provid -
ing convenient tools and empowering employees through suitable
structures, their experience can develop into expertise and thus
enforce sustainability transformations.
However, more research is needed, first, to identify prerequi -
sites for employee involvement regarding different transforma-
tional fields and organisational contexts (e.g., conventional vs. eco-
enterprises, rural vs. urban companies, small vs. big companies)
and, second, to transfer experiences with participative methods
of knowledge integration from transdisciplinary research to cor-
porate practice.
We thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for
the financial support of the projects Green Travel Transformation, IMKoN, NAH-
GAST, and RegioTransKMU within the Social-Ecological Research(SOEF) funding
priority of the BMBF and the SOEF funding measure Sustainable Economy.
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Nina Langen
Born 1979 in Cologne, Germany. Studies in agricultural scienc -
es with a focus on economics and social sciences of agriculture.
2013 PhD. Since 2016 professor for education for sustainable
nutrition and food science at Technische Universität Berlin,
Germany. Research interests: sustainable food consumption
and production, behavioral economics.
Viola Muster
Born 1982 in Leipzig, Germany. Studies in politics, sociology, social psychology
and business administration. 2015 PhD. Re search associate at the Institute of
Vocational Education and Work Studies, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.
Research interests: sustainable consumption, consum er policy, work-life-balance,
removal of boundaries and subjec ti va tion of work, environmentally oriented and
sustainable per sonnel management, home economics.
Silke Friedrich
Born 1963 in Rheine, Germany. Studies in home economics
(BSc). Since 2009 research associate at iSuN – Institute of
Sustainable Nutrition, Münster University of Applied Sciences,
Münster, Germany. Research interests: reduction of food waste
along the value chain as well as sustainable production and
consumption, all with focus on out-of-home dining sector.
Michael Kreß-Ludwig
Born 1981 in Herdecke, Germany. Studies in sociology, psy-
chology and ethnology. Since 2018 research associate in the
research area Transdisciplinary Methods and Concepts at ISOE –
Institute for Social-Ecological Research, Frankfurt, Ger many.
Research interests: transdisciplinarity and knowledge transfer,
participation in sustainability processes, environmen tal aware -
ness and behaviour.
Elisabeth Süßbauer
Born 1981in Cologne, Germany. Studies in sociology, political
science and romance studies at the Universities of Münster,
Germany, and Salamanca, Spain. 2014 PhD in political science
from the University of Kassel, Germany. Since 2015 research
as sociate at the Center for Technology and Society (ZTG)at
Technische Universität Berlin, Germany; since 2019 head of the
junior research group PuR – Precycling as a means of resource efficiency.Systemic
solutions for packag ing prevention. Research interests: sustainable consumption
in everyday life, orga nisational change, sustainability innovation processes.
Rina Marie Maas-Deipenbrock
Born 1987 in Hagen, Germany. Studies in tourism and leisure
management(BA)at IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems,
Austria, and sustainability science (MSc)at Leuphana Univer -
sity of Lüneburg, Germany. Currently PhD student at Leuphana
University of Lüneburg. Research interests: sustainability com-
munication in tourism, travel behaviour, digitalisation and sus-
tainability.
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