Knowledge management processes and organizational change towards sustainability: A case study

Abstract

The 2019 United Nation's (UN) report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are outlined in the 2030 Agenda, states that progress toward these goals is too slow (UN, 2019), acknowledging the challenge of developing the needed, complex models that address economic, social and environmental aspects simultaneously. This paper explores potential underlying reasons for said slow progress from a change management as well as knowledge management perspective, focusing on Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs), and employing a multiple-case analysis. The objective is to understand how SMEs' approach towards sustainability aligns with existing change management frameworks specific to sustainability (Dunphy, Griffiths, and Benn, 2003; Doppelt, 2003; Lueneburger and Goleman, 2010; Sloan, Klingenberg, Rider, 2013) and if and how sustainability knowledge management practices differ from prevailing KM practices in SMEs. The study is working from the proposition that as firms advance towards sustainability, they also develop processes for its knowledge management, while firms that are behind are in need of such processes. The findings are then mirrored to a proposed three step process for sustainability knowledge management ("Define, Collect, Act", DCA) that attempts to capture its systemic nature (Klingenberg and Rothberg, forthcoming). Furthermore, this research endeavours to bring increased clarity to what is meant by "sustainability knowledge" in a business context. While the results are thus far limited, this research tentatively confirms its proposition. The DCA process appears to be present in a firm that is very advanced towards sustainability, and may therefore be a useful framework for other SMEs that are less advanced in their sustainability knowledge in order to accelerate knowledge acquisition and deployment.