Responding To Complex Demands of Sustainability A study of two companies in the Building and Construction Industry in Sweden

Abstract

The concept of sustainability in which companies engage in has been researched for years, but it is not until recently it has gained legal status in the society. As a result, limited time has been provided for researchers to address the current situation and the consequences of the legal pressure that some companies are now facing. This paper examines how two companies organize their work to meet the demands they are now facing regarding sustainability reporting. The purpose for the study is to investigate the early adoption of the sustainability reporting law in the building and construction industry in Sweden with the aim to investigate how the new legislation is interpreted and responded to among the selected companies. The study is of qualitative nature and data was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews. Institutional work, institutional complexities and organizational responses, complemented by organizational routines; how they could be used as a response to institutional complexities, were used as a framework when analyzing the relationship between the chosen organizations, including their routines, and their surroundings that represent certain logics. The results indicated that the companies were faced with multiple logics; the sustainability logic, “the greater good,” and the corporate logic, “maximizing profit”. This study thereby promotes that the logics led to complexities that were responded to in various ways depending on position in the industry, internal structure, and current stage of implementing or utilizing sustainability reporting.