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(Dis)engaging with sustainability: evidence from an Australian business faculty

Maria Cadiz Dyball (Accounting and Corporate Governance, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia)
Andy F. Wang (Faculty of Law and Business, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, Australia)
Sue Wright (Applied Finance and Actuarial Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia)

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

ISSN: 0951-3574

Article publication date: 19 January 2015

1351

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the lack of staff engagement with a university’s strategy on sustainability could be an enabling lever for organisational change. It examines the attitudes and views of employees of a business faculty at an Australian metropolitan university as it attempts to adopt a holistic approach to sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper opted for a case study using data from an on-line survey, semi-directed interviews with key management personnel and archival material. Responses were analysed using Piderit’s (2000) notion of ambivalence.

Findings

The paper provides empirical insights into why staff lacked engagement with the university’s strategy on sustainability. It suggests that staff were ambivalent, displaying dissonance in their personal beliefs on sustainability, the university’s strategy and the extent of their intentions to support the university. Staff were willing to offer ideas on how the university could, in the future, change towards sustainability. These ideas allow the possibility for the university to learn to adjust the scope of the implementation of its sustainability strategy.

Research limitations/implications

The research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to further examine staff attitudes on sustainability in higher education using Piderit’s notion of ambivalence. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions could allow a better understanding of harmony and dissonance in cognition of and intention for university sustainability strategies and initiatives by academic, professional and sessional staff.

Practical implications

The paper includes implications for staff engagement with sustainability in higher education.

Originality/value

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how staff engagement with sustainability in higher education can be enabled for organisational learning.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance at Macquarie University and the constructive comments of attendees at the Sixth Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting (APIRA) Conference and the 2010 Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) Conference.

Citation

Dyball, M.C., Wang, A.F. and Wright, S. (2015), "(Dis)engaging with sustainability: evidence from an Australian business faculty", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 69-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-05-2014-1692

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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