Facilitating organizational change for embedding sustainability into academia: a case study

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to capture, codify and communicate an implicit changemanagement process to embed corporate responsibility and sustainability at the Cranfield School of Management. Design/methodology/approach - To explain the (on-going) change-management process, the authors retrospectively applied change-management literature to the implicit process in which they have, themselves, been intimately involved. Findings - The implicit change-management process had unconsciously mobilized a variety of tactics identified in the change-management literature; a more explicit articulation of the "as-is" and " desired" states, and a more explicit, systematic and regular communication of the journey and goal, might have enabled faster progress. However, the nature of a highly autonomous and decentralized organization, such as an academic institution, means that sustainable change management may be slower than in commercial institutions. Research limitations/implications - The authors have been closely engaged in the changemanagement process they describe and, inevitably, have unconscious biases and partial perspectives. Nevertheless, as a frank and self-critical account of a five-year-plus process, it can assist other academic institutions. Practical implications - As more business schools seek to embed corporate responsibility and sustainability, the case study identifies a series of potential change-management tactics. Originality/value - The paper applies a change-management model to examine how one school of management is tackling how to embed corporate responsibility and sustainability into its research, teaching, advisory services and its own operations.