Guest Editors: Stefan Schaltegger, Verena Girschik, Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich, Thibault Daudigeos, Ilka Weissbrod

The editors claim creating a company that operates within planetary boundaries and contributes to meeting the UN SDGs “requires fundamental organizational transformations.” The special issue will focus on how individuals in companies bring about such transformations for their employers. These people are “change agents for sustainability.”

Research on internal champions and middle managers suggests people in such roles have considerable influence on resource allocation and organizational change. But research also suggests employees face constraints on influencing their organizations and can be seen as “zealots” or misfits who are then marginalized or even expelled from the organization.

The call for papers suggests work on many aspects of employee-driven organizational change, such as change agent strategies, change processes and pathways at various positions within organizations, ethical issues, change failures associated with resistance from reactionary colleagues or stakeholders, how business school education can build change agent skills, and scholars might further incorproate feminist or critical perspectives into our understanding of organizational change.