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Abstract
Firms are under constant pressure by shareholders to maintain short-term profits. At the same time, firms are faced with pressure from activists, governments and the media to protect the long-term interests of society. Yet, focusing on long-term issues can compromise short-term profits, while decisions made to benefit the firm in the short term may lead to detrimental long-term consequences for society.
Nowhere is this tension more acute than in the pressures imposed by climate change. It is seen as one of the most significant challenges facing industry and our society. The climate change issue has been an important driver for firms to engage in business sustainability, which is the attempt by firms to balance economic and societal demands. To balance these demands, firms must manage the tension between the short-term and the long-term. Therefore, the notion of time is central to understanding business sustainability.
My research explores the concept of organizational time orientation and its relationship with business sustainability, specifically in the context of climate change. Organizational time orientation refers broadly to the way in which organizations conceive of time.
My dissertation therefore seeks to answer two questions. First, which dimensions of organizational time are relevant to understanding organizational responses to societal issues? Second, how do organizations manage the temporal tensions related to societal and economic goals? I focus my enquiry within the context of the tensions imposed by climate change.
In this study, I used a qualitative approach to elaborate on existing theory. Using a multiple case study design, I intensively studied five firms in the oil and gas industry. The oil and gas industry was an ideal setting for my research questions given that it is an industry that is under tremendous pressure to respond to climate change.
There were three main findings from this research. First, two distinct postures to climate change emerged which revealed insights into how business sustainability is manifested in firms. Second, the data revealed four organizational time dimensions that explain firms' postures towards climate change. Finally, I found that long-term oriented firms addressed societal goals more holistically than did short-term oriented firms.
