Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/288036 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Citation: 
[Journal:] Business Strategy and the Environment [ISSN:] 1099-0836 [Volume:] 32 [Issue:] 4 [Publisher:] Wiley [Place:] Hoboken, NJ [Year:] 2022 [Pages:] 1650-1669
Publisher: 
Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Abstract: 
To advance holistic corporate sustainability in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) requires employees to fully engage in sustainability efforts, which, in return, means to develop employees' action competence for sustainability. Little empirical evidence, however, exists on how to do this considering well‐known constraints SMEs face (time, expertise, resources). We present a transdisciplinary project that developed, delivered, and evaluated a sustainability training for the workforce of the Bohlsener Mühle, an SME that has pioneered corporate sustainability in Germany. The training was piloted for the business' apprentices and combined different learning modes to build participants' sustainable action competence. The pre‐post evaluation, supported by observations and qualitative interviews, revealed that employees' action competence for sustainability can be fostered through such trainings and is most effective if organizational factors that enable a corporate culture of sustainability are aligned. We conclude that a human‐centered and action‐oriented approach to training is needed to unleash the full potential of the workforce to advance corporate sustainability.
Subjects: 
employee engagement
sustainability‐oriented workforce
sustainable human resource management
sustainable workforce education
transdisciplinary case study
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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