Sustainability learning in organizations: integrated model of learning approaches and contextual factors

Abstract

Employee learning plays a vital role in corporate sustainability strategy. Past attempts to map sustainability learning (SL) in organizations have fallen short in explaining the interactions between key learning approaches and the dynamics within the learning environment. This paper is based on a study conducted to explore how employees learned sustainability in organizations and the contextual factors that facilitated their learning process. The study adopted the interpretivist qualitative approach in data collection. Semi-structured interviews were used as the main method, supported by participant observation and document analysis. The findings found evidence suggesting an interplay between several types of learning approaches in SL and highlighted important contextual factors that facilitated the learning environment. Based on the findings, this paper proposes an integrated model for sustainable learning that contributes to refining understanding of the SL process and can be used to assist organizations in enhancing their SL programs. This research addresses the dearth of studies on SL in the organizational setting. It also provides theoretical contribution by providing a clearer overview regarding how SL occurs among employees based on the perspectives of social, experiential, and transformative learning theories.