Barriers to and enablers of sustainability integration in the performance management systems of an oil and gas company

Abstract The social and environmental impacts of the petroleum industry have serious consequences and call for sustainable solutions and practices. Embedding sustainability into organisations is vital to address these issues, and requires the integration of sustainability into performance management systems. The aim of this paper is to investigate the barriers to, and enablers of, sustainability integration in the performance management systems of an oil and gas company. A qualitative case study has been used to identify the stages and means of integration in the organisation, based on Gond et al.'s (2012) framework depicting the role of control systems in supporting sustainability integration within strategy. The findings revealed that although cognitive, organisational and technical enablers moved integration of sustainability forward in the organisation, certain cognitive barriers considerably affected the attainment of full integration. Institutional pressures provided the impetus for the development of enablers, giving rise to several implications for governments, academics and other parties. The study shows that sustainability integration in performance management systems could lead to better management and control of sustainability performance in organisations. This study provides a more comprehensive approach towards understanding the integration of sustainability in control systems from a socio-technical perspective.

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