دانلود رایگان مقاله بررسی، عمل و یادگیری در مدیریت تغییر برای تحول اکو دیزاین

Abstract

Corporate sustainability, which has become essential to most companies in the last decades, stipulates that environmental requirements should be incorporated into diverse business processes. To effectively integrate environmental aspects into product innovation processes, companies might have to significantly change some of the practices and habits of all the stakeholders involved and of the organisation. To complement the extensive literature on the (technical) “hard side of ecodesign”, this article explores the promising “soft side”, which considers company culture and human factors, by a multiple step literature review associated with a longitudinal action research in a large cosmetics company. Although a consistent prescriptive change model is still lacking in ecodesign literature, a strong convergence and complementarity is observed between the previous conclusions on ecodesign integration models and the emerging Transition Management approach designed for the sustainability issues faced by organisations. As a result, an “ecodesign transition framework” is proposed by combining a three-level systemic approach, considering both top-down planning and bottom-up innovation, with new types of interaction and dynamic cycles of action and learning, with a deep stakeholder management. This new framework was developed and positively applied to the company in a five-year experience to face the complex transition process, thus advancing the knowledge from social science for innovation and sustainability management challenges. Such approach could positively address change management issues and help companies evolve toward a more effective sustainable product innovation process, in the context of evolving business management practices that require progressive change and more human-based strategies.

This study expands the boundaries of research in the ecodesign field by integrating the emerging Transition Management approach designed for sustainability issues. We developed an Ecodesign Transition Framework and explored it through an in-depth action-research. Hence, the main contribution of the research covered in this article, combining multistep reviews, action research and learning, is a novel ecodesign transition approach and framework for managing the soft side of ecodesign integration.

The construction and application of an ETF contributes to the academic research that has started to examine the need for a more structured change management approach applicable to ecodesign, lacking in previous publications. This framework highlights the importance of five key constructs (Planet, Public, Program, Pilot, People) proposed to compose a Transition Pathway in a systemic perspective including the three essential levels (Strategic, Tactical and Operational), synergising bottom-up innovation and top-down planning.

In the new context of businesses facing Sustainability challenges, in which management practices nowadays give more room to individual and team autonomy versus directive processes, the application of such TM principles for ecodesign integration could allow fostering more effectively sustainable changes, considering individuals’ engagement, including behavioural aspects, interaction with project teams and higher level business organisations in a multi-level approach.