Exploring Variety in Factors That Stimulate Project Owners to Address Sustainability

Concerns about sustainability drive organizations to assume responsibility for societal impacts. Reducing negative impacts requires organizational change. Given the ability of information technology/systems to optimize business processes, it is an important contributor to more sustainable business practices. Projects play an instrumental role in the transition of organizations towards sustainability. Within projects, the project owner bears the responsibility of aligning the project with the strategies of the organization. However, in the assignment and governance of projects, project owners need to balance different interests and limitations. The study reported in this article focuses on the factors that stimulate project owners to address sustainability. Deploying Q-methodology, the study found 4 distinct stimulus patterns of project owners. The findings confirm that the behavior of managers is influenced by both rational and emotional factors. With these findings, organizations can fine-tune their organizational change efforts, in order to realize their sustainability strategies.