Cambridge University, United Kingdom

How do executives include social and environmental considerations in business decision-making?

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Abstract

Businesses are under pressure to become more socially and environmentally sustainable, but this creates problems in decision-making as executives strive to reconcile the tensions between different objectives and different stakeholders.  There are six logical approaches to resolving these tensions but some are more effective in achieving social and environmental outcomes.  I set out to find out how these different approaches are used and identify their antecedents. 

I find that decision-makers use a repertoire of different approaches, and that this repertoire is shaped by the interplay between the characteristics of the decision-maker, the decision and the organisational context.  I find that executives in companies that articulate their business case for sustainability are better able to accommodate social and environmental considerations in their decision-making.  This deepens our understanding of organisational paradox by showing how tensions are nested within organisations, and can be addressed both by formal and processual approaches.

Biography 

Catherine Tilley is a researcher at the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge University, under the supervision of Professor Steve Evans.  She has an MA from Cambridge University and an MBA from Manchester Business School,  and is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Stirling.  Before returning to Cambridge University, Catherine had a long career in consulting, including 14 years at McKinsey & Company.

Catherine’s research is focused on decision-making to improve social and environmental sustainability.  Her work on decision-making encompasses not only formal decision-making processes but also the impact these have on individual behaviour. She uses qualitative research methods to understand how organisations influence people to act more sustainably.  To do this she works closely with a group of senior executives, and focuses on complex decisions with high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty.