Sustainable leadership: management control systems and organizational culture in Novo Nordisk A/S
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how top managers seek to provide the necessary leadership inside an organisation when sustainability is a primary strategic objective, and the paper seeks to ask to what extent it is possible to influence sustainability at the operational level by contemporary management control systems as it proposes to integrate the perspective of organizational culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a single case study of Novo Nordisk A/S.
Findings
The paper concludes by asking questions to managerial practice as well as to theory, concerning to what extent sustainability practices are measured by concurrent management control systems, and to what extent organizational culture perspective is a necessary prerequisite to manage and control sustainable leadership practice.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should engage in exploring informal and organizational cultural aspects of how managers control the integration of sustainability into business practice.
Practical implications
The paper is based on a single case study of a company internationally known for its high standards of sustainable leadership practice, and the conclusions therefore provide guidelines for other managers considering ways of integrating sustainability.
Originality/value
The paper brings new attention to the appropriateness of existing management control systems when managers attempt to control sustainability practices and it suggests the importance of organizational culture in an original case study of Novo Nordisk A/S.
Keywords
Citation
Morsing, M. and Oswald, D. (2009), "Sustainable leadership: management control systems and organizational culture in Novo Nordisk A/S", Corporate Governance, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 83-99. https://doi.org/10.1108/14720700910936083
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited