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Public sector organisations, such as local authorities, are increasingly under pressure not only to improve their performance but also to be able to demonstrate such improvement through effective performance measurement. An increasing number are turning to the balanced scorecard as a way of responding to such pressures and challenges. This paper examines the attraction of the scorecard to local authorities and uses the authors’ experiences with a number of authorities and other public sector organisations to examine the challenges and difficulties of adopting a scorecard approach.

The change management literature on strategy implementation identifies different dimensions of resistance to change. The contrary view – that of dimensions of acceptance of change when implementing strategy – has received less attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of environmental sustainability strategies by Nordic insurers, the role of leadership in implementing these changes, and employee acceptance of change.

For achieving this purpose, this paper reports on an explanatory case study of Nordic non-life insurers, where interviews with insurance executives and specialists were the primary source of data.

The authors have developed simple strategy maps, focusing on insurers’ own operations, product offerings, loss prevention and claims settlements, investments and influence on stakeholders, to show how common elements of environmental strategies are implemented within the insurance industry. The importance of leadership in organizational change is evident in the data, as well as in employees’ positive attitudes towards implementation of environmental sustainability strategies.

The scientific contribution of this paper is the empirical mapping of a hitherto unexplored area of the implementation of environmental sustainability strategies within the Nordic insurance industry, highlighting the leadership role in implementing environmental sustainability strategies and the elements shaping employee acceptance of change when implementing environmental sustainability strategies.