Creating a Culture of Sustainability using Mission Statements of Cooperative Organizations

Abstract

Mission statements are recognized as effective strategic management tools that influence firms' performance. The evolution of a culture of sustainability begins with a mission statement that strikes a balance between financial performance and social commitments. The clear articulation of sustainability as part of the firm's mission, values, goals, and strategy are key factors in fostering sustainability focused culture. This study illustrates the fundamental tenets of the culture of organizational sustainability model proposed by Galpin, Whitttington, and Bell (2015) using selected cooperatives in Malaysia. The contents of the mission statements were then analyze using the nine elements model by Pearce and David (1987) in findings its relations to and the existence of sustainability culture within the cooperatives. Findings from the study confirm building an organizational infrastructure that fosters a culture of sustainability results in positive employee and organizational-level sustainability performance. A reference was made to Bank Rakyat, one of the leading cooperative-based banking in the country for its outstanding performance.

Financial Performance - Organizational Sustainability Relationship. Literature Review

“…-the assessment of sustainability performance is based on sustainability accounting; -analysis of the relationship between business strategies and financial performance; -implementation of a system for evaluating sustainability performance; -analysis of the influence of big data information on sustainable performance; -analysis of the effects of supply chain operations on the environment; -analysis of the influence of eco-innovations on sustainable performance; -analysis of the balance between sustainable operations, efficient management and the financing perspective; -analysis of the relationship between ethical leadership and sustainable performance; 16 (Turan et al, 2008;Gadenne et al, 2012;Turan & Needy, 2013;Abdul Aris et al, 2016;Javed et al, 2016;Suriyankietkaew & Avery, 2016;Büyüközkan & Karabulut, 2018;Eide et al, 2020;Gupta et al, 2020;Yadav et al, 2020;Avery, 2021;Ch'ng et al, 2021;Ramos et al, 2021;Samad et al, 2021;Algarni et al, 2022;Dey et al, 2022) Organizational sustainability -developing the organization's management; -designing tools to stimulate organizational sustainability transactions in business; -analysis of the relationship between organizational sustainability and financial performance; 9 (Todoruț, 2012;Birnik, 2013;Merriman et al, 2016;Pushkar & Dragunova, 2016;Calabrese et al, 2018;Hussain et al, 2018;Tamayo-Torres et al, 2019;Lee & Raschke, 2020;Liedong et al, 2022) Organizational performance -analysis of the relationship between human resources management and organizational performance; -analysis of the relationship between quality management and organizational and financial performance; -development of managerial tools to increase organizational performance.…”

“…• reporting on the results of organizational sustainability (Lueg et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2020); • exploiting the internal resources (entrepreneurial orientation, social importance, business planning tools, motivation and leadership style of organization leaders, ethical leadership, etc.) of the organization (Suriyankietkaew & Avery, 2016;Cheah et al, 2019;Dyck et al, 2019;Phillips et al, 2019;Eide et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2020;Dey et al, 2022); • implementing a culture of sustainability in organizations (Abdul Aris et al, 2016); • implementation of ecological strategies in business (Sharma et al, 2010;Gadenne et al, 2012;Lawler & Worley, 2012;Birnik, 2013;Istrate et al, 2017;Lin et al, 2019;Yusoff et al, 2019;Stahl et al, 2020); • adapting accounting to sustainable development (Lamberton, 2005;Gray, 2010;Contrafatto & Burns, 2013;Pavlopoulos et al, 2017;Büyüközkan & Karabulut, 2018;Traxler et al, 2020;Frost & Rooney, 2021;Beusch et al, 2022); • the use of strategic tools (Sustainability Balanced Scorecard, Triple Bottom Line, Sustainability-Oriented Service Innovation, Sustainable Strategic Management, Data Envelopment Analysis) to support the sustainability strategy of organizations (Turan et al, 2008;Turan & Needy, 2013;Journeault, 2016;Calabrese et al, 2018;Barbosa et al, 2020;Martins Scheffer et al, 2021); • focusing on eco-innovation and green technologies (Gadenne et al, 2012;El-Kassar ...…”