Brave Actions or Grave Decisions

: The Management of Sustainability in the UK University Sector

Abstract

Over the past four decades, the role of universities with respect to sustainability has evolved significantly. Initially generating scientific insights that alerted the world to global warming, universities have become active change agents for sustainability. The associated field of research capturing this organisational transformation is growing too. However, the absence of robust theoretical frameworks and larger sample sizes has hindered our understanding of how and why universities as organisations are changing. By applying complex systems theory and, for the first time, taking stock of a whole national sector’s progress towards sustainability, this thesis contributes a much-needed theoretical concept, highlighting the relationship between organisational control and change for sustainability in universities.

By studying sustainability frameworks, rationales and approaches of universities in the United Kingdom (UK), I offer an explanation for how strategically these organisations plan change to embed sustainability in their everyday operations. I created a systematic index of the sustainability frameworks developed by 137 UK universities, analysed minutes of strategic meetings held at 56 of these institutions and conducted semi-structured interviews with sustainability managers at 25 of them.

I argue that UK universities’ efforts for sustainability can be described as an inverse relationship between organisational control and sustainability impact. I call this phenomenon a paradox of control. As universities decrease the scope of control over how sustainability is to be embedded into their organisations, they create more favourable conditions to achieve organisational change. The most effective sustainability approaches can be found in universities that direct their resources towards coupling sustainability to their activities of instrumental value. These approaches are effective because they are more attuned to the intrinsic complexity of change for sustainability, and organisational control over the integration of sustainability is only applied to the organisational activities in which universities have expertise and with which they create financial value.

Date of Award	4 Feb 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Leon P Tikly (Supervisor) & Lisa Lucas (Supervisor)