In the past few decades we have seen the gradual emergence of organization and management research that addresses climate
change and other environmental dangers (see, for example, Foster et al., 1997; Starik & Marcus, 2000; Banerjee, 2003; Bansal
& Gao, 2006; Jermier et al., 2006; Jermier & Forbes, 2011; Böhm et al., 2012; Wright et al., 2012; Howard-Grenville et al.,
2014; Hahn et al., 2017). This area of research has been symbolized and promoted by the creation of groups such as the Organizations
and the Natural Environment Division of the Academy of Management, by the Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural
Environment, and by the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability.
Standing Working Group (SWG) 15 is motivated by our concern that the bulk of organization and management scholarship on environmental
issues is too narrow, limited by its focus on changes in firm-level and individual-level behavior (see similar critiques offered
by Jermier et al., 2006; Banerjee 2011, 2012; Wittneben et al., 2012). Climate change and the other threats to environmental
sustainability that we see today certainly pose challenges for individual organizations, and addressing these threats will
certainly require changes to individual behavior, but these threats cannot plausibly be overcome by the action of individual
organizations and individual actors alone.
These threats require action by governments and supra-national inter-government agencies. Our scholarship on organizations
and the natural environment should address the challenges and opportunities at that system level, too.