1 - Domenico Ceglia UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO CEARÁ (UFC) - FEAAC
2 - Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO CEARÁ (UFC) - Faculdade de Economia, Administração, Atuárias e Contabilidade
3 - EUGENIO AVILA PEDROZO UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL (UFRGS) - PPGA
4 - Marcia Dutra de Barcellos UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL (UFRGS) - PPGA
Reumo
The tensions between short and long term of sustainability practices have seen significant interest in climate change recognizing the emergence of complexity (Slawinski e Bansal, 2015). A tension emerge when “the head-on collision between two sets of irreconcilable attitude and belief” (Rogers, 1965, p. 7). Among scholars, there is no clear definition for the link between tensions and sustainability, but they argue that the tensions could emerge when businesses adopt sustainability practices or determine objectives for sustainability which could be conflictual.
Literature regarding the sustainability tensions is still vague when defining complexity and uses the concept sparsely (Smith et al., 2017). This paper aims better define and to use complexity to understand sustainability tensions as an alternative to the traditional paradigm discussed above (Richardson, 2008; Smith et al., 2017; Stacey, 1995). Our objective is to review and synthesize the studies of sustainability, showing how sustainability in business is far from order and continuity.
The mainstream literature is still inconsistent about what complexity is, although it is cited in the most papers on sustainability tensions (Byl, Van der e Slawinski, 2015; Hahn et al., 2010, 2015; Whiteman, Walker e Perego, 2013). Several studies on complexity have explored different themes, such as, how managers do their jobs (Richardson, 2008), complexity as a holistic approach to understand the so-called sustainability thinking (Porter e Derry, 2012), complexity as a descriptor for this new vision of organizational phenomena (Porter e Reischer, 2018).
Companies feel more and more pressured by society to produce sustainable clothing. Therefore, major changes are taking place within the linear model of clothing production (Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation, 2017). The Fast Fashion production system is a linear model (Joy et al., 2012). Tensions emerge within a linear model because the consequences of decisions are uncertain and unpredictable (Morin, 1977).
The complexity emerges because sustainability issues are inherently discontinuous and extraordinary. Complexity breaks with a cause and effect linear logic, and it shows how the interconnections between business sustainability phases could give rise to new sustainability demands. Thus, the unpredictability is typical in the complexity, differently from when the win-win and trade-off logic is taken as standard. Porter and Kramer’s work (2006) raised the question of shared value between actors involved.
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