Organizing sustainability and the problem of scale : local, global, or fractal?

Robert Perey

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    21 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Organizing for sustainability seeks systems change at a global level. This objective is captured in the phrase “Think global, act local”; the assumption is that global change will happen through summative local action. This article argues that local action will not necessarily produce systems change and that a new scale-independent categorization for interacting with systems is needed. I introduce the concept of fractal as a useful tool for engaging with problems of scale in organizational settings and argue that change for sustainability needs to be framed as a fractal narrative in order to facilitate implementation success.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)215-222
    Number of pages8
    JournalOrganization and Environment
    Volume27
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Keywords

    • fractals
    • organizational change
    • sustainability

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