This qualitative study of managers in the Mongolian mining industry examines the anteceding motivations and attitudinal consequences of conflicting managerial value orientations in the context of corporate sustainability. Grounding our insights in interviews with 28 mining managers, we find that tensions arise when managers hold apparently conflicting value orientations and act on these in the context of multiple institutional logics. In addition, managers experience a sharp conflict between their personal values and their professional roles as organizational decision-makers. We find that these tensions are not only driven by intrinsic values and instrumental motives for corporate sustainability, but also by the managers’ family upbringing and Mongolian identity. The managerial tensions are consequently manifested in managers’ individual affect and cognition towards corporate sustainability, and that the corporate sustainability actions can serve as a form of (individual-level) catharsis for them. These insights contribute to the paradox view of understanding tensions in corporate sustainability.

Eunice Ng, Judith Walls, Wingard Ganchimeg

9 Jul 2018