Organizational and Political Mindfulness as Approaches to Promote Social Sustainability

Abstract

Our research project 8iNNO intends to analyze unintended effects of permanent reorganiza-tion in respect to firms’ innovativeness and social integration. Moreover, it seeks to explore and develop research-based concepts for organizational change that enable firms to com-bine innovativeness with social integration in permanent change. We argue that firms’ long-term viability can be fostered, if they are capable of developing a dynamic stability with re-gard to their internal and external social-resources base. In this regard, adaptive trust cul-tures are critical to firms’ viability in unpredictable and dynamic environments. Adaptive trust cultures embrace innovativeness and social integration at organizational level. However, it is an open research question how dynamic stability fostered by adaptive trust relations can be attained and sustained. In our view, the concept of organizational mindfulness may provide answers to this research question.