Sustainability initiatives are important considerations for twenty-first century institutions. Employees, customers and other stakeholders expect responsible business practices that focus on people, profit and planet in unison. Sustainability efforts require a strong advocate who can champion relevant business practices and embed new practices within the culture and across the entire organization. The purpose of this paper is to explain the tangible actions described as necessary by change agents in order to move sustainability initiatives forward in their organizations. This research employs the narrative provided by these agents in interviews – to inform the activities outlined in an established model of political skill and reputation building. This analysis enables the model to illustrate the sequential patterns and process of events, i.e. antecedents and consequences that are simply assumed in the existing variance models.,This research is based on in-depth qualitative interviews with the sustainability managers from a variety of organization and industry contexts (e.g. building products, hospitals, banking, energy, environmental and manufacturing).,The exploration of sustainability initiatives reveals the importance of the change agent’s reputation for building trust in their organizations. Reputation is fostered through political skill and persuasion, while leveraging social capital.,The research is rich in the depth of individual-level phenomena, thereby highlighting the skills necessary to enact change within a variety of industries. However, given the limited sample size, macro-level issues cannot be addressed.,Political skill is a teachable skill that is enhanced through mentoring and coaching. Sustainability initiatives and their organizations can benefit from leveraging persons with strong reputations to facilitate change. When lacking, persons with content knowledge can be groomed to grow their reputation, network, persuasion and political skills.,Sustainability is vital to the future of our earth and humanity. Business and society would benefit from the growth of this phenomenon.,The authors aim to help change agents achieve their objectives through consideration of not just the goals, but the process as well.

中文翻译：

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可持续发展推动力：利用政治技巧和声誉

可持续性倡议是二十一世纪机构的重要考虑因素。员工，客户和其他利益相关者期望负责任的业务实践一致关注人，利润和地球。可持续发展需要一位坚决的倡导者，他可以倡导相关的业务实践，并将新的实践嵌入到文化中以及整个组织中。本文的目的是解释变革推动者在必要时采取的切实行动，以推动其组织中的可持续发展举措向前发展。这项研究采用了这些特工在访谈中提供的叙述-来告知已建立的政治技巧和声誉建立模型中概述的活动。该分析使模型能够说明事件的顺序模式和过程，即 现有差异模型中简单假定的先决条件和后果。此研究基于对来自各种组织和行业环境（例如建筑产品，医院，银行，能源，环境和制造业）的可持续发展经理进行的深入定性访谈）。对可持续性计划的探索揭示了变革推动者的声誉对于建立对其组织的信任的重要性。通过运用政治技能和说服力来培养声誉，同时利用社会资本。这项研究丰富了个人层面现象的深度，从而突显了在各种行业中实现变革所必需的技能。但是，由于样本量有限，因此无法解决宏观层面的问题。，政治技能是一种可教导的技能，可通过指导和辅导来增强。可持续发展倡议及其组织可以受益于利用声誉卓著的人来促进变革。缺乏知识的人可以被培养来提高他们的声誉，网络，说服力和政治技巧。可持续性对我们地球和人类的未来至关重要。商业和社会都将从这种现象的发展中受益。作者旨在通过不仅考虑目标，而且考虑过程来帮助变革者实现其目标。网络，说服力和政治技巧。可持续性对我们地球和人类的未来至关重要。商业和社会都将从这种现象的发展中受益。作者旨在通过不仅考虑目标，而且考虑过程来帮助变革者实现其目标。网络，说服力和政治技巧。可持续性对我们地球和人类的未来至关重要。商业和社会都将从这种现象的发展中受益。作者旨在通过不仅考虑目标，而且考虑过程来帮助变革者实现其目标。