Emotion as an ethical compass in strategic sustainability decisions

Abstract

This chapter investigates how emotions affect strategic sustainability decision-making; a process that has previously been considered mostly as rational. Drawing on interviews with 23 owner-managers of sustainability trailblazing small and medium-sized enterprises, the authors illuminate how emotions complement thinking and rational analysis in sustainability decision-making. This happens through three interrelated elements that link emotion with ethical considerations: sensitizing, sensing and selecting. Sensitizing is associated with an initial awareness of the ethical dilemma; sensing with establishing a global sense of a whole; and selecting with making the ultimate right/good choice. The authors propose a model in which emotion acts as an ethical compass for managers who are subject to multiple forces when making strategic sustainability decisions.