How meta-organisations engage with their members on sustainability : a case study of Finnish multi-layer meta-organisations

Abstract

Meta-organisations (MOs), or organisations whose members are organisations, have the potential to push for change that is otherwise slow or difficult to attain for bigger actors and coalitions (such as nation states or federations) or smaller individual players (e.g. companies, associations or nonprofit organisations). This is prevalent in attaining benefits for their members, but also in trying to make the world a better place – for example by pushing towards a more sustainable future. This paper studies eight Finnish MOs and presents that in these instances, the MOs exist for their members and help them in the challenges they face. Bulk of these challenges are not related to sustainability, but other aspects of the everyday operations of the members: economic, political and legal issues. However, sustainability is a growing and a prevalent topic that shows itself to the members via different avenues: word of mouth (networking), incoming regulation, supply chain requirements (customers or partners of SMEs are often bound by CSR, even though the members themselves might not be), or personal stance on sustainability by the entrepreneur. MOs then assist their members by educating them, making legal help available (customer service), organising events where they can discuss about these things and listen to speakers who talk about sustainability. The most common obstacles against sustainable development for the members of the MOs (which leads to the MOs placing less emphasis on it are lack of resources (no time, energy or funds to channel towards sustainable development) and general lack of awareness of sustainability and how to incorporate sustainable methods in the operations of a company. For further research, this thesis proposes to study the motivations behind SMEs sustainability development, inner division of responsibilities in MOs and in general about networking in MOs, between members and stakeholders alike.