Call for Papers

Managing the Twin Transformation:

Driving Sustainability and Digitalisation in Organisations

Special Issue of Employee Relations

Guest Editors: Caroline Ruiner, Marion Büttgen, Ellen Weber, Siegmar Otto, Ronny Ehlen

Organisations are undergoing a transformation driven by two intertwined developments, digitalisation and sustainability, that is known as the twin transformation. The twin transformation is accompanied by the hope to secure economic growth within given natural limits based on the assumption that digital technologies can promote organisations to become more efficient and less harmful to their ecological and social environment. However, how to consider and integrate both digitalisation and sustainability into organisations in a complementary way has gained only little attention so far since pursuing digitalisation cannot be expected to lead to sustainable outcomes per se. As previous studies have shown, digital technologies can improve or deteriorate working conditions as well as lead to ethical dilemmas when used to manipulate, assess, predict, or nudge individuals. Thus, the twin transformation needs to be specifically designed and implemented to avoid undesired consequences.

In this respect, the call for papers welcomes conceptual, review, comparative, and empirical submissions focusing on the questions of how to simultaneously drive sustainability and digitalisation in organisations, how to manage it both in a responsible and economic way, and how this can be conceptualized. Interdisciplinary contributions are encouraged that address the following topics:

• How are digital technologies and sustainability interrelated with or within organisations or
branches?
• What are the main drivers of and barriers to an organisation’s twin transformation?
• How is sustainable behaviour promoted within organisations, especially with regard to the use
of digital technologies?
• What is the impact of consumers or investors to the organisation dealing with the twin
transformation?
• What is the role of employees in an organisation’s twin transformation?
• Which corporate culture and leadership approach are conducive for implementing the twin
transformation?
• What demands arise from driving the twin transformation in organisations and how do
organisations and their internal and external stakeholders cope with them?

We look forward to your submissions from 30th June 2024 to 31th December 2024.

For further information on the call, the topic, and the submission conditions please see the website of Employee Relations

If you have any questions, please feel free to get in contact with us (caroline.ruiner@uni-hohenheim.de).

Yours sincerely,
Caroline Ruiner, Marion Büttgen, Ellen Weber, Siegmar Otto, Ronny Ehlen