The Purpose-Driven Organisation in Times of Climate Crisis brings together climate science and management research to help leaders embed purpose and accelerate organisational climate action.
A new book by King's Business School experts Professor Katie Bailey and Dr Katie Manning argues that organisations need to shift from short-term profit goals to a duty-based purpose that puts the long-term wellbeing of people and planet first.
Professor Bailey and Dr Manning bring together leading voices in climate science, policy, management, sustainability, communications and human resource management to translate research into the practical steps leaders can take.
The opening chapters set out the evidence for human-driven climate change and its socio-economic impacts in accessible terms. Later chapters focus on organisational purpose, from defining a duty-based purpose and aligning it with mission, strategy and values, to redesigning decision pathways and incentives so purpose guides choices across the organisation. The book also considers how to communicate purpose credibly, avoid purpose-washing and report progress in a shifting policy and standards landscape.
The editors make the case that authentic purpose is more than a statement. It requires redesigning how decisions are made and how success is measured, and it asks leaders to hold the line when short-term pressures arise. They also acknowledge the challenges, including market and investor expectations, the risk of reversion to business-as-usual and the need to develop appropriate metrics to track progress.
Purpose is not a slogan or a side project. Our synthesis shows how to make long-term wellbeing for people and planet the organising principle for strategy, decisions and incentives, and how to maintain momentum when short-term pressures bite.
Professor Katie Bailey, Emerita Professor of Work and Employment at King's Business School
The science is unequivocal. 2024 was the hottest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C of warming. Practitioners need clear evidence and concrete organisational levers. This book brings both together so leaders can act at the speed and scale the moment demands.
Dr Katie Manning, Lecturer in Climate Change, Business and Society at King's Business School
The book draws on a wide range of contexts to illustrate why organisations matter, including wildfire risk in California, the impact of drought on livelihoods in northern Kenya, biodiversity and habitat change in the UK and the adaptation challenges facing Small Island Developing States. It places purpose in relation to climate governance and finance, and references emerging thinking such as the British Standards Institute guidance on purpose-driven organisations. The editors position purpose as an advance on stakeholder capitalism and traditional corporate social responsibility because it centres long-term wellbeing rather than profit maximisation.
The volume is aimed at senior leaders and purpose professionals across private, public and non-profit sectors, as well as SMEs, students and executive learners studying purpose, corporate social responsibility or climate change from an organisational perspective. Policymakers seeking to understand how organisational change can support climate goals will also find it relevant.
