Sustainability in Dissonance: Investigating ESG Misalignment Within Organizations

The paper at hand deals with the rising worrisome, along with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) transition, concerning possible discrepancies between individuals' cultural understanding and perceptions, and the broader organizational ESG orientation. The aim of the paper is to explore whether and why such discrepancies may emerge. To this aim, the paper draws from Cognitive Dissonance Theory to understand if individual characteristics, such as ESG sensitivity, ESG personal commitment, and perceived organizational support, shape the magnitude of any possible misalignment. Methodologically, the paper relies upon data collected by means of a survey among 122 Italian managers and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings confirm that dissonance between the individual and organizational levels is often detectable and that these circumstances are traceable to both personal attributes and the degree of perceived support from the organization, factors playing a critical role in shaping (or not) individuals' alignment with corporate ESG strategies. On this ground, the paper advances ESG literature by introducing and corroborating an individual-level perspective into a discussion often dominated by organizational or regulatory viewpoints and offers actionable insights for organizations and policymakers.