Explaining Greenwashing as a result of dysfunctional organizing
Author
Nielsen, Malthe Scheel
Term
4. Term
Education
Publication year
2025
Submitted on
2025-05-28
Pages
39
Abstract
Greenwashing is often seen as a deliberate strategy to protect a company’s legitimacy and public trust while avoiding meaningful sustainability action. This thesis challenges that view through an ethnographic case study of a large construction company in Colombia, where greenwashing emerged not from intent, but from dysfunctional organizational structures. Over nine months, the author gathered data through participant observation, shadowing, interviews, informal conversations, and analysis of internal documents and promotional materials. The study uses a radical humanist paradigm in sociology, applies grounded theory, and draws on the concepts of functional stupidity (when critical questioning and reflection are discouraged to keep everyday work running) and critical sensemaking (how people interpret situations and make decisions in organizations shaped by power relations). It shows how greenwashing can arise when cognitive immobilization becomes institutionalized, for example through a strict hierarchy that makes it hard to challenge symbolic sustainability and turn it into substantive action. The findings suggest that greenwashing is not always driven by deceitful actors but can be a symptom of systemic dysfunction in organizational cultures. The thesis expands theoretical understandings of greenwashing by offering a process-focused, agency-centered account. It adds empirical depth to theories of functional stupidity and critical sensemaking and calls for examining the internal processes that enable symbolic sustainability without substance. This reframing has implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to address sustainability failures in complex institutions.
Mange ser greenwashing som en bevidst strategi, hvor virksomheder beskytter omdømme og tillid uden at handle reelt på bæredygtighed. Dette speciale udfordrer den antagelse gennem et etnografisk casestudie af en stor colombiansk byggevirksomhed, hvor greenwashing ikke opstod af ond vilje, men som en naturlig følge af dysfunktionelle organisatoriske strukturer. Over ni måneder indsamlede forfatteren materiale via deltagerobservation, skygning, interviews, uformelle samtaler samt analyse af interne dokumenter og markedsføringsmateriale. Specialet arbejder inden for et radikalt humanistisk paradigme i sociologi, anvender grounded theory og trækker på begreberne functional stupidity (når kritiske spørgsmål og refleksioner holdes nede for at få hverdagen til at fungere) og critical sensemaking (hvordan mennesker skaber mening og træffer valg i organisationer præget af magtforhold). Undersøgelsen viser, hvordan greenwashing kan vokse frem, når kognitiv immobilisering bliver institutionaliseret, eksempelvis gennem et stramt hierarki, der gør det svært at udfordre symbolsk bæredygtighed og omsætte den til reel handling. Resultatet peger på, at greenwashing ikke altid skyldes bevidst vildledning, men kan være et symptom på systemisk dysfunktion i organisationskulturer. Specialet udvider den teoretiske forståelse af greenwashing ved at give en procesorienteret, handlingscentreret fremstilling. Det tilfører empirisk dybde til teorierne om functional stupidity og critical sensemaking og opfordrer til at undersøge de interne processer, der muliggør symbolsk bæredygtighed uden substans. Denne omramning har betydning for både forskere og praktikere, der vil adressere bæredygtighedssvigt i komplekse institutioner.
[This apstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
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