Sustainable leadership: management control systems and organizational culture in Novo Nordisk A/S

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how top managers seek to provide the necessary leadership inside an organisation when sustainability is a primary strategic objective, and the paper seeks to ask to what extent it is possible to influence sustainability at the operational level by contemporary management control systems as it proposes to integrate the perspective of organizational culture. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on a single case study of Novo Nordisk A/S. Findings - The paper concludes by asking questions to managerial practice as well as to theory, concerning to what extent sustainability practices are measured by concurrent management control systems, and to what extent organizational culture perspective is a necessary prerequisite to manage and control sustainable leadership practice. Research limitations/implications - Future research should engage in exploring informal and organizational cultural aspects of how managers control the integration of sustainability into business practice. Practical implications - The paper is based on a single case study of a company internationally known for its high standards of sustainable leadership practice, and the conclusions therefore provide guidelines for other managers considering ways of integrating sustainability. Originality/value - The paper brings new attention to the appropriateness of existing management control systems when managers attempt to control sustainability practices and it suggests the importance of organizational culture in an original case study of Novo Nordisk A/S.