Exploring team members’ perceptions of internal sustainability communication in sustainable project management

Abstract

Organisations increasingly seek to implement sustainability in their processes and practices by the means of projects. Even though research shows that internal sustainability-related communication is essential for this transition, its role in sustainable project management remains fairly understudied. This study addresses that research gap by exploring the ways internal sustainability communication is organised and perceived in the context of sustainable project management. The research is based on a case study of a large infrastructure project in Sweden. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and internal project documents. The results reveal that there is no uniform understanding of sustainability among project team members and that the different modes of sustainability communication are applied in a way that does not meet project team members’ needs. The latter specifically concerns the frequency, used channels and targeted audiences of sustainability communication measures.

Keywords

• Internal communication
• Sustainability communication
• Sustainability
• Sustainable project management
• Project team member
• Infrastructure project