Reframing Top‐Down and Bottom‐Up Dynamics in Sustainability Research: A Multilevel Framework for OB / HRM Scholars

Abstract

Sustainability has emerged as an important priority for organizations navigating social, economic, and environmental uncertainty. We define sustainability as the ongoing process through which organizations balance objectives across these three domains while creating long‐term value for current and future stakeholders. Yet much of the existing research continues to focus on macro‐level considerations such as organizational commitments to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives and pays less attention to the experiences of people within organizations. This editorial introduces a thematic collection that advances a multilevel, person‐centred perspective on how macro‐, meso‐, and micro‐level organizational dynamics interact to shape sustainability. Drawing on selected articles published in the Journal of Management Studies between 2010 and 2026, the collection identifies four research clusters that demonstrate how formal sustainability commitments are shaped by social processes and individual experiences across organizational levels. Together, these articles underscore the central role of people management processes in explaining how and why sustainability goals are translated into organizational action. We conclude by outlining directions for future research that examines sustainability as a multilevel process shaped by the interaction between top‐down and bottom‐up dynamics.