Workshop leader Matthew Sorola demonstrates Q-methodology techniques to map different perspectives on sustainability reporting.
Last week, an interactive workshop took place at the KRAFT Center (Center for Sustainable Development in the North), in collaboration with the High North Center for Business and Governance, Nord University Business School.
The workshop brought together academics and practitioners from the public and private sectors to explore how sustainability reporting can be more than a ‘box-ticking’ exercise.
As noted by Evgenii Aleksandrov at the High North Center for Business and Governance:
– Rather than viewing it as a bureaucratic obligation, together we try to explore how sustainability reporting can generate local value—especially here in Bodø, in Northern Norway, and more broadly across the Arctic, where sustainability becomes important as never before.
What happens with sustainability reporting, and why do we need to talk about it here in Northern Norway?
From 2026, some form of sustainability reporting will be a requirement for organizations in Norway.
These requirements are shaped by a set of global standards and European directives known as CRSD.
However, while these frameworks provide important guidelines, they often become just a necessary evil – organizations do sustainability because they have to, not because they want to.
– The challenge is not getting trapped in reporting just for the sake of reporting or so-called ‘box-ticking exercise’ when organizations in Northern Norway follow guidelines developed elsewhere. Effective reporting also requires an awareness of the local realities, values, and challenges that organizations face here. We need the tools that help navigate these global and local perspectives altogether, which is a challenging task, according to Aleksandrov.
Is there a way forward?
The event featured a special guest from Toulouse Business School in France, Matthew Sorola, who led the workshop and brought a new perspective on dealing with sustainability reporting in organizations:
Typically, organizations view the process of report creation as a consensus-building exercise that assumes win-win-win situations are always possible, but are they? People have very different understandings of sustainability, and these differences are often ignored. But what if we engage with, rather than avoid, these hidden conflicts and disagreements? How might that change why and how we report on sustainability?
To do so, the workshop showcased Q-methodology as a way to structure uncomfortable conversations and demonstrate how public and private sector practitioners can apply it to the development of sustainability reporting.
What is Q-methodology, and how is it useful for organizations?
Q-methodology is an interactive tool for mapping how people think – not just what they say. It provides insight into different perspectives, attitudes, and priorities surrounding complex issues.
Sustainability is not about a single truth. People have different views on what matters: climate, economy, social issues, local development, or justice – and these perspectives influence both internal culture and external expectations. Q-methodology can help to explore these views by:
- gaining insight into what employees, customers, or stakeholders actually think about sustainability
- discovering hidden disagreements – and build better dialogue
- making more targeted decisions and create sustainability strategies that reflect reality
How was Q methodology used in the workshop?
During the workshop, participants experienced a hands-on introduction to Q-methodology, which included brief instructions and two interactive sessions.
In the first session, participants worked in pairs to complete what’s known as a Q-sort. Here, they mapped their preferences and ways of thinking about sustainability reporting.
In the second session, participants worked in bigger groups to discuss a set of statements from the Q-sort with the idea of seeing the differences and discussing some possible conflicts/disagreements that are usually difficult to talk about via traditional meetings and feedback forms:
– The magic happens when you put people with different ways of thinking into one group – it can create more complex conversations about the sustainability reporting in your organization, and can change your way of thinking through dialogue with others. This potentially changes how we build internal sustainability competence organizations and helps to see how reporting can create real value – for employees, customers and local communities, according to Matthew Sorola.
Next steps?
– I think this workshop is just the beginning. We aim to further develop the Q-methodology as an interactive tool for fostering better dialogue among people on complex issues. Potentially, we can run such workshops with Q-sessions on any topic – sustainability, organizational strategy, or even broader, like urban planning in the new Bodø area and sustainable development in Northern Norway. So that is what we plan to do, say Evgenii Aleksandrov.
Marianne Bahr Simonsen, who leads KRAFT center, thanked everyone for being open for interesting discussions:
– Sustainability is a complex thing to talk about. Talking together yields better answers, and this workshop is an example of how we can engage in such complex conversations with academia and practitioners together. It is really nice to see that the KRAFT center continues to work in this direction. This is how we learn and get ready for what comes next.
The research team would like to thank all participants, organizers, and the Economic Research funds provided by Nord University.
Building on the success of this workshop, we look forward to developing Q-methodology as a tool that can help engage with complex issues.
