Talking the Talk But Not Walking the Walk: Is the Use of Sustainability Keywords in IS/IT Job Ads “Greenwashing”?
摘要
This paper explores the intersection of corporate sustainability and recruitment perspectives in Swedish companies, examining the use of one hundred and seven sustainability keywords in more than 230,000 IS/IT job ads collected from the Swedish Public Employment Service. The study emphasizes the pressing need for a new breed of computing professionals to address environmental challenges and climate change. Despite the strategic nature of sustainability issues, the analysis reveals a surprising focus on operational occupations in both IS and Engineering job ads. The study suggests that companies are signaling an interest in sustainability, maybe even “greenwashing”, but often seek operational/micro rather than tactical/meso or strategic/macro business level competencies. Future work proposes a deeper content analysis using suitable AI applications and interviews with companies to study the contextual use of sustainability keywords and more nuanced perspectives of recruiters.