Companies increasingly face pressures to act sustainably and to tackle tensions when making sustainability decisions. While corporate sustainability literature highlights two main perspectives on tensions, the business case and paradox perspectives, much debate remains regarding which perspective companies should adopt when addressing tensions in sustainability. Further, sustainability scholars call for more empirical work to better understand how companies address tensions when making sustainability decisions. Scholars call for more insights on how managers learn to address tensions in sustainability. To address these shortcomings, we ask, how do future managers learn to address tensions when making sustainability decisions. We examine the reflection journals of 125 students throughout a 14-week Corporate Sustainability course and highlight important practical paradox approaches that combine business case and paradox perspectives. We hope to contribute to corporate sustainability scholars’ understanding of perspectives on tensions. Additionally, we highlight role-play as a valuable teaching tool for developing future managers’ understanding of tensions.
