Sharing responsibility: "inspiring, engaging & mobilizing": A qualitative study of how an organization communicates change towards sustainability
(2022) SKOK11 20221Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- Climate change poses an immediate challenge to every actor in society. In this rapidly changing context, organizations are faced with a need to make structural changes to their business strategy and operations as current business models are challenged. Communication is a vital aspect and determinant of organizational change. The purpose of this study has been to examine how an organization communicates a change towards sustainability internally and externally, and its possible implications for the organization and the implementation and success of the change process. The paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how an organizational change towards sustainability is created, implemented and understood through strategic communication.... (More)
- Climate change poses an immediate challenge to every actor in society. In this rapidly changing context, organizations are faced with a need to make structural changes to their business strategy and operations as current business models are challenged. Communication is a vital aspect and determinant of organizational change. The purpose of this study has been to examine how an organization communicates a change towards sustainability internally and externally, and its possible implications for the organization and the implementation and success of the change process. The paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how an organizational change towards sustainability is created, implemented and understood through strategic communication. The theoretical framework that outlines this study is organizational change, change communication and corporate branding. In order to examine how an organization communicates a change towards sustainability, a case study of ICA Gruppen’s implementation of a sustainable change has been conducted. To gain insight on this matter, semi-structured interviews with managers that have knowledge concerning ICA’s overall strategic planning have been performed. To further deepen the research, a document analysis of reports has been conducted. The results of this study indicate that external factors such as customers’ expectations of socially responsible behavior trigger change, though change is mainly performed and communicated internally with the exceptions of other members in the industry. Communication then worked as a means to rally stakeholders to participate in the change and to share responsibility and ownership of the change and sustainable goals. Furthermore, the results indicate that the distinction between the organization’s internal and external communication in regards to the change was not fixed. The term change heroes was coined to describe the roles of stakeholders who held an imperative role in carrying out change internally and externally through communication. The results indicate that though customers should share a specific interest in the change towards sustainability, they were considered passive recipients of the change and not engaged in the change communication. This seemed to have implications for the organization’s sustainable brand image. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9082676
- author
- Gogoll, Olivia LU and Törnquist, Hedda LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SKOK11 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- change communication, organizational change, corporate branding, strategic communication, sustainability, corporate social responsibility
- language
- English
- id
- 9082676
- date added to LUP
- 2022-06-03 17:05:36
- date last changed
- 2022-06-03 17:05:36
@misc{9082676,
abstract = {{Climate change poses an immediate challenge to every actor in society. In this rapidly changing context, organizations are faced with a need to make structural changes to their business strategy and operations as current business models are challenged. Communication is a vital aspect and determinant of organizational change. The purpose of this study has been to examine how an organization communicates a change towards sustainability internally and externally, and its possible implications for the organization and the implementation and success of the change process. The paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how an organizational change towards sustainability is created, implemented and understood through strategic communication. The theoretical framework that outlines this study is organizational change, change communication and corporate branding. In order to examine how an organization communicates a change towards sustainability, a case study of ICA Gruppen’s implementation of a sustainable change has been conducted. To gain insight on this matter, semi-structured interviews with managers that have knowledge concerning ICA’s overall strategic planning have been performed. To further deepen the research, a document analysis of reports has been conducted. The results of this study indicate that external factors such as customers’ expectations of socially responsible behavior trigger change, though change is mainly performed and communicated internally with the exceptions of other members in the industry. Communication then worked as a means to rally stakeholders to participate in the change and to share responsibility and ownership of the change and sustainable goals. Furthermore, the results indicate that the distinction between the organization’s internal and external communication in regards to the change was not fixed. The term change heroes was coined to describe the roles of stakeholders who held an imperative role in carrying out change internally and externally through communication. The results indicate that though customers should share a specific interest in the change towards sustainability, they were considered passive recipients of the change and not engaged in the change communication. This seemed to have implications for the organization’s sustainable brand image.}},
author = {{Gogoll, Olivia and Törnquist, Hedda}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Sharing responsibility: "inspiring, engaging & mobilizing": A qualitative study of how an organization communicates change towards sustainability}},
year = {{2022}},
}