Sustainability-Focused Identity: Identity Work Performed to Manage, Negotiate and Resolve Barriers and Tensions that Arise in the Process of Constructing Organizational Identity in a Sustainability Context

This thesis presents research on organizational identity in a sustainability context and explores sustainability-focused identity as a construct, investigating the types of identity work employed to manage, negotiate and resolve barriers and tensions that arise in the process of constructing a sustainability-focused identity. Theoretically, the research takes a point of departure in theories on organizational identity, sustainability-focused identity and identity work. While organizational identity is a well researched field, sustainability-focused identity is a new construct within organizational identity research; it refers to organizational identity, where sustainability is a key identity referent, and takes a prominent role in an organizations self -understanding. With these research streams as the theoretical foundation, a case study has been carried out in order to address the research topic in question. The case study presented in the thesis is based on qualitative data collected from a multi-national retail organization engaged in the process of constructing a sustainability-focused identity.