Managing Organizational Change in Times of a Global Climate Crisis: A Qualitative Case Study of how Change Management Change Communication Potentially Encourage Sustainable Behavior among Employees amidst Chr. Hansen's 2030 Climate Program

Abstract

Today, humanity faces its greatest most crucial challenge to date. The extent of global climate change not only threatens our planet, livelihoods, health, and animal species at present, but is anticipated to impact especially generations to come over the next decades. This constitutes the need of the private sector actively addressing and combating climate change. Consequently, this social constructivist and hermeneutic-based master’s thesis examines a case study of how change management and change communication potentially encourage sustainable behavior among employees during Chr. Hansen’s ‘Think Climate. Naturally’ program containing 2030-targets aligned with the UN’s Science Based Targets initiative based on the Paris agreement. Adopting a qualitative approach with completion of six interviews with leaders and an employee questionnaire survey, we find that an organizational change comparable to Chr. Hansen’s is complex. Consequently, leaders operating in this context must perform authoritative change management characterized by being guiding yet inspiring in order to reduce the inherent complexity of an organizational change notably concerning climate change and sustainable impact. Thus, such organizational change diminishes the need for significant employee involvement efforts as today’s normative and cognitive beliefs cause an already existing acceptance of climate action that consequently constructs a certain degree of comprehension among employees. Acknowledging that behavior is difficult to change, today's employees nevertheless aim for taking climate action whereby leaders must ensure an environment in which employees find it convenient to proactively behave in a sustainable manner. We further find that leaders managing an organizational change must practice informative, unambiguous but encouraging change communication that frames the change as a severely burning platform reinforcing employees' acceptance of change in times of a climate crisis hence strengthening their sustainable behavioral intention as well. Above findings serve a point of departure from which future research within change management, change communication, and behavioral intentions can flourish, and from which one can further explore the applicability of the selected theories within the defined context.