The globalized world is acknowledged by increased competition, and since competition today is between supply chains there is an importance of controlling the supply chain. The globalization is one of the reasons for the increasing need for organizational change, and the process of implementing strategic change is affected by skills for effective leadership; conceptual, interpersonal and technical skills. The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the middle manager’s skillset and how it differs through the phases of organizational change in supply chain. By focusing on middle managers, we put emphasis on the individuals involved in putting the plan for organizational change into practice. A model is developed to explain the utilization of skills in the phases of transition. For this study we used a qualitative research method with a single case study design, by interviewing seven middle managers in an international organization. The empirical data were based on semistructured interviews with respondents in middle managerial positions in supply chain. An abductive approach was applied through the process of writing the thesis. Environmental factors as a reason for organizational changes in supply chain were initially described in the theoretical framework. Change and the phases in change processes as well as the middle manager's role in the change process were further explained. Required skills for effective leadership when presenting, implementing and embedding organizational change initiatives were further described. This thesis shows that a middle manager who faces an organizational change in supply chain are required to focus on specific skills at different points of time, when operating in the different phases of transition.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) has increasingly been considered important by both industry and academia, organizations around the world seek to extend or disseminate their sustainable practices to their multi-tier supply chains in order to make the whole chain sustainable. Among the main streams of SSCM research, it is surprising that, with a few exceptions, the leadership role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in their supply chains in an emerging economy has been ignored by researchers. Little is known on how MNCs, assuming leadership in their supply chain, have been able to facilitate their supply chain members to learn sustainability practice in an emerging economy context i.e. the mechanisms. To address this gap in the literature, a multiple-case study is designed. Multi-tier supply chains of three MNCs were selected to investigate their proactive sustainability projects in China. They are: Tetra Pak creating a recycling chain in China; Nestlé modernising China’s dairy industry; and IKEA’s sustainable cotton initiative. By adopting Resource Orchestration Theory (ROT), findings related to supply chain leadership, supply chain learning, multi-tier SSCM are presented. A number of testable propositions are advanced. The main findings of the research are that rather than focusing on the ‘low hanging fruits’ of sustainability, MNCs implement proactive sustainable initiatives requiring a strategic thinking and long term significant investment by engaging their multi-tier suppliers and non-traditional supply chain members. They tend to play a leadership role in the implementation process enabled by transformational and transactional leadership styles. These MNCs applied different leadership styles and governance mechanisms on different tiers of suppliers, which render different supply chain structures in the process of supply chain learning, which includes three stages of set up, operating and sustaining. This research contributes to SSCM research in the following ways: first, it may be the first attempt that investigates multi-tier SSCM through supply chain learning and supply chain leadership angles adopting a ROT perspective. This help to explain how MNCs implement sustainable initiatives in China; second, it contributes to supply chain learning literature by differentiating supply chain learning stages and learning content in terms of focal company knowledge resources and supplier learning complexity to explain the implementation of SSCM initiatives; third, leadership at an individual level is well researched and understood but it is not the case for organisational level leadership. This research enriches our understanding of the role of organisational leadership in MNCs’ SSCM; fourth, the research contributes to multi-tier SSCM with a focus on both supply chain governance mechanisms and supply chain structure; fifth, this research extend ROT from within an organization context to supply chains and include three aspects: breadth (resource orchestration across the scope of the supply chain including both internal and external breadth); depth (resource orchestration across multi-tiers of the supply chain); and project lifecycle (resource orchestration at various stages of supply chain learning stages); finally, a complete theoretical framework is developed to tie together the constructs of supply chain learning, supply chain leadership, multi-tier SSCM with ROT. Practically, a step by step methodology, integrating the key factors affecting the implementation of SSCM initiatives including supply chain learning, supply chain leadership, multi-tier supply chain governance and supply chain structure, is proposed. The ‘best practices’ of the researched MNCs provide a feasible roadmap for these organizations to learn from.

Sustainability and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is increasingly gainingattention from researchers and practitioners, while social sustainability practices researchinitiated by middle management is yet to be explored in both breadth and depth. Middlemanager, as an intermediary between top management and the frontline staff, holds acritical role for social sustainability adoption in the SSCM. Human centric approach is anessential factor that contributes to SSCM in multinational companies (MNCs) andsignificantly affecting stakeholders along the global supply chain. This paper tries to bridge the gap in the existing literature and understand how middlemanagers adopt social sustainability in their supply chain, their motivations withinorganisational culture, and the challenges for social sustainability integration in SSCM.The study stays in the context of Swedish MNCs and follows a qualitative researchapproach by conducting semi-structured interviews across different industries. The dataanalysis contributes empirical knowledge into the role of middle managers for socialsustainability adoption in supply chain, exploring different motivation from organisationalculture and middle managers leadership practices. This research proves that the organisational culture and supply chain leadership are criticalfactors to motivate middle managers to adopt social sustainability activities and leadsuccessful collaborations within the supply chain. Further, middle managers’ practicalchallenges are analysed, and possible improvement suggestions are discussed to enhancethe middle manager’s role in SSCM. These findings contribute to practical implicationsfor academia and businesses alike by providing insights and recommendations fororganisations seeking to enhance their social sustainability pillar.

Motivation: Previous research has shown that the focal firm’s supply chain leadership styles could have an impact on the outcome of green supply chain management. However, previous studies of focal firms, such as multinational corporations, have shown that many govern their supply chains through an indirect approach, which needs further research due to the lack of research in the combination of different supply chain leadership and followership styles. Previous research has also indicated that little research has been done on barriers to green supply chain management from the supplier's perspective, especially concerning the followership style and governance mechanism. The context of the study is in the electric-automotive industry, and more specifically, on an original equipment manufacturer's multi-tier supply chain, where the increased use of printed circuit boards has shown to have a tremendous negative impact on the climate. Purpose: The study set out to investigate how supply chain leaders and followers, together with their respective styles and governance mechanisms, are cascading green sustainability throughout the printed circuit board’s multi-tier supply chain. An additional purpose is to find out the barriers to green supply chains from the suppliers’ perspective. Methodology: The study takes a qualitative approach with a single case study design. Further, the different members in the OEM's multi-tier supply chain were interviewed with a semi-structured interviewing method, and respondents were found by a snowballing technique. Finally, the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then coded and thematized in NVivo. Findings: Interesting findings showed that all supply chain members used an indirect approach as the governance mechanism, which led to the suppliers simultaneously assuming both a leadership role and a followership role. Further, contrasting to previous research was that all the closest tier one suppliers assumed an opposite followership style than the OEM’s leadership style; however, what partly confirms previous research is that the supplier’s leadership style was the same as the OEM. In addition, interesting behavior from the tier two suppliers showed that they assumed a different leadership and followership style than the tier one, which was discussed as a potential reason that the tier one suppliers have lesser influence than the OEMs. Lastly, several barriers to reaching green supply chains were discovered. One of the most problematic was the transparency barrier, which complicated collaboration further down the multi-tier supply chain. Another finding indicated that the use of third-parties could harm the motivation of the followers.