In a society where the sustainability trend is growing and becoming increasingly important, companies are expected to make clearer commitments to sustainability where consumers are increasingly demanding a change when it comes to among other things, production and social responsibility. In retail, there is a clear wave of sustainability due to increased knowledge and that consumers now do more conscious choices. In turn, this result in an increased pressure on companies as a whole but also on well-functioning leadership and internal communication at store level. At the same time, there is little research on the relationship between leadership and internal communication and the importance of employees during a sustainable organizational change. The overall purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between leadership and internal communication during a sustainable change. Further, the study intends to further answer two research questions:- How do leaders in retail work with internal communication to implement a sustainable organizational change?- How do store managers and employees experience internal communication and leadership during a sustainable organizational change? A delimitation has been made where the authors have chosen the retail company Clas Ohlson where the company’s ambitions for sustainability are in line with the government’s environmental goals until 2045, to be climate neutral. Furthermore, two stores have been selected to conduct the study. The qualitative study is based on an inductive approach with an exploratory approach, this entails a deeper analysis of the case study that is carried out. Nine respondents with three different positions within the company participated in semi-structured interviews and that additional data was collected from public published organizational document. A thematic analysis was conducted to encode the collected data where the authors found three primary factors that affect the relationship between leadership and internal communication during the sustainable organizational change: commitment, overflow of information and lack of time. The study finds that it is the commitment of the leaders through offering employee’s information and knowledge that can lead to a positive impact in the sustainable change. Furthermore, both the store manager and employees experience how communication has a negative effect due to the overflow of information that leads to employees having difficulty searching for information and the lack of time is often mentioned as a contributing factor. This leads us to the general conclusion that shows that it is not the leadership at a store level that affect, rather shortcomings in the communication which in turn, affects the implementation of the sustainable organizational change.

Implementing and conducting sustainability management in businesses today presents an urgent but also complex challenge for large German companies. To react to the fast-changing regulations and demands on the market and to reduce the complexity of sustainability, organizations have introduced sustainability departments as well as sustainability experts and managers. However, the question remains as to what the motives of companies have to conduct sustainability management, and what roles sustainability managers and experts have in the process of sustainable development. The main research question therefore examines how large German companies can achieve sustainable organizational change. In 15 semi-structured interviews with sustainability experts and managers, the motives of companies for conducting sustainability management were analyzed, thereby further exploring the role and influence of sustainability managers and experts in the change process. The results demonstrate that companies pursue a variety of motives which combine economic, legal, ethical, social, environmental, as well as philanthropic and discretionary factors. In addition, the research outlines that sustainability managers and experts embody different roles in order to support the process of integrating sustainability into the organization. Moreover, through their personal involvement and enthusiasm they can partly influence sustainable organizational change. The key results also highlight the complexity of sustainability within large companies. Based on these key results of this study practical implications could be derived in the form of ten correlating factors for achieving sustainable organizational change.

Background: Sustainable organizational change has become one of the greatest challenges facing contemporary businesses. The metal manufacturing industry is important in the transition, due to its impact on global GDP and the climate. SMEs covers a large portion of the metal manufacturing industry, where their transformation is crucial as well. Problem: Despite the importance of sustainable change, there is limited research on how manufacturing SMEs can effectively manage a sustainable transformation. This gap necessitates elucidating the context of SMEs in sustainability, and exploring methods for sustainable change management within these organizations.  Purpose: The aim of this research is to explore sustainability and organizational change in the context of manufacturing SMEs, to provide a deeper understanding on how manufacturing SMEs can sustainably transform their business activities through adequate methods and processes. Method: This research takes on the philosophical position of critical realism and utilizes a qualitative, explorative, and inductive approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten managers from manufacturing SMEs. A thematic analysis was also adopted to extend the previous research.  Conclusion: Manufacturing SMEs adopt various sustainability activities, in line with the triple bottom line. They are also going towards a more formal approach for sustainability. Economic performance and sustainability go together for manufacturing SMEs, whereas more knowledge is connected to higher altruistic motivations and clear sustainability strategies. A combination of continuous incremental and transformational change is evident. This research found a six-step process for SMEs sustainable change management, elucidating their more flexible and adaptive culture alongside specific advantages and challenges. Their capabilities of learning and an informal culture facilitates fast decision-making and the continuous improvement of their practices, facilitating economic performance and sustainable change.