The Loop Effect -A qualitative case-study on how self-reinforcing sensemaking processes can generate different CSR interpretations among employee groups in a born-sustainable organization

Abstract: In light of environmental, social, and economical challenges Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly relevant for businesses. However, CSR is a complex concept, which can make it difficult to implement. Employees play a vital role in this regard since they are the ones that are responsible for enacting CSR. However, employees may struggle to comprehend the meaning of CSR and how it translates into their work-roles. CSR-research focused on employees falls within the field of micro-CSR, and a burgeoning stream of research within this field has adopted a sensemaking perspective to analyze how employees understand CSR as a concept. Although this stream of research is nascent, it has been focused on conventional organizations. This thesis examines how employees of a different type of organization, namely a born-sustainable organization, make sense of CSR. Such organizations have business models that are linked to sustainability and CSR, which could arguably affect how such organizations work with CSR and the subsequent sensemaking processes of its employees. Using sensemaking theory as a theoretical concept, this qualitative single-case study explores how employees of such an organization make sense of CSR. The findings of the study indicate that there are two groups of employees at the case organization that have different interpretations of what is important in terms of CSR in the context of the firm. The study finds that a lack of clarity regarding the CSR-ambitions of the firm and the expectations on employees in this regard elicits sensemaking processes in the employees as they strive to create a meaning of what CSR means for them in their work-roles. Furthermore, the study finds that the members of these groups shared similarities within the groups but also differences between them across the stages of the sensemaking process and that the interlinked and self-reinforcing process of sensemaking has resulted in the creation of these two groups and their interpretations of CSR.