As the urgency to act towards sustainability increases, the role of employees as sustainability change agents has gained attention but remains conceptually fragmented across disciplines. This licentiate thesis explores how employees contribute to sustainability transformations within corporate settings, aiming to clarify terminology, understand enabling and hindering conditions, and evaluate capacity-building mechanisms for sustainability agency via corporate training.

A pragmatic action research approach was taken for this research, with the first study being a systematic literature review to situate the research within the contemporary academic discourse, followed by two empirical studies. Predominantly qualitative methods were chosen to capture the complexity of the phenomenon under study, including interviews, focus groups, surveys and observations.

The first study identified a wide range of terms—such as change agent, champion, activist, and intrapreneur—used to describe employees who act in support of sustainability. We observed a lack of consistency in these labels, particularly regarding whether the employees in question actually self-identify as change agents or if it was just the authors who labelled them so. Also, no consistency in terminology use and employee seniority or formalised roles was found. All this highlighted the need for clearer conceptual frameworks that can bridge across disciplines and allow for more nuanced supports for employees in their given circumstances. To address this, a typology of individual employees who deliberately contribute to improved corporate sustainability performance was proposed to support both academic research and practical application. The typology differentiates between change agents according to their seniority and role and defines three main types: embedded, senior, and formal change agents for sustainability, and is intended to promote an improved collective understanding of the various types, including similarities and differences, how they operate, and what support they need.

The second study, a case study within a family-owned holding company system, revealed that while top management support and owner commitment to sustainability exist, significant barriers persist to employee action towards sustainability. These include the complexity of transforming organisations within value chains, limited sustainability and complexity literacy, and challenges in navigating trade-offs and unforeseen outcomes. Corporate culture and softer less tangible organisational elements emerged as key enablers of employee action. Finally, our findings showed that even within a company group who actively seeks to empower its employees to act towards sustainability, there is a lack of knowledge and knowhow on how to lead participatory transformative action. 

The third study, an investigation of the impact of a corporate sustainability leadership training program designed around the concept of action competence, showed that the action competence of managers increased and that an agency culture was fostered. A core mechanism for this seems to have been the focus on empowerment pedagogies, and the underlying action competence approach to education design. Significant elements were the train-the-trainer design, the collaborative organisation wide setting and the frames used as boundary objects to create common language.

Together, these studies underscore the importance of empowering employees as active participants in sustainability transitions. The thesis calls for more consistent terminology, deeper understanding of organisational dynamics, and the integration of agency-based elements in corporate training to support transformative action.