Crafting Sustainable IT Work in Self-Managing Organizations : An Exploratory Case Study of a Finnish IT Company
Kasari, Sofia (2025)
2025
Master's Programme in Sustainable Societies and Digitalisation
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-05-23
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202505236047
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202505236047
Tiivistelmä
Work life is expected to change drastically in the coming years, with the intensifying pace and technological disruptions affecting tasks, work practices and organizational makeups. While self-managerial approaches like job crafting have been a solution for maintaining organizational adaptability and providing meaning for employees, individuals struggle to navigate the complexities of this new reality.
Simultaneously, sustainability is a growing trend in occupational literature. As both career sustainability and job crafting lie on subjective foundations, a question arises regarding the degree that these phenomena are affected by organizational context. Despite rigorous research regarding the two having been conducted in various worker groups and contexts, our knowledge remains thin on how employees could craft towards sustainable work in self-managing IT organizations, which have their own unique set of challenges.
This thesis aims to contribute to literature by addressing this gap and combining it with a constructivist understanding of sustainability. The purpose of this exploratory case study is to examine the interdependencies between the sustainability perceptions of IT employees, the job crafting behaviors they opt to navigate these challenges as well as the organizational context of SMOs.
Data for the study was collected in thematic interviews in conjunction with the collection of participant feedback on a job crafting workshop that was piloted for the participants of this study. Data regarding the first two parts was analyzed thematically, and a content analysis was performed to identify which crafting styles are most readily employed.
The findings suggest organizational context to affect employees’ perceptions on sustainability by repeating cultural narratives and bringing topical challenges to discussion. Furthermore, employees preferred to rely on peer support as a means of increasing their social resources. Together, these findings indicate both intra-team cohesion and dependency, suggesting that group-based crafting activities could offer a fruitful approach for enhancing career sustainability in small SMOs.
Simultaneously, sustainability is a growing trend in occupational literature. As both career sustainability and job crafting lie on subjective foundations, a question arises regarding the degree that these phenomena are affected by organizational context. Despite rigorous research regarding the two having been conducted in various worker groups and contexts, our knowledge remains thin on how employees could craft towards sustainable work in self-managing IT organizations, which have their own unique set of challenges.
This thesis aims to contribute to literature by addressing this gap and combining it with a constructivist understanding of sustainability. The purpose of this exploratory case study is to examine the interdependencies between the sustainability perceptions of IT employees, the job crafting behaviors they opt to navigate these challenges as well as the organizational context of SMOs.
Data for the study was collected in thematic interviews in conjunction with the collection of participant feedback on a job crafting workshop that was piloted for the participants of this study. Data regarding the first two parts was analyzed thematically, and a content analysis was performed to identify which crafting styles are most readily employed.
The findings suggest organizational context to affect employees’ perceptions on sustainability by repeating cultural narratives and bringing topical challenges to discussion. Furthermore, employees preferred to rely on peer support as a means of increasing their social resources. Together, these findings indicate both intra-team cohesion and dependency, suggesting that group-based crafting activities could offer a fruitful approach for enhancing career sustainability in small SMOs.