ANALYSIS OF NARRATIVES AND DISCUSSIONS ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY IN ORGANIZATIONS: A META-SYNTHESIS

Purpose: understand how narratives build the way for organizational sustainability to be accessed. Method/approach: the methodological design was based on the principles of the meta synthesis and eight steps were followed: framing the research question; locating relevant searches; inclusion criteria; data extraction and encoding; study-level analysis; cross-study -level synthesis; refinement of theory from meta-synthesis; discussion. Main findings: after reading and analyzing nine papers, published over the last 10 years (2012-2021), it was possible to highlight three levels of discussions on sustainability in organizations: individual level, internal environment, and external environment. The difference between them reveals that external environment still have access to a discourse about sustainability based on environmental, social, and economic characteristics. Theoretical, practical/social contributions: the narrative used as a method of analysis in the selected articles allowed for in-depth access to other aspects that also constitute discussions on sustainability. The interference of values, culture, tensions, resistances, etc., which allow the topic to be debated from political and ideological lenses, contribute theoretically and socially to the debates on the topic. Originality/relevance: aiming going beyond the objective, prescriptive and, almost institutionalized, perspectives of discussions on the sustainability "tripod", this article proposed, from the union of three major themes - organizations, sustainability, and narratives -, to highlight the political and ideological characteristics present in these debates and highlight the narrative as a way to access them in depth.