The clash between Ikea's brand identity, ideologies and employees' values

Sammanfattning: In May 2019, Ikea group in Poland posted an article in the intranet regarding LGBT-movement, encouraging the employees to support the LGBT+ community by participating in the celebration the company was about to host. A religious employee, with the pseudonym Tomasz K., chose to show his disapproval by posting a comment to the article. He cited the bible which stated what destiny awaits homosexual people. Consequently, this made some employees upset and the incident reached Ikea’s HR department which led to a problematic situation for the company in Poland. Tomasz K. got fired since he resisted to delete the comment which soon reached the media and contributed to an immense debate in the society and threatened Ikea’s existence in Poland. The employee felt forced to approve values that were against his beliefs whereas the company considered that Tomasz K. discriminated LGBT-people and acted against the company’s values. This leads us to the question: How should Ikea determine what actions align with its core values and when should it respect the values of the countries it operates in, without harming its brand identity?