The role of employee engagement in sustainability programmes using project management tools: a mechanism for organisational change? Case studies from Saudi Arabia

AbuShal, Amina Omar (2024) The role of employee engagement in sustainability programmes using project management tools: a mechanism for organisational change? Case studies from Saudi Arabia. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

Organisations play a fundamental role in embracing sustainability – as the concept became a major concern on global and local levels by considering the three ‘bottom line’ dimensions of sustainability: economic, societal and the environmental. Although there has been a wealth of research looking at sustainability within large organisations, very little has focussed on the engagement of employees, and the contribution of systematic employee engagement, within the sustainability programmes of large organisations. This PhD therefore focusses attention on the role of employees within large organisations, specifically the engagement of employees with sustainability programmes in the context of large Saudi-Arabian multi-national corporations. Engaging employees may be considered a key part of the solution when it comes to corporations addressing their sustainability duties and responsibilities. creating a balance between economic success and ecological protection, through employees’ job duties and daily activities at the workplace (Exter 2013). This study further has a very practical orientation. It considers the extent to which project management can be considered as an assisting set of tools and techniques, to enhance the translation of sustainability programmes into actions, in order for employees to understand, apply and act at the workplace towards improved sustainability performance. The phenomenon under study has been looked into through a constructivist-pragmatist philosophical lens. The employee experiences and their interactions with sustainability programmes have been empirically explored via an intensive qualitative mode of enquiry, through two in-depth corporate case-studies employing action research. The research results unearthed the vital components in employee engagement from the practical views of employees, their managers, and the corporations’ senior leadership. The research further investigated how corporations can foster the engagement of employees in sustainability programmes, with a particular focus on the role of systematic project management, contributing to both academic knowledge and applied practice. Initially, a conceptual framework was derived from the literature. This was iterated and developed into a conceptual model, by combining insights from the literature with the empirical findings from the Saudi corporate case studies, depicting the factors and conditions for successful employee engagement with sustainability programmes. In addition, on the practitioner level, a primarily decision-based framework has been produced, as a valuable start for practitioners, that can assist in improving the engagement of the employees with sustainability programmes, aided by practical project management tools. Interestingly, when investigating the engagement of employees with sustainability within the Saudi Arabian context (including the Arabian Gulf region), it appeared that the engagement of employees with sustainability has been infused by Islamic faith principles and values, which granted the Islamic faith aspect to become a fundamental focal theme throughout this study.