Organizational Sustainability: A study of the relationship
between the organization and its level of employee
engagement towards sustainability within the courier industry.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL: ASSESSMENT 2
Introduction
Industry Background
Post Us is a courier company

Problem Statement
Organizational Sustainability is unfortunately not at the forefront of the postal
organization as it was identified that there was an employee turnover rate of XXX and
overall disconnect among workers and goals of the organization.

Significance
The study will highlight the need for organizational sustainability and using employee
engagement to achieve such for implementation within the postal industry.
Research Purpose and Objectives“To find the right question requires that we understand what we are asking about, and know to
keep the question simple enough to be answerable, but challenging enough to be
interesting,” (Howie,1991).

Question 1
 What are the
planned or
implemented
actions
surrounding
sustainability
within the
organization?

Question 2
 What are the
existing employee
engagement
methods towards
organizational
sustainability
within the
organization?

Question 3
 What is the existing
level of employee
engagement from
the employee’s
perspective?

Question 4
 How can
organizational
sustainability be
positively impacted
by employee
engagement?
Organizational Sustainability
Summary of Literature Review
United Nations (UN)
Global Compact
launched a global
initiative, ( UN Global
Compact 2015).
• Smilevsk (2017), looks
upon it as conditions
created by societies
for organizations to
be mindful about a
rational use and
replenishment of
natural resources.
• Høgevold (2015),
business operations
began to focus on
strategic and
sustainable business
operations due to
increased demand
and supply of natural
WIN-WIN
• Triple bottom
approach as
determined by
(Elkington, 1997) a
construct which
always references
the economic,
social, and
environmental lines.
•Freeman’s (1984), redefined
stakeholder’s theory;
stakeholders are any groups
or individuals who affect or
are affected by the
achievement of the
organization’s objectives.
•overall aim of the
stakeholder theory surrounds
the premise that the support
from these groups, will overall
impact the long-term survival
of the organization, with the
support from management
in handling their needs and
expectations, Herold (2018).
Understanding, profitoriented sustainability
management assumes
that once issues
positively affect the
financial performance
of the organization, (for
example, shareholder
value), sustainability will
be undertaken and
addressed,
Schaltegger & Hörisch,
(2017)
Khan (1990, p
694 ),
(Alias et al,2018)
Jobs that are designed to be high in task
identity, significance, feedback and
autonomy may allow employees to be
happier and satisfied with their roles
“as behaviour which is physically,
cognitively and emotionally
experienced by an individual
while doing their job and gives a
positive meaning to work.” Good
Baran & Sypniewska
(2020)
Employees and their level of
engagement within an organization
are conducive to its overall
efficiency and productivity,).
De Simone et al
(2016)
the employees can solve problems,
connect with others, and develop
innovative services within their full individual
capacity.
Harju et al. (2016)
Employee engagement
has to be looked upon
as the key to
organizational success
as it critically impacts
overall service and
productivity.
some to seek challenges at work as
researched by Harju et al. (2016) which
showed a positive correlation to work
engagement.
Azam et al. (2016).
some to seek challenges at work as
researched by Harju et al. (2016) which
showed a positive correlation to work
engagement.
Methodology- Qualitative Approach
 Why QUALITATIVE?-“produces in-depth and illustrative information to
understand various dimensions of the problem under analysis,”
(Almeida, Faria and Queiro, 2017)
 Why QUALITATIVE?- uses inductive reasoning
(discovery) which is useful for understanding
why people engage in behaviors.
 Why QUALITATIVE?- To understand organizational sustainability and the
reasons, motivations and opinions of employees towards it.
Constructivist paradigm where individuals must have background knowledge and
interests in building their knowledge,” (Suhendi & Purwarno, 2017)
Data collection and analysis
 Data collection for this research would be centered around;
 Open-ended question interviews with management
 Surveys (open-ended questions)
 Participation Observation
 Target population will be employees within the postal industry.
(permanent, contract, temporary relief officers and On The Job
Trainees)
 Stratified Random Sampling will be used
 Thematic Analysis – “It is a method for identifying, analyzing,
organizing, describing, and reporting themes found within a data set”
(Braun & Clarke, 2006).
 Use of Nvivo (Ask complex questions of your data to identify
themes and draw clear conclusions)
References:
Braun, V., Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in
Psychology, 3, 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Howie JGR. Refining questions and hypotheses. In: Norton PG, Stewart M, Tudiver F, Bass MJ, Dunn
EV (ed). Primary Care Research: Vol 1. Traditional and Innovative Approaches. Newbury
Park: Sage Publications; 1991:13-25