Organizational Culture Dimensions as Drivers of Employee Engagement for Business Sustainability: Towards a Conceptual Framework

Abstract

The concept of organizational sustainability is gaining currency over time, as companies across industries strive to survive and counter stiff competition. Organizations today use employee engagement as a tool to gain competitive advantage. There are many determinants of employee engagement, of which organizational culture is considered to be one of the key drivers. The study focuses on those key dimensions of organizational culture that not only act as drivers of employee engagement but also directly or indirectly affects organizational sustainability. The objective is to explore the literature to identify the linkages between the three concepts. A multidisciplinary approach was adopted for identifying relevant literature and multiple databases were used to extract studies. Integrative literature review on employee engagement, organizational culture, and business sustainability dimensions was conducted. Business sustainability has three key dimensions—social, environmental, and economic. Organizational culture dimensions that affect employee engagement are teamwork, leadership behaviour, rewards, support towards employees, and internal communication. These also impact the three dimensions of business sustainability. Employee engagement was also found to impact business sustainability. The available literature indicates that there is a paucity of studies that interlink organizational sustainability, employee engagement, and organizational culture. The study shows linkages between the dimensions of organizational culture, employee engagement, and the three dimensions of organizational sustainability by developing a conceptual model. Researchers, practitioners, and policy makers can take cues from the proposed model for their future action plans.