Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi

LBSIM Working Paper Series

LBSIM/WP/2020/10

Sustainable Employee

Practices Leading to High

Employee Engagement:

Identifying the priorities

Moni Mishra

August,2020

LBSIM Working Papers indicate research in progress by the author(s) and are brought out to elicit

ideas, comments, insights and to encourage debate. The views expressed in LBSIM Working Papers

are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the LBSIM nor its Board of

Governors.

WP/August2020/10

LBSIM Working Paper

Research Cell

Sustainable Employee Practices Leading to High Employee Engagement: Identifying the

Priorities

Moni Mishra

_____________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

Purpose: With sustainability becoming an area of growing concern for businesses globally,

there is a need for organizations to identify the priorities in terms of sustainability themes which

will act as integrative mechanisms and bind changes in the strategic initiatives of organizations.

As the ability of organizations to respond to changes in the external environment becomes

crucial, they embrace integrative and innovative HRM mechanisms to meet the demands. The

purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss some of these sustainability themes on the basis

of which organizations need to prioritise their sustainability concerns in organizations which

also promote higher levels of employee engagement.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The present investigation is carried out with the aid of a

systematic and extensive review of extant literature on sustainability related concerns indicated

by organizations as they embrace changes in the external business environment.

Findings: By focussing on sustainability as a primary integrative mechanism, organizations are

creating an environment in the workplace where employees exhibit a high level of engagement

with work through the behaviours that organizations need to drive better results.

Originality / Value: The paper identifies and highlights the impact of the sustainability themes

which provide a framework to organizations and aid them in embracing change in the external

business environment.

Research limitations/Implications: This is a research study based on extant literature review,

which could be further enriched by empirically examining sustainability themes taken up by

organizations and their impact on the level of employee engagement.

Practical Implications: It is suggested that organizations should make efforts to build and

promote sustainable employee practices identified and prioritised through this research exercise

so as to enhance greater levels of engagement with work and also address employee well-being,

thus boosting the productivity and business performance.

Key words: Sustainability, Employee Engagement, Integrative mechanism, Innovative HRM

practices, Sustainable employee practices

Paper Type: Conceptual Paper

Sustainable Employee Practices Leading to High Employee Engagement: Identifying the

Priorities

Introduction

It is important to understand the significance of sustainability for organizations today. The

advent of globalization and the diffusion of new and varied technologies have caused a series of

complex social, economic and political changes. These changes have had a deep impact on work

and organizations. It has been seen that in recent years, organizations have begun to redefine

their strategic initiatives and weave them into integrative mechanisms, such as sustainability

(Mishra, 2014) for superior performance. Organizations face a number of challenges during

shifting of

Associate Professor, Department of Organizational Behaviour &Human Resource Management,

Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi, India.

E-mail: moni@lbsim.ac.in

alignments in the course of changing business environments globally. During these times,

organizations engage with redesigning their internal processes to build sustainable competitive

organizations (Som, 2005). Hence a vital component in thisprocess that helps organizations to

leverage themselves in the current times is a culture of sustainability.

Organizations are seriously considering providing and creating best sustainable practices with

people-oriented goals. Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and employee-level

outcomes such as engagement and employee well-being have been found to be significantly

related (Sivapragasam and Raya, 2017). This becomes relevant in the light of the fact that

though a relationship between financial success and the organizations’ commitment to

management practices supporting people oriented goals has been demonstrated through various

studies (Sivapagasam and Raya, 2017), in reality the focus on people-oriented goals has been

diluted and achieving short term financial performance has taken precedence.

Studies have shown that sustainable HRM, broadly defined as practices designed to make

employees more able and more willing to remain in employment at present and in the future

(Van Vuuren and Van Dam, 2013) is largely driven by the employer (Richards, 2020). It is

indicated that employee centred forms of sustainable HRM need to be promoted as these have

the potential to create micro forms of corporatism, where wider political structures such as trade

unions and self-organized employees are absent.

Concerns around sustainability, which have been woven into the basic fabric of a large number

of diverse organizations in varied contexts, have been the focus of this review. Emerging themes

of sustainability, anchored in organizations and manifested through an array of strategic

initiatives, have been mapped. These initiatives have acted as binding forces or integrative

mechanisms for organizations enabling them to cope with the fast-changing business

environment.

The article aims to first, examine the concept of sustainability implemented in organizations as

an integrative mechanism. Second, it aims to identify and prioritise sustainability themes on the

basis of which organizations need to leverage their sustainability concerns and also promote

high levels of employee engagement through expression of such concerns.

The article is structured as follows. First, the methodology is detailed and discussed. Second, the

extant literature on sustainable employee practices and HRM is discussed. In this discussion

attempts are made to identify key characteristics of sustainable employee practices and HRM.

Key findings are discussed in the final section, indicating a vision for the future, and iterating

that envisioning sustainability as something ‘fundamental’ to organizational existence and

excellence is an imperative in today’s global context.

Methodology

The methodology followed in formulating the paper is broadly based on systematic review. Such

an approach requires an analysis of as many already existing studies as relevant (Thorpe, et al.,

2005). From a research perspective, the fact that the conceptualisation of sustainability identified

in these studies is flexible and often novel in nature, there is a need to consider the relational and

embedded qualities of knowledge by which this concept is framed, qualities that resist

conceptualization as some form of separable material asset. The approach taken is suited to the

aims of this study as it is based on a reliable knowledge base accumulated from a range of

studies (Tranfield et al., 2003). Further the approach adopted also allows for the generation of

new research ideas (Borenstein et al., 2005).

The article was approached in the following way. First a literature search was conducted using

the following databases: Emerald, Sage, and Ebscohost. Next, preliminary searches were

conducted, using key terms such as ‘sustainability’, and were accompanied with further search

terms ‘employee’, ‘HRM’, ‘work’ and so on, followed by more refined and advanced searches.

The following key themes emerged: sustainability through i. corporate social responsibility, ii.

green human resource practices and management, iii. talent management, iv. employee voice

and employee well-being v. organizational commitment and citizenship behaviour vi. leadership

vii. corporate sustainability, and viii. innovative HRM in healthcare and other sectors. 45

research papers (all journal articles) were identified to explore and map the subject for the final

review and analysis. Each of these themes has been found to contribute significantly towards

enhancing employee engagement.

Emerging Sustainability Themes: Representations in Current Literature

As evidenced from literature review, long term sustainability has been acknowledged as one of

the most important drivers of organizational growth and organizations have begun to translate

sustainability into their basic values apart from the vision and mission of the organization

(Mishra, 2014).‘What promotes sustainability?’ is the question which directs the thematic

classification of sustainability as indicated in the review of literature.

i. Sustainability through Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices have been found to impact corporate

performance (Sharma et al., 2019) leading to higher job retention and employee motivation. The

benefits of adopting CSR practices as a long-term policy for the organization have also been

highlighted. This may be directly linked with large companies accepting the importance of

strong, sustainable company policies (Jakobsen, et al., 2017; Schieffer et al., 2014). Chiang

(2010) has suggested that company strategy can be integrated with CSR to improve the

company’s profile, job satisfaction levels of employees and employee engagement – all of which

contribute to sustainable success.

ii. Sustainability through Organizational Commitment and Citizenship Behaviour

Together with CSR, socially responsible HRM (SRHRM) has been an area of research interest

in recent years and is indicative of significant new insights. In the backdrop of the social identity

perspective, perceptions of SRHRM have been examined through research. The results revealed

that among employees in the Indian context employees’ perceptions of SRHRM including legal

compliance HRM, employee oriented HRM, general corporate social responsibility (CSR)

facilitation HRM and general CSR conduct are related to higher engagement in extra role

behaviour (Gahlawat, 2018).

A reasonable number of positive employee work attitudes and behaviours can be attained by

focusing on CSR related HRM practices such as equal opportunities in HRM, adequate training

and development facility, appointment of CSR staff, compliance with all labour laws, rewarding

employees for CSR and so on. Managers working in multinational companies who

simultaneously engage with CSR issues across multiple institutional environments will be

benefited (Surroca et al., 2013). It is a significant study as it provides an overview of socially

responsible practices successful in Indian business environment and also provides a better

understanding of CSR issues that managers of multinational institutions would have to face

while working in India.

Another primary contribution of the study is that it has put the HRM function in limelight by

demonstrating that CSR no more exists only as the sole territory of marketing and public

relations department in organisations but can also be blended into HR policies specifically in

forms of legal compliance HRM, employee oriented HRM, general CSR facilitation HRM and

general CSR conduct. Another important lesson for HR practitioners is that they need to fully

understand how the organisational members interpret and respond to organisational CSR

policies.

As these are the employees’ subjective perceptions of organisational CSR efforts which have

turned out to be vital for positive employee outcomes, it might be significant if managers put

efforts informing organisational members about CSR efforts consistently. Frequent

communication regarding CSR activities needs to occur to reinforce employees’ perceptions

towards their organisation and job. Further, considering multiple paths, it is also suggested that

only providing a CSR focused HR policy or initiative may not prove sufficient in generating

citizenship behaviour from employees. The policies and practices must address the need to

simultaneously enhance work motivation and job satisfaction among employees (Gahlawat et

al., 2018).

iii. Sustainability through Employee Voice and Employee Well Being

Several studies have conceptualized and examined the relationship between employee

engagement and employee commitment with mediating roles of employee voice and employee

well-being. Findings clearly indicate that the research community is in strong agreement about

engaged employees demonstrating certain positive behavioural manifestations, such as co-

operation with authority and colleagues which benefit the employees and the organization,

ultimately leading to demonstration of voice behaviour on the part of the employees (Salanova

et al., 2008). It is also noted that employee commitment behaviour is observed as a result of the

sense of meaning and fulfilment which employees derive from the job by being part of voice

behaviour (Balain et al., 2009).

It is important to understand that there is no single road map which will work as the ‘magic

formula’ for all organizations – every organization starts from a different place and has a unique

journey and destination. However, ‘positive beneficial actions directed at employees by the

organization contribute to the establishment of high-quality exchange relationships…that create

obligations for employees to reciprocate in positive, beneficial ways’ (Setton, Bennet & Liden,

1996). Hence it is imperative that organizations identify factors which are valued by employees

and also recognize that employees are key stakeholders of organizations so as to facilitate

organizations to achieve excellence.

iv. Sustainability through Green HRM

Studies have been taken up to explore green human resource management in India in recent

years (Mishra, 2017). Environmental training, green recruitment, performance appraisal,

employee involvement and compensation are green human resource practices which have been

indicated as desirable for encouraging pro-environmental behaviour in the organizations. Data

analyses also revealed that crucial factors to facilitate green behaviours among employees are

top management support and mutual learning among departments. Hence an interdisciplinary

framework for building holistic sustainable organizations is proposed by integrating learnings

from green human resource management, green supply chain management, competitive

advantage strategy and green corporate social responsibility.

‘Green organizational culture and adoption of green strategy’ were green human resource

management (GHRM) indicators which were identified to be significant in the automotive sector

(Raut et al., 2019). It must be acknowledged that together with benefits accruing to the

environment, GHRM will facilitate organizations in saving valuable resources for the coming

generations. It will also promote cross-cutting through appropriate GHRM strategies to achieve

economic sustainability. In the current times, when industry sectors are often impacting the

environment dimension of sustainability negatively, adopting sustainable practices increasingly

becomes the need of the hour, as also emphasized by NGOs, and government organizations. In

that context, employees play a vital role in green transformation which is the need of the hour.

For HR specialists, this research is significant as it will help them to identify key indicators to be

considered for enhancing the organizations’ environmental performance.

v. Sustainability through Talent Management

Studies in the field of talent management indicate that given the present level of interest in

organizational research related to sustainable work and employment, and in the journey to

achieve organizational and human sustainable outcomes through human resource practices,

laying emphasis on responsible management and ethical aspects in organizational talent

strategies and practices becomes imperative and non-negotiable (Anlesinya et al., 2019). In that

light, talent philosophies, organizational justice theory and stakeholder theory need to be evoked

and closely referred to while making critical choices related to talent acquisition and

management. Contributions of such studies find merit in postulating that responsible talent

management practices promote achievement of multilevel sustainable outcomes such as decent

work, and both employee and organizational well-being.

vi. Sustainability through Leadership

Research has focussed on the development of a model of sustainable leadership which is seen to

be especially relevant during times of economic uncertainty. It is postulated that the uncertain

and changing business environment, leading to increasing incidences of behavioural deviance,

require changes in workplace leadership styles. Leadership styles of MK Gandhi and JRD Tata

have been closely analysed based on spiritual humanistic ideology (integrity, ethics and social

values, Knowles, Towmey and Abdul-Ali, 2009). These leaders have had sustainable influence

in political and business domains for many decades. Hence the study validates the sustainability

of their leadership based on spiritual humanistic ideology and opens possibilities of extending

the model to the current times. It is considered to be relevant during these uncertain times, when

there is a need not only for organisational transformation but also social transformation, and one

of the routes through which this may be brought about is the spiritual humanistic value-based

leadership (Pathak Sharma and Singh 2013). Similar ideas reverberate in another research work,

which examines the role of spiritual family values in shaping Tata as a sustainable business

(Mohapatra et al., 2018). The extant workplace spirituality literature posits that the role of

spiritual and religious values is vital for organisations and individuals to prosper. Using

historical data and biographical method, this research traces the history of Tata and examines the

causal mechanism between spirituality and sustainable business.

vii. Sustainability through Corporate Performance

Research was undertaken to explore the disclosure of corporate sustainability practices and

examine the association between sustainability performance and financial performance in the

Asian context considering firms from India and Japan (Laskar, 2017). It was seen that the

average level of disclosure is higher in case of Japanese firms as compared to Indian firms.

Analysis also revealed that the environmental factor is more dominating in influencing the

financial performance in Japan whereas in India it is the social factor that dominates the

financial performance.

With growing environmental and social concerns worldwide, the present decade has witnessed a

paradigm shift of the business forms from traditional financial expectations to corporate

sustainability (CS). Corporate sustainability is a broad societal guiding model that incorporates

three concepts – economy, society and environment. According to this concept of the triple

bottom line, every organisation must put an effort to give equal importance to society

environment and economy (Elkington, 1994) and such performances must be communicated in

the form of Sustainability Report or Business Responsibility Report. The broad concept of CS

and encompassing short term and long term economic, social and environmental performances

have been indicated to emerge as strategic levers for a firm to maintain healthy relationship with

the stakeholders (Cortez & Cudia, 2011) and eventually to fulfil the broad dimensions of

sustainable development (Gladwin, Kenelly & Krause, 1995).

Recent research has also looked at the current status of corporate sustainability practices in small

and medium enterprises (SMEs). Findings indicate that the SMEs, specifically those in Asian

emerging markets, are lagging behind in terms of CS practices. Although CS is a well-practiced

area in big organisations, social and environmental practices are grossly neglected in SMEs. A

collaborative mode of operation, government policy and facilitation, and supporting organisation

culture can positively influence SME sustainability performance and hence improve their

financial performance (Das et al., 2020). It is important to understand that sustainability needs to

be understood both in terms of sustainability of individual firms as well as in terms of having a

sustainable, resilient SME business population (Gray and Jones 2016).

Measures which can potentially reduce corruption and system of bribery in small medium

enterprise business such as transparent governance, legal and regulatory framework, fiscal

discipline and accountability are extremely important and can enhance the ease of doing

business in developing economies.

viii. Sustainability through Contextual Ambidexterity in Managing Healthcare

Malik and Mitchell (2017) explore the role of HR practices in facilitating contextual

ambidexterity and innovations in healthcare in India. They found evidence of the use of sets of

high involvement HRM practices for exploration of new ideas and efficiency driven HRM

practices for creating contextual ambidexterity in the case organisations. It was also found that

managerial/ leadership style played an important role in building cultures of trust, openness,

risk-taking and employee empowerment, supported by an appropriate mix of intrinsic and

extrinsic rewards.

In light of the emerging economy research context, the study highlights the role of HR related

initiatives beyond formal HR practices in creating contextual ambidexterity. It also reveals the

degree to which contextual idiosyncrasies enhance understanding of the role of HR in

facilitating innovations in emerging economies. Ambidextrous organisations are those that are

successful in “simultaneously exploiting existing competencies and exploring new

opportunities” without affecting their core business (Raisch et al., 2009). There are inherent

tensions in managing such a duality (March, 1991), and research into how firms manage these

tensions is growing (O'reilly and Tushman, 2011) especially regarding organisations that face

resource constraints – both internal and external. Such contexts amplify the need to balance

exploration activities with the incremental exploitation of current activities (Cao, et al., 2009).

Lessons to be learnt for both developed and developing country practitioners from this study

indicate that HR practices can play a central role in innovation despite research constraints. In

the healthcare industry where a productive output is based almost entirely on the knowledge and

performance of its HR, unpackaging the HRM role in facilitating organisational processes that

underlie innovation becomes an important requirement.

Another research titled ‘Challenges in the Sustainability of a Targeted Healthcare Initiative in

India’ (Balooni et al., 2012) raises sustainability issues in a targeted health initiative namely the

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). This unique health insurance initiative targets the

population to address the inquiry in healthcare in the Indian societal context. This initiative has

been analysed because it is a unique case of a public private partnership in the development

sector arena in India being used as an instrument for improving the healthcare system on a large

scale. It has seen initial successes but the sustainability of this initiative is threatened mainly by

the lack of information, heterogeneity in access, institutional shortcomings and long-run

escalation of costs. It is indicated that while the government is employing a public private

partnership to implement this initiative, there is a need to simultaneously use this model to

augment the existing health infrastructure to make this initiative sustainable and effective

(Balooni et al., 2012).

This research points to the fact that the Government of India is quickly expanding the scope of

this initiative with the intention to create a universal healthcare scheme. However, it is suggested

that a matching health infrastructure needs to be created for catering to the growing demand for

health services. It is suggested that rather than relying upon the public private partnership model

to supplement the implementation of the RSBY, the Government could simultaneously

strategize a public private partnership model to expand the current health infrastructure

particularly given the fact that the targeted beneficiaries of this initiative generally inhabit

remote and underdeveloped areas. The effectiveness of this initiative also needs to be evaluated

periodically in order to overcome its troubles during its growth trajectory.

Deciphering New Codes of Sustainability

As I embark upon this research exercise, the coronavirus outbreak has hit the world – first and

foremost a human tragedy affecting hundreds of thousands of people. It is also having a growing

impact on the global economy. Unravelling the path to the next normal becomes an imperative,

as Governments launch unprecedented public-health and economic responses. The arena of

HRM and people practices in organizations will witness a sea-change in the coming times.

Sustainability definitions will also undergo drastic revisions. Leaders of organizations will need

to organize their thinking and processes as they lead through the crisis. A McKinsey brief

(March 30, 2020) highlights certain factors as critical in the current scenario, which must be

attended to urgently to keep organizations moving on the survival path: increasing

communication by organizations, and balancing the needs of business with expectation setting

and morale building, so employees know that their well-being is on top of mind. Organizations

also need to change working norms, making remote work practical and simple, whenever

possible. They must also focus on protecting people’s health, with whatever measures are

appropriate to the workplace: positive hygiene habits, personal protective equipment, amended

sick-leave policies – whatever it takes to ensure health and safety. All these factors will deeply

impact organizational behaviour and people practices in organizations.

In the urgency of the moment, it is difficult to fathom the actions that might be needed in the

coming times. Amid the chaos, what is clear is that leaders need to think about the next horizons

of COVID 19. The article ‘Beyond coronavirus: The path to the next normal’ (McKinsey Brief,

2020) elucidates and explains five possible horizons that executives and leaders may implement

and use to ensure an organization’s rapid response, adaptation to change and re-emergence in a

position of strength. With the ‘five Rs model’, there is an attempt to provide leaders with an

integrated perspective on the unfolding crisis and an insight into the coming weeks and months.

The ‘five Rs model’, which proposes five horizons, across which leaders need to think and act,

is as follows: i. resolve - address the immediate challenges that COVID-19 represents to the

institutions, workforce, customers, technology and business partners, and take basic steps to

protect liquidity; ii. resilience - address near-term cash management challenges, and broader

resiliency issues during virus-related shutdowns and economic knock-on effects; iii. return -

create a detailed plan to return the business back to scale quickly as the virus evolves and knock

on effects become clearer; iv. re-imagination - re imagine the “next normal” - what a

discontinuous shift looks like, and implications for how the situation should re-invent; and v.

reform - be clear about how the regulatory and competitive environment in an industry may

shift.

‘Resolve’ may also be interpreted to mean making hard decisions on immediate challenges on

the part of the organization - resolve employee, customer, supply chain, immediate liquidity, and

technology concerns. Foremost emerging concerns for the organization related to employees

may be the following – are the policies for the employees working, for example, safety,

productivity? How well? How does the organization adapt to new developments, for example

longer closures of business? Examples of some actions to be focused upon may be as follows:

a. continuous evaluation of financial models: stress-testing financial forecasts based on latest

developments (for example longer than two-week closures and adjusting policies

accordingly)

b. monitoring productivity: comprehensive set of KPIs is being tracked via dashboards (e.g.,

focus and productivity versus utilisation)

c. tracking incidence: clear reporting mechanism for suspected / confirmed covid-19 infections

and database that tracks cases;

d. redeploying “idle” talent against areas of the business experiencing demand surges: making

short term adjustments to workforce deployment to maximize productivity and minimise

service disruption

e. partnering with other companies to deploy “idle” talent externally for the good of the

broader community.

It is also proposed to develop a nerve centre to plan for the next phase. Decoding the new

normal and ensuring that the organisation has a strategy to navigate it, is an important part of the

work of a nerve centre approach. Approaches such as using a portfolio of initiatives and

planning for decision making under uncertainty, for instance, can go a long way towards

creating a compass for business leaders to follow.

As regards employees, and their engagement with work, companies also need to invest and

prioritise to protect the safety and moral of employees unable to work from home (WFH).

Research suggests (McKinsey Brief, 2020) non work-from-home employees face a unique set of

concerns -

1. perceived unfairness: having to continue going into work while other employees take home

with their families;

2. safety risk: significant increase in potential exposure to disease, (e.g., commute, customers

and other employees in the workplace)

3. perceived value: employees don't feel as valued by the company and that their safety is not

prioritised

4. fear of illness: in addition to clinical harm (e.g., fever, body aches), they are fearful of being

isolated from their families if ill.

However, it has also been indicated that best-in-class companies are finding new ways to

address employee concerns by protecting them from unnecessary risk. A major US retailer

offers flexible work policies including relaxing absenteeism policy (i.e., allowing worker to stay

home for personal reasons); some food delivery companies are minimising contact between

deliverers and customers (example cashless payment only, leaving bags at door, all employees

provided mask and gloves); leading UK retailer are extending benefits to include backup child

and elderly care (up to 25 days) and mental health benefits (example, teletherapy sessions);

leading Italian banks are limiting operating hours for all branches with access granted only upon

prearranged appointment to minimise contact and increase sanitization time; global coffee shop

retailer is offering 14 days of “catastrophe pay” for US workers exposed to covid-19, over 60,

pregnant or having underlying health issues (in addition to existing sick pay).

As per the McKinsey brief, four key levers to maximize engagement and productivity of work

from home have been observed for employees, which gain special significance for this study. It

is reported that China demonstrated a decrease in energy level during the pandemic.

Respondents to the survey attributed the declining energy value to three primary factors -

blurred boundary between work and life, anxiety deepening as the epidemic unfolded, and

telecommuting unsuitable for current workflows. Energy level, however, started to improve as

increasing normalcy was established aided by four levers that companies used

1. People: Provide psychological safety (example, delegate decision making powers, role model

empathy); communicate practical WFH tips (example family communication, physical and

mental need management)

2. Structure: Define career objectives and key results (OKRs) to effectively set and

communicate goals and outcomes; allow high degree of autonomy in decision making with

collaboration across business units

3. Process: Establish clear contents (example pre-scheduled daily and weekly meetings,

frequent check-ins); define clear and integrated workflows, align strategic goals and

clarifying roles and responsibilities

4. Technology: Leverage a suite of digital tools/new media to address specific work needs; set

up an effective ergonomic, digitally enabled remote working environment to ensure

productivity.

A plan ahead team has been visualized to assist and offer quick responses to the rapidly

changing current circumstances using the following five frames: organizations a. should get a

realistic view of the starting position; b. develop scenarios for multiple versions of its future; c.

establish its posture and broad direction of travel; d. determine actions and strategic moves that

are robust across scenarios; and e. set trigger points that drive the organisations to act at the right

time.

A nerve centre design, based on military commander principles, has been proposed as an

effective strategy to deal with this unprecedented situation which the business organizations are

facing. The core concept is to create an organisation that can observe, orient, decide and act

(OODA) faster than the environment, drawing from John Boyd's concept of the OODA loop.

Illustrative examples of the next normal of how organisations may configure are as follows:

drastic changes may happen for levers such as

where work happens- remote working is fully accepted, for example, 25% of white-

collar labour is fully remote, including radiologists, financial analysts, consultants, and

other, while earlier white-collar employees remained "in the office";

how people organise-leaner, more ‘agile’ structure leveraging the gig economy for

project-based execution as compared to traditional pyramidical structure to cover all

functions needed to execute projects;

how decisions are made- strategy remains centrally set and coordinated; all operational

decisions decentralized with a bias for speed and test and learn mentality while earlier it

was defined process for execution of tasks (for example command and control); and

workforce size and composition- gig economy utilized for all workers (full time

employees make up less than 20% of labour force) viola workforce predominantly

consists of full-time employees

This is a general outline which has been carved and contextual tailoring may be required in case

organizations intend to take these design suggestions forward. Senior leadership support and

participation will be a necessary prerequisite and will go a long way in making these design

applications successful in enabling organizations to emerge stronger in these extremely

challenging times.

Conclusion

The discourses indicate that sustainable management has become an unquestionable agenda for

organisations globally. A sustainability mindset is seen to be developing along with tangible

successes in organizations. This sustainability mindset must be linked to and reflected in

sustainable employee practices. Diverse sustainability themes have been identified and

prioritised in this paper. These themes are reflected through in organizations through multiple

strategies implemented as integrative mechanisms for consolidating and harmonizing

organizational processes and growth.

With the coronavirus pandemic making a phenomenal global impact in the last few months, the

next normal, regarding how organizations work and engage people, will undergo drastic

changes. The next normal will look unlike any in the years preceding the pandemic. Leaders of

organizations, managers, executives, employees, academicians, practitioners, the Government –

all stakeholders - need to brace themselves for the new and emergent reality, and at the same

time, be in a state of readiness to restructure and re-emerge stronger, with hope and optimism.

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