Employee involvement in sustainability projects in emergent markets: Evidence from Turkey

Abstract

Without a doubt, encouraging the behavior of employees in relation to sustainability is one of the most effective tactics that organizations can use to attain their sustainability goals. It is critical that employees take part in sustainability projects in order for organizations to be successful. In this study, we assumed that organizations supported by responsible employees will be more likely to engage in sustainability-driven projects that affect their long-term viability and the interests of their stakeholders, and that green human resources management will be an encouraging factor. The purpose of this study was to investigate the involvement of employees in sustainability-driven projects within organizations, as well as the potential influence of such involvement on the performance of projects in emerging economies such as Turkey, where individual sensitivity to sustainability is lacking. With this goal in mind, we conducted a qualitative investigation on ten different employees from various corporate enterprises who were authorized to participate in sustainability-driven projects in their workplaces. Our results revealed that in the Turkish business environment, employees have still not reached the required level of maturity regarding sustainability issues in order to be initiators of sustainability projects. This study is the first to investigate the role of employees in sustainability-driven projects within the Turkish market.