Green Engagement and Its Management

Abstract: Employee engagement has been used in previous literature as a management concept increasing the success of an organisation. Environmental sustainability has become a critical issue for all levels in the society and poses an urgent pressure to act. Previous research confirms that employee engagement is effective when working towards environmental sustainability development. Universities can have a substantial impact on how the collective mind is formed and transformed and are therefore important stakeholders for environmental sustainability development in the society. This thesis uses the previous work of Kahn and Gruman & Saks to examine the role of employee engagement in environmental sustainability and explores the management activities stimulating the increase of engagement among employees in environmental sustainability. To answer these questions, employees and managers have been interviewed at Jönköping University in Sweden. This thesis finds that employee engagement appears to have a supporting role in environmental sustainability development. Additionally, an extension of the Engagement Management Model is developed, providing the engagement management literature with a holistic view of how engagement in environmental sustainability can be managed in universities.