Abstract

Social, institutional and business interest in Sustainability has increasingly grow in the last decades. New regulations, technological progress, social awareness related to environmental impact of the industrial activities and irregular working conditions, are some of the key elements affecting the way organisations plan and measure their corporate, business unit, and operational strategies. Sustainability strategies can play a key role in driving innovation through learning, motivation, attraction and retention of skilful employees.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the interrelations between the deployment of effective sustainability strategies, employee motivation and the financial perspective of business performance.

The analysis applies a Systems Thinking approach through the development of a series of Causal Loop Diagrams to identify key factors and the nature of their interrelationships. The analysis also considers the Ability, Motivation and Opportunity (AMO) framework to explain the complexity of employee behaviour, motivation and impact on strategic performance.

This research confirmed that a supportive relation can be established between the implementation of effective sustainability strategies, represented by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Resources (HR) initiatives, and the financial performance of a business organisations.

The study focused on publications related to private business organisations in the UK and USA, which encourages future broad studies.

This research provides relevant insights to understand better the complexity of the relationships between sustainability strategies, employee motivation and business performance.