Abstract
Managing corporate sustainability involves consideration of the economic, environmental and social impacts of business activities on communities and society. Successful corporate sustainability strategy and sustainable operations must include an engaged and committed workforce. It has been seen that employees are increasingly seeking more purpose at work, with an awareness of environmental and social issues. Research has shown that employees engaged in corporate sustainability practices perceive their work as meaningful contributions to business performance. This empirical study explored sustainability performance in the tea industry, measured with a holistic sustainability framework and investigated the linkages between corporate social responsibility (CSR), employee engagement, and corporate contributions towards sustainability. The operations of participating organisations measured via a ‘7E’ model to benchmark sustainability performance, were compared with how employee engagement is influenced by CSR and wellbeing aspects. Data was collected from company sustainability surveys and surveys of 1146 employees in the tea industry. The results were analysed using a cluster model to assess employee attitudes to CSR and corporate sustainability practices towards sustainable development. The findings show that companies with strong company sustainability performance and developed social sustainability with CSR activities, have employees with higher participation at work and outreach engagement. Dimension reduction and the two-step cluster method was used to classify employee responses, showing the most engaged employees exhibited ‘shared values’ characteristics aligned with corporate engagement and social outreach. These results contribute to research on sustainability management from corporate and employee perspectives, with insights for sustainable development through CSR and sustainable business operations.