Multi-dimensional sustainability framework for service organisations in the GCC countries

Abstract

Sustainability in the business context seeks to create long-term value by seizing the opportunities and overcoming the challenges of simultaneously addressing the organization’s economic, environmental and social responsibilities. Several sustainability models and frameworks have been put forward over the past three decades, aiming at helping organizations embed sustainability at the core of their businesses. Their relevancy and applicability are significant, particularly for the manufacturing sector and the overall value chain, even though service organizations are equally important stakeholders in this process. The raising interest to promote sustainability-focused practices, processes and policies in organizations in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region, particularly across the service sector, have contributed to define the goal of this research, namely: to establish the main drivers and challenges faced by local service organizations to embed sustainability at the core of their business strategy and practice, in order to develop an innovative multi-dimensional sustainability framework specifically adapted to the service sector in the GCC countries’ socio-cultural and economic environment. For this purpose, a research path was followed which included: comparative critical analysis of the leading organizational sustainability frameworks and maturity models; an empirical evaluation of their relevancy in the particular context of GCC countries; and primary research to confirm the perceived applied research gap and to evaluate the feasibility and relevancy of putting forward a sector specific framework. The outcome of this research is an innovative multi-dimensional sustainability framework for service sector organizations in the GCC region, which will provide stronger guidance on how to select and implement the most relevant sustainability aspects within the local service sector businesses, thus allowing them to develop better sustainability-focused policies and practices in the workplace. This framework will also contribute to academic community by opening new views on how sustainability is perceived and what adjustments are needed for it to work in the service sector in the context of GCC countries. This framework can later on be extended to other countries of the MENA region, where existing sustainability models and frameworks would not be fit for purpose. The framework hereby proposed was validated by combining the quantitative research and qualitative data collection and analysis using a combined positivist and interpretive case study strategy based on carefully selected cases across the service sector in the GCC countries. The measurable success of this framework will be the time it will take to reach a significant number of service sector organizations in the GCC countries that achieve the ideal balance between their social, economic and environmental dimensions with few constraints, thus becoming potential leaders of change for a more sustainable and inclusive successful future.