Research Information System
INTERNATIONAL GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT CONGRESS, Kayseri, Turkey, 15 - 16 October 2025, pp.250, (Summary Text)
Employee engagement is widely recognized as a driver of productivity, innovation, and organizational resilience. Yet the relationship between macro-level sustainability and workforce engagement remains underexplored. This study investigates these links using three-year aggregated data (2022–2024) from Gallup’s global engagement surveys and the Sustainable Development Report’s SDG indices, covering 135 countries. The analyses concentrated on SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions), as these goals are most directly linked to the determinants of employee engagement. Research grounded in the Job Demands–Resources model highlights health and well-being as foundational resources that enable vigor and resilience at work (SDG 3). SDG 8 reflects the quality of work itself, encompassing safe conditions, fair pay, and learning opportunities—all central drivers of sustainable engagement. Finally, SDG 16 captures governance quality, trust, and institutional effectiveness, which provide the broader societal context for engagement. Analyses revealed that stronger sustainability performance in these domains is associated with lower levels of active disengagement (r = –.38 to –.45, p < .001). Conversely, higher SDG scores are positively related to the proportion of “not engaged” employees (r = .36–.51, p < .001), and show no significant relationship with actively engaged employees. Regression analysis confirmed that SDG 3 (Estimate = –0.0014, p = .010) and SDG 8 (Estimate = –0.0034, p < .001) significantly predicted reduced disengagement, while SDG 16 did not add unique explanatory power. For policymakers and organizations, the findings underscore that sustainability progress acts as a protective factor—reducing disengagement—but is not sufficient to increase active engagement. This highlights the need for complementary organizational interventions (e.g., leadership practices, job design, recognition) to translate national sustainability gains into engaged workforces.