PhD Studentship: Environmental Change Agents in hybrid and remote work environments: an investigation of how digital workplaces affect coalition building and sustainability culture diffusion

University of East Anglia - Norwich Business School

Primary supervisor - Dr Jun Hwa Cheah

The project

Organisations are central to achieving rapid emissions reductions, yet translating sustainability commitments into embedded workplace practices remains a significant implementation challenge. Customers, consumers, investors and regulators are increasingly scrutinising the environmental credentials of businesses through corporate sustainability frameworks. Businesses at the forefront of sustainable ways of working have the opportunity to drive economic value, but realising this requires effective change agents who can navigate competing institutional pressures and catalyse collective behaviour change.

This studentship will examine how individuals within organisations can be developed as effective sustainability change agents. The research will explore both the external pressures and internal motivational forces that shape pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, and the practical strategies change agents use to secure stakeholder buy-in and connect internal activities to external standards. This may include exploring how digital tools, green apps or AI-enabled interventions can support or hinder these efforts. This PhD offers an opportunity to understand how individuals drive sustainable ways of working in contemporary organisations and the implications this has for new ways of working.

Skills and data

This is one of three ESRC Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) affiliated studentships that will commence at UEA in September 2026. CAST is headquartered at the University of Bath and is an international centre of excellence founded in 2019. It has just commenced a second phase of work (2024-9), focusing on especially ‘sticky’ hard to change behaviours associated with food, transport and energy use. CAST examines issues from a multistakeholder perspective.

This PhD provides you with an opportunity to utilise a wide array of methods to interrogate existing and original research data. Your research will be a combination of desk-research involving literature reviews and fieldwork using interviews or survey tools. You will have access to existing data on employee sense-making of organisational sustainability practices. This PhD will sit jointly within the CAST Theme 3 agenda called ‘Trialling – How can we accelerate transformations?’ and Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia.

Entry requirements

You should:

• Have at least a 2:1 (at Hons. level) in Business/Management, Psychology, Sociology, social environmental sciences, political sciences and a Masters degree in a relevant subject.
• Have a demonstrable interest and expertise in either the sociology of work, future of work, Human Resource Management (HRM), and how these areas interconnect with environmental sustainability;
• Experience in independent qualitative and/or mixed-method empirical research (e.g. interviewing, comparative case study, survey research);
• Be eager to join and actively contribute to a team of interdisciplinary researchers.

Mode of study:Full-time

Start date:1 October 2026

Additional Funding Information

This project is awarded with a 3-year fully funded ESRC CAST PhD studentship. The successful candidate will receive Home tuition fees and an annual tax-free maintenance stipend set at the UKRI rates (£21,805 for 2026/7).