Nicola Rieg
My research project
Organisational change and employee pro-environmental behaviour
Nicola Rieg is a Doctoral Practitioner within the Centre of Environment and Sustainability (CES) at the University of Surrey. He is working with the Sustainability Team, researching climate communication and effective approaches to promote rapid, collective change in multi-stakeholder environments.
Nicola has worked in the language and communication sector in Germany, Colombia, and South Korea. He holds an MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Leeds, where he investigated public risk perception and strategies for effective risk communication.
Supervisors
My qualifications
Research
Research interests
My research is interdisciplinary by nature but is most closely connected to environmental and behavioural psychology, communication studies, and organisational change management.
Research projects
The aim of this project is to identify leading effective practices in developing a culture of sustainability at public bodies and CSOs, with the main focus being on Higher Education Institutions.
This project draws on the literature as well as original research to explore patterns and processes of sustainability transitions and how these are experiences by sustainability practitioners working at CSOs in the UK.
The aim of this project is to find out whether Covid-19 has changed University of Surrey staff perceptions of and opinions on remote working and travel to work.
This project is funded by Surrey Living Lab and is part of a collaborative project between EFCS, the Sustainability and HR departments, the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, the School of Psychology, and the Centre for Environment and Sustainability. It intends to inform long term decision-making at the University of Surrey, and to shape new working guidelines towards providing better support for remote working and travel to work.
The first phase of the project consisted of a survey, which was conducted in June 2020. A descriptive summary report can be found on the University's web page, see link below.
My publications
Publications
Higher education institutions (HEIs) have been urged to integrate sustainability across all their structural and organizational dimensions. A promising area of research and practice that can help to deliver this is organizational change management for sustainability. While this field has received increasing attention over the past decade, a comprehensive assessment is still lacking. Therefore, a systematic quantitative review was carried out to summarize and synthesize the academic literature on organizational change management approaches that aim to holistically embed sustainability in HEIs. Furthermore, this review aims to illustrate what change factors have been observed and how they have been analyzed, and from this highlight implications for practice and pathways for future research. The literature reviewed puts strong emphasis on change processes and human factors, as well as elements of the institutional framework, such as vision and strategy. The findings highlight the value of strategic and reflective actions, the importance of understanding and actively shaping change processes, and that change towards sustainability requires broad stakeholder input and commitment. This review serves as an important reference point for future research and practice.
The database is the foundation for the article “Organizational Change Management for Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions: A Systematic Quantitative Literature Review” published in Sustainability (https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137299). The article summarizes and synthesizes the academic literature on organizational change management approaches that aim to holistically embed sustainability in HEIs. The database contains all papers included in and categories for analysis, as well as definitions of codes, and a list of full-text papers assessed. The theoretical framework underpinning the database and the methods for creating it can be found in the article.