Sustainability in the land of smiles: evaluating environment, social, and governance (ESG) alignment between strategies and practices of Thai government organizations

Abstract

The triple bottom line (TBL) of social, economic, and environmental sustainability framework serves as a critical model for organizational sustainability by requiring a balanced integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, yet how government organizations translate these principles internally remains an under-researched operational impediment, especially in Thailand. Investigating Thai government organizations with explicit commitments to macro sustainability, this study examines why a structural chasm persists between high-level national mandates and actual organizational practices. Utilizing a qualitative research design, the study conducts a thematic analysis of primary data from purposive, semi-structured interviews with mid-level managers and senior executives across five national-level government organizations and one state enterprise. Using Moore’s strategic triangle as a diagnostic framework, the findings reveal a profound operational disconnect. While outward-facing policies are heavily emphasized, internal operational sustainability is behaviorally neglected and reduced to symbolic compliance. Benchmarking these findings against progressive frameworks from the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Australia exposes local vulnerabilities. The discussion and implications underscore the need to recognize organizational-level sustainability practices as a critical mechanism to enhance national policy efficiency. Leveraging the government’s ongoing digital governance push allows agencies to overcome data deficits and embed full-loop ESG workflows directly into formal performance evaluation key performance indicators (KPIs).