An investigation into the organizational change processes related to environmental (green) issues

• Main Author: Hass, Julie L.
• Published: University of Manchester 1997
• Subjects: 658.4
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.630465

The current research focuses on the interface of business organizations and the natural environment. Specific patterns of organizational behavior were identified regarding the incorporation of environmental (green) issues into company operations and management processes. The research makes contributions on both a conceptual / theoretical level and on an operational level. At the theoretical level, the contribution is a new conceptualization of organizational greening processes and consequences at the organizational level which incorporates the inter-relationship of greening with organization climate ( culture). Previous research has largely ignored the importance of organizational behavior aspects of the . greening process and has focused primarily on the technical components of the change process. The major contribution is a new variance-type model of organizational greening which includes organization climate as a key component. A second theoretical contribution is a conceptual model indicating the interconnections between a number of previously established organizational climate constructs and the newly developed climate for greening constructs. At the operational level, the contribution is an instrument for measuring the organizational climate for greening and a methodology for identifying patterns of similar organizational greening behaviors. Thirteen business organizations located in the North West region of England participated in the study. Included were companies from the chemical, textile, pulp and paper, packaging, food products, ·automotive parts, building products and newspaper publishing industries. A combined quantitative / qualitative methodology was used. The quantitative portion of the research was based on an organizational climate methodology. The qualitative portion used personal construct analyses. COIl).bining these two sets of information resulted in the identification of four patterns of organizational greening. Organizational climate was identified as an integral component in the organizational greening processes. The results suggest.that high green climate scores are associated with two kinds of more ~ovative strategic approaches to greening; and lower green climate scores are associated with two kinds of less innovative strategic approaches.