Green Management Approaches to Organizational Behavior

Lozano R.

Van De Voorde K., Paauwe J., Van Veldhoven M.

There is a lack of consensus on the role of employee well-being in the human resource management–organizational performance relationship. This review examines which of the competing perspectives –‘mutual gains’ or ‘conflicting outcomes’– is more appropriate for describing this role of employee well-being. In addition, this review examines whether study attributes such as the measurement of key variables, the level of analysis and the study design affect a study's outcomes. The review covers 36 quantitative studies published from 1995 to May 2010. Employee well-being is described here using three dimensions: happiness, health and relationship. The main findings are that employee well-being in terms of happiness and relationship is congruent with organizational performance (mutual gains perspective), but that health-related well-being appears to function as a conflicting outcome. Directions for future research and theoretical development are suggested.

Bansal P.

Executive Overview While evidence pointing to environmental, social-equity, and economic threats mounts, few U.S. firms have embraced the principles of sustainable development. This reticence is illustrated through an analysis of the adoption of ISO 14001, an international environmental-management system intended to advance the sustainable-development agenda in organizations. Interviewed managers said they resisted the standard because the benefits of ISO 14001 did not outweigh the costs and because in-house environmental systems served the same purpose. While part of this reticence can be attributed to the standard itself, it is also partly due to the nature of the issue of sustainable development. It is a societal issue to which most firms do not know how to respond. To bridge this divide, sustainable development must become more institutionalized in the regulations, norms, and mindsets of Americans. By translating the general principles of sustainable development into business practices, by developing ...

Shimshack J.P., Ward M.B.

Economists generally view environmental enforcement as a tool to secure compliance with regulations. This paper demonstrates that credible enforcement significantly increases statutory over-compliance with regulations as well. We find that many plants with discharges typically below legally permitted levels reduce discharges further when regulators issue fines, even on other plants. Also, non-compliant plants often respond to sanctions by reducing discharges well beyond reductions required by law. Thus, increased enforcement generates substantial discharge reductions above and beyond those expected from simply deterring violations.

Stiller Y., Daub C.

This paper presents and compares the outcomes of an annually repeated project, assessing the corporate reporting practice in the 250 largest Swiss companies, over a time frame of three years (2003–2005). Focusing on the quantitative and qualitative corporate sustainability disclosure, the study attempts a review of the Swiss corporate reporting practice by using a benchmark approach, as an alternative to content analysis, in order to supply best-practice examples for companies and open the door towards a more dialogical approach. Supported by the findings of Kolk, Gray, Unerman etc. as well as critique aired by Thomson and Bebbington and by Solomon and Darby, the study and its results are discussed and reflected upon in a conceptual and practical context. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Shrivastava P.

Lichtenstein D.R., Drumwright M.E., Braig B.M.

Both theory and recent research evidence suggest that a corporation's socially responsible behavior can positively affect consumers’ attitudes toward the corporation. The effect occurs both directly and indirectly through the behavior's effect on customer–corporation identification. The authors report the results of four studies designed to replicate and extend these findings. Using a field survey design, Study 1 provides evidence that perceived corporate social responsibility affects not only customer purchase behavior through customer–corporate identification but also customer donations to corporate-supported nonprofit organizations. Using experimental designs, Studies 2 and 3 replicate and extend the Study 1 findings by providing additional evidence for the mediating role of customer–corporate identification on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer donations. However, the combined results of Studies 2 and 3 also show that because of a “perceived opportunity to do good” by supporting a company that is changing its ways, consumers are more likely to donate to a corporate-supported nonprofit when the corporation has a weaker historical record of socially responsible behavior. Finally, Study 4 tests the relationship between the nonprofit domain and the domain of the corporation's socially responsible behavior as a boundary condition for this effect.

Zhu Q., Sarkis J.

Globalization results in both pressure and drivers for Chinese enterprises to improve their environmental performance. As a developing country, China has to balance economic and environmental performance. Green supply chain management (GSCM) is emerging to be an important approach for Chinese enterprises to improve performance, possibly on both these dimensions. Using empirical results from 186 respondents on GSCM practice in Chinese manufacturing enterprises, we examine the relationships between GSCM practice and environmental and economic performance. Using moderated hierarchical regression analysis, we evaluate the general relationships between specific GSCM practices and performance. We then investigate how two primary types of management operations philosophies, quality management and just-in-time (or lean) manufacturing principles, influence the relationship between GSCM practices and performance. Significant findings were determined for a number of relationships. Managerial implications are also identified.

Banerjee S.B., Iyer E.S., Kashyap R.K.

How does a business firm manage its relationship with the natural environment? What are the factors that influence the choice of such strategies? Does industry type matter? The authors introduce and operationalize the concept of corporate environmentalism in an effort to answer these questions. Using stakeholder theory, the authors identify four important antecedents to corporate environmentalism, namely, public concern, regulatory forces, competitive advantage, and top management commitment. The authors then use a political–economic framework to develop testable hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, the authors perform multigroup path analysis on data gathered from more than 240 firms. They find that corporate environmentalism is related to all hypothesized antecedents and that industry type moderates several of those relationships. In the high environmental impact sector, public concern has the greatest impact on corporate environmentalism, followed by regulatory forces. In the moderate environmental impact sector, competitive advantage has the greatest impact on corporate environmentalism, followed by regulatory forces. There are strong direct and mediating influences from top management commitment, which is the antecedent with the greatest impact on both industry groups. The influences of regulatory forces, public concern, and competitive advantage are all significantly mediated by top management commitment and moderated by industry type. The empirical findings and the ensuing discussion will be of interest to managers and public policy officials.

Linnanen L., Luoma P., Pesonen H.

This study assesses the effects of an ecological tax reform on three value chains. These case studies lead to an analysis of the business strategy options when companies face a shift in the relative prices of their production factors. The results support earlier research findings that the direct effects of an ecological tax reform on the price competitiveness of companies is on average rather small. However, the effects of the reform are shown to vary significantly between the different parts of the value chain. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment

Andersen T.J.

There has been a tendency to de-emphasize the role of strategic planning in recent years and instead focus on management autonomy and organizational learning. Yet most firms continue to plan for the future. This reveals a need to review the effects of strategic planning in conjunction with managers' autonomous actions. Past research on the performance effects of strategic planning has been inconclusive, and evidence of the strategic importance of adaptive actions taken by lower level managers remains somewhat anecdotal. What is more, contemporary scholars hold opposing views. Some argue that autonomous actions are imperative to strategic adaptation, while planning inhibits change. Conversely, others argue that centralized planning is needed to co-ordinate responsive actions and spur adaptive strategic thinking. To clarify this apparent dilemma, this article presents a recent research programme investigating the dual performance effects of strategic planning and autonomous actions in the strategy formation process. The results indicate that strategic planning has positive performance effects across industries, and exists in tandem with autonomous actions, where managers make responsive decisions that enhance performance under changing environmental conditions.