A Novel Conceptual Framework for Examining Environmental Behavior in Large Organizations

This article is concerned with the development of a conceptual framework of the key antecedents that lead to sustainable environmental behavior amongst employees within a large organizational setting. A range of quantitative and qualitative methods was employed in the study to examine behavior. Using the Cornwall National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom as a case study, the research demonstrated that both organizational and individual/cognitive factors served as key predictors for sustainable waste behavior. However, these factors did not work in isolation but rather, within a dynamic, holistic, intrarelated, and interrelated conceptual framework to ultimately determine individual behavior. The results suggest the need to address both categories of variables when developing policies to achieve greater sustainability in the behavior of employees within large organizations.

[1]  T. Deal,et al.  Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life. , 1982 .

[2]  Gill Christy,et al.  Management and Organisational Behaviour , 1985 .

[3]  A. Campbell,et al.  Corporate strategy: The quest for parenting advantage , 1995 .

[4]  M. Baldassare,et al.  The Personal Threat of Environmental Problems as Predictor of Environmental Practices , 1992 .

[5]  Valerie Belton,et al.  A survey of public attitudes to recycling in Glasgow (U.K.) , 1994 .

[6]  Edwin A. Locke,et al.  The motivation sequence, the motivation hub, and the motivation core. , 1991 .

[7]  Stuart Oskamp,et al.  Factors Influencing Household Recycling Behavior , 1991 .

[8]  Jean-Marc Zaninetti Sustainable Development in the USA , 2009 .

[9]  Joanne Vining,et al.  Predicting Recycling Behavior from Global and Specific Environmental Attitudes and Changes in Recycling Opportunities1 , 1992 .

[10]  D. Pugh,et al.  Organization theory : selected readings , 1971 .

[11]  Deborah A. Simmons,et al.  Motivations and Barriers to Recycling: Toward a Strategy for Public Education , 1990 .

[12]  T. Gladwin,et al.  Shifting Paradigms for Sustainable Development: Implications for Management Theory and Research , 1995 .

[13]  E. Deci,et al.  A motivational approach to self: integration in personality. , 1990, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[14]  A J Morrissey,et al.  Waste management models and their application to sustainable waste management. , 2004, Waste management.

[15]  M. Russo,et al.  A Resource-Based Perspective On Corporate Environmental Performance And Profitability , 1997 .

[16]  C. Tomkins Achieving Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness in the Public Sector , 1987 .

[17]  S. Robbins Organizational Behavior: Concepts, Controversies, Applications , 1979 .

[18]  J. Child Organization: A Guide to Problems and Practice , 1977 .

[19]  John Darabaris,et al.  Corporate Environmental Management , 2007 .

[20]  Peter Tucker Understanding recycling behaviour , 2001 .

[21]  Florian G. Kaiser,et al.  A General Measure of Ecological Behavior1 , 1998 .

[22]  P. Stern,et al.  The New Ecological Paradigm in Social-Psychological Context , 1995 .

[23]  Paul S Phillips,et al.  The development of strategic and tactical tools, using systems analysis, for waste management in large complex organisations: a case study in UK healthcare waste , 2005 .

[24]  S. Barr,et al.  A Conceptual Framework for Understanding and Analysing Attitudes towards Household-Waste Management , 2001 .

[25]  Stuart Oskamp,et al.  Factors Influencing Community Residents' Participation in Commingled Curbside Recycling Programs , 1994 .

[26]  D. Shields The role of values and objectives in communicating indicators of sustainability , 2002 .

[27]  I. Ajzen The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .

[28]  The Role of Sustainability within Service Delivery in the National Health Service in Cornwall (UK) , 2005 .

[29]  Marco Alberti,et al.  Evaluation of the costs and benefits of an environmental management system , 2000 .

[30]  R. Fincham,et al.  The individual, work, and organization: Behavioural studies for business and management , 1988 .

[31]  M. Stabler,et al.  Environmental awareness, action and performance in the Guernsey hospitality sector , 1997 .

[32]  Allan P. O. Williams,et al.  Changing culture : new organizational approaches , 1989 .

[33]  R. Welford Corporate environmental management: systems and strategies. , 2014 .

[34]  Rob Ball,et al.  Public participation in plastics recycling schemes , 1998 .

[35]  C. Berger,et al.  EUGENE: an optimisation model for integrated regional solid waste management planning , 1999 .

[36]  Lin Roberts Improving the environmental performance of firms: the experience of two metal working companies , 1996 .

[37]  Alvar O. Elbing Behavioral decisions in organizations , 1978 .

[38]  Michael E. Porter,et al.  Green and Competitive : Ending the Stalemate , 1996 .

[39]  E. Deci,et al.  The "What" and "Why" of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior , 2000 .

[40]  Paul Freathy,et al.  Motivating the employee in the independent retail sector , 1997 .

[41]  T L Tudor,et al.  Healthcare waste management: a case study from the National Health Service in Cornwall, United Kingdom. , 2005, Waste management.

[42]  G. Robinson Methods and Techniques in Human Geography , 1998 .

[43]  Beatriz Junquera,et al.  A review of the literature on environmental innovation management in SMEs: implications for public policies , 2003 .

[44]  Tim Newton,et al.  Green Business: Technicist Kitsch? , 1997 .

[45]  J. Boldero,et al.  The Prediction of Household Recycling of Newspapers: The Role of Attitudes, Intentions, and Situational Factors1 , 1995 .

[46]  Göran Finnveden,et al.  The Application of Life Cycle Assessment to Integrated Solid Waste Management: Part 2—Perspectives on Energy and Material Recovery from Paper , 2000 .

[47]  Michael J. Lenox,et al.  Industry Self-Regulation Without Sanctions: The Chemical Industry's Responsible Care Program , 2000 .

[48]  Knowlton W. Johnson,et al.  Building capacity and sustainable prevention innovations: a sustainability planning model , 2004 .

[49]  Andrew W. Gilg,et al.  Defining the multi-dimensional aspects of household waste management : A study of reported behavior in Devon , 2005 .

[50]  F. Heider The psychology of interpersonal relations , 1958 .

[51]  S. Robbins Essentials of Organizational Behavior , 1984 .

[52]  P Costi,et al.  An environmentally sustainable decision model for urban solid waste management. , 2004, Waste management.

[53]  John Lim,et al.  A conceptual framework on the adoption of negotiation support systems , 2003, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[54]  Paul S Phillips,et al.  Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour to investigate the determinants of recycling behaviour: a case study from Brixworth, UK , 2004 .

[55]  F Dilek Sanin,et al.  A study of the dental solid waste produced in a school of dentistry in Turkey. , 2004, Waste management.