Managing environmental trainingin organizations

Theoretical review and proposal of a model

Charbel Jose Chiappetta JabbourUniversity of Sao Paulo (FEARP/USP), Sao Paulo, Brazil

Adriano Alves TeixeiraFaculty of Engineering (Bauru), UNESP – Sao Paulo State University,

Sao Paulo, Brazil, and

Jorge Henrique Caldeira de Oliveira and Davi Fouad SoubihiaUniversity of Sao Paulo (FEARP/USP), Sao Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Purpose – The aim of this work is to address the issue of environmental training in organizations,presenting a theoretical review on the subject and proposing a model that highlights the importance ofthis type of training for organizations.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a thorough, updated literature review,discusses typology and the best practices of environmental training, and presents a frameworkintegrating environmental training and organizational results.

Findings – A careful consideration allows identifying a significant theoretical gap related to the lackof theoretical references, best practices, and an alignment between environmental training andorganizational results. To overcome this gap, a model was proposed that helps to manage theenvironmental training process in organizations.

Research limitations/implications – The paper needs to be complemented with empiricalresearch on the topic.

Originality/value – Environmental training is considered to be an essential element fororganizations seeking to mitigate their environmental impacts. ISO 14001 states that environmentalmanagement is a duty of certified organizations. However, there have been few published articles thatsuggest models and insights to improve the environmental training in organizations.

Keywords Environmental management, International standards, Employees, Brazil

Paper type Conceptual paper

1. IntroductionThe environmental impacts of productive activities of contemporary organizationsachieved significant magnitude without precedents. At the same time one notices thatgreat humankind’s current dilemmas – climate change, air pollution, water pollution,increasing garbage production, and finite natural resources – are real challenges to thehumankind survival, it can be noted that these challenges have an evidentdisseminating channel: organizations. Therefore, any attempt to change the level ofenvironmental impacts exerted on our planet should consider the participation oforganizations, mainly regarding environmental management (Hunt and Auster, 1990).

When considering the reduction of environmental impacts by organizations, itmeans making allusions to employees, strategic and operational-level employees,

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-7835.htm

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Received 20 January 2010Revised 3 March 2010Accepted 15 May 2010

Management of EnvironmentalQuality: An International JournalVol. 21 No. 6, 2010pp. 830-844q Emerald Group Publishing Limited1477-7835DOI 10.1108/14777831011077673

reducing the impact on the environment (Govindarajulu and Daily, 2004; Daily andHuang, 2001). Those employees are responsible for making decisions that are adequateto goods and services’ production with decreasing environmental impacts. Thus,organizational practices focused on increasing employees’ awareness of proactiveenvironmental management that can indeed demonstrate the importance of theenvironmental issue for the hierarchical levels, processes, and products developed bythe organization have been highlighted (Jabbour and Santos, 2008). Hence, the greatrelevance of environmental training becomes evident being also considered sine quanon to an environmental management of outstanding quality in organizations (Zutshiand Sohal, 2004).

Accepting environmental training as an important organizational activity is aconsensus reflected in the literature on environmental management (Unnikrishnan andHegde, 2007; Perron et al., 2006). This is especially true when dealing with theargument that the technical changes made to reduce the environmental impacts of anorganization, such as material or suppliers’ substitution and the adoption ofenvironmental technologies in the productive processes, are not enough for thedevelopment of a proactive, long-term environmental management (Stone, 2000).However, there are few published articles in order to suggest models and insights toimprove the environmental training in organizations.

Hence, this study was motivated by the following question: Is it possible to developan environmental training model that could be useful for organizational managers andresearchers to evaluate the diverse environmental training programs’ dimensions inorder to improve continuously the environmental management practices inorganizations? Consequently, the objective is to propose a model that can integratethe distinct dimensions that can influence the environmental management practices inorganizations reflecting on how environmental training can influence theorganizational results.

To justify such investigation, it can be said that environmental training has beencited only as an organizational practice relevant to the environmental management inorganizations, so there is a significant theoretical gap related to the lack of details andmodels that can help managers and researchers to understand better those practices.Moreover, the literature does not present a more comprehensive model that includes allcharacteristics this article will address.

This article is structured as follows: Section 1 – Introduction; Section 2 –Theoretical review on environmental management and its evolution in the context oforganizations; Section 3 – Definitions of training and environmental training, mappingthe scientific studies reported on this topic; Section 4 – The best practices ofenvironmental training reported in the literature; Section 5 – Proposal of a modellinking the characteristics of an environmental training and organizational results; andSection 6 – Conclusions, limitations and recommendations for further research.

2. Environmental management in organizationsWorries about harming the environment have been widely discussed since the 1970s,when there was clear recognition that organizations should adopt sustainabledevelopment policies (Berry and Rondinelli, 1998) because all organizations generatesome sort of impact on the society and on the environment (Hall, 2004). Environmentalissues have become part of the business world, and this is called environmental

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management (Backer, 2002) which is a concept that according to Barbieri (2004) can bedefined as environmental issues that should be taken into account when organizationsmake decisions about strategic planning activities, production, marketing, and R&Damong others. Organizations have been adopting the environmental management forthe production processes and products (for example Porter and Linde, 1995). However,this process adoption does not always occur smoothly in organizations, so someorganizations present a more developed environmental management (Hunt and Auster,1990). According to Brio et al. (2001), having an environment department, does notnecessarily mean that the organization is taking environmental issues into account aspart of its strategies, neither does it mean that its environmental management isadvanced.

Several studies, such as those of Hunt and Auster (1990), Maimon (1994), Sanches(2000), Rohrich and Cunha (2004), Barbieri (2004), Corazza (2003), Donaire (1994) andDonaire (1999), report the stage of the environmental management development inorganizations. In another study, Jabbour and Santos (2006) attempt to integrate thecommon factors related to the taxonomy developed by those authors by proposing anew classification, which is divided into three stages:

(1) Functional specialization of environmental dimension (or reactive stage).

(2) Internal integration of environmental dimension (or preventive stage).

(3) External integration of the environmental variable (or proactive stage).

First, in the stage of functional specialization, the organization’s environmentaldepartment is established (Corazza, 2003) in order to adopt a reactive behavior towardslegislation policy pressures, as proposed by Maimon (1996). Donaire (1994) states thatenvironment activities are common in the production area of an organization that isworried about its residues. This organization department deals with pollution issuesonly, and do not consider the environmental variable as strategic issue (Jabbour andSantos, 2006). These authors argue that this behavior is common in organizations thatreact slowly to the surrounding changes resulting in a rigid structure, which in turnleads to the stability of the market in which the organization is inserted.

Next, in the stage of internal integration of environmental management, theenvironmental activities are determined according to the objectives of the organization,mainly those related to pollution control. However, according to Seiffert (2005), theenvironmental performance in this stage is not treated as strategic factor, so theenvironmental objectives are established according to legislations and marketdemands but respecting the organization interests. The environmental managementstarts exerting influence on specific projects, such as product and process development,and fulfilling specific objectives of certain unities of the organization, whichconsequently request more environmental management participation in order to avoidsetbacks that can prevent a smooth running and better execution of the unity’sfunctions, and therefore can prevent the fulfillment of the organization’s aims ( Jabbourand Santos, 2006).

In the last evolution stage, the environmental management reaches the externalintegration level. In this stage, the activities are integrated to the strategies of theorganization focusing on explore opportunities in the competitive context of theorganization (Rosen, 2001). There are different benefits for organizations that reachsuch environmental management stage. For example, organizations can reduce costs

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through this management activity (Donaire, 1994). The reduction in energyconsumption, in the quantity of residues the organization has to deal with, in theamount of raw material used and wasted, and in the number of fine exemptions aredefined as economic benefits by Seiffert (2005) and Donaire (1994).

The benefits gained from improving the organization’s image in the eyes of thegovernment and activists, and in the market are the most frequently benefitsmentioned (Ginsberg and Bloom, 2004). Exposing the organization’s environmentalmanagement proactivity can attract compromised clients who are worried aboutenvironmental issues (Porter and Linde, 1995; Berry and Rondinelli, 1998). Hence, it canbe concluded that the environmental management has a determining role in theorganizations, and its adoption can become a competitive advantage (Molina-Azorınet al., 2009; Berry and Rondinelli, 1998). According to Stone (2000), the environmentalpractices that do not involve human resource dimensions, tend to fail. One of the mostrelevant human resource dimensions is environmental training, which aims atpreparing change agents to foster the genesis and development of the environmentalmanagement in organizations.

3. Environmental trainingAccording to Ivancevich (1995), training can be understood as the systematic processthrough which the employees’ behavior is directed towards the objectives of theorganization, and is considered essential for its success (Pfeffer, 1998). Goldstein (1993)defines training as the systematic acquisition of knowledge, skills, rules, approaches,and concepts, which result in the work performance improvement. Similarly,Borges-Andrade (2002) argue that training is a systematic organizational action thatfacilitates the acquisition of motor, intellectual, and acting skills and is thedevelopment of cognitive strategies, which can provide improved performance ofcurrent or future activities.

Milliman and Clair (1996) state that besides being an obligation, with whichorganizations that have achieved ISO 14001 certification have to comply,environmental training is one of the best practices to promote a strategicenvironmental management. The importance of environmental training is that it canpromote employees’ awareness stimulating proactive environmental actions(Unnikrishnan and Hegde, 2007). Perron et al. (2006) report that the environmentaltraining is a critical factor for the environmental management improvement inorganizations.

The major literature studies on environmental training are summarized in Table I.From the updated literature review conducted, it can be seen that a gap was found:conceptual models that enable organizational managers and researchers to evaluateproperly environmental training issues in organizations.

4. Best practices of environmental trainingThe best practices of environmental training considered in this study were selectedduring the process of identification, understanding, and systematization of theliterature available. All the following practices will be detailed along this section:

. offer environmental training to every organizational level (ISO 14001, 2004);

. involvement of organizational areas and determination of the multipliers forevery area of an organization (Zutshi and Sohal, 2004);

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Research Research summary Research type

Daily and Huang (2001) Identify human resource factors (HR) such as:support of top management administration,environmental training management, teamwork,and reward systems as key elements to theprocess of implementing the EMS(Environmental Management System). Propose aconceptual model of de HR- EMS factors tofacilitate the environmental managementprogram

Conceptual

Fernandez et al. (2003) Highlight the human resource contributions tothe development of an environmentally proactiveculture

Conceptual

Zobel and Burman (2004) State that one of the six most important factorsfor the success of an environmental managementsystem is the employees’ participation

Empirical

Babakri et al. (2003) Suggest that the training is a key element forimplementing EMS and approach changes

Empirical

Zutshi and Sohal (2004) Indicate that the training is a critical factor forimplementing EMS successfully and approachchanging

Empirical.

Zeng et al. (2005) Demonstrate that the training improved theenvironmental awareness

Empirical.

Wee and Quazi (2005) Demonstrate that human resource practices arecritical for environmental management inorganizations. Among those practices, theyinclude training as a crucial factor for the successof EMS

Empirical

Viebahn (2002) Suggests the use of the EMS model inuniversities with ten items to be followed for thedevelopment of the environmental management,and, in item 9, highlights the importance ofeducation and environmental training

Empirical

Von Oelreich (2004) States that during the implementing andmaintenance of its EMS, Malardalen University,Switzerland, offered continuous education andtraining to its directors, students, coordinatorsand secretaries

Empirical

Price (2005) Reports that in the University of Glamorgan,Wales, all professors, staff members, andstudents were given environmental awarenesstraining

Empirical

Sammalisto and Brorson (2008) They concluded that the environmental trainingand communication are very important tosupport EMS implementation in a university

Empirical

Unnikrishnan and Hegde (2007) Indicate current trends towards environmentaltraining identifying the kinds of training methodemployed by industries in India

Empirical

(continued )

Table I.Selected studies onenvironmental training

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. evaluation of environmental training needs according to the impact of theemployees’ responsibilities (ISO 14001, 2004);

. relevant aspects to the successful environmental training sessions (Wehrmeyer,1996);

. evaluation of environmental training results (Milliman and Clair, 1996); and

. involvement of logistic and supply chain’s members in environmental training.

One of the best practices of environmental training is offering it to the distincthierarchical levels of the organization. For the purposes of this study, they were

Research Research summary Research type

Venselaar (1995) Highlights that, in order to adjust competencesand knowledge about environmental issues, it isnecessary to implement a good modular coursesystem, which suits different hierarchical levels

Conceptual

Hale (1995) Concludes that training and environmentaleducation are of extreme importance for thecommercial success of the business. The authoralso found that the training is related to thedevelopment and EMS implementation

Conceptual

Jabbour and Santos (2008) Suggest an analysis of the main contributions ofthe HR dimensions for the environmentalmanagement in organizations

Conceptual

Jabbour et al. (2008) Indicate that, through interviews conducted infour Brazilian companies, the HRM managersconsidered that the training was the majorcontribution of their sector for environmentalmanagement

Empirical

ISO 14001(2004) In Item 4.4.2 (competence, training, andawareness), it defines that an organizationshould:Identify the training needsProvide training to fulfil necessities;Ensure that anyone, for him/herself or on ownbehalf, undertakes three tasks that causeenvironmental impacts based on backgroundeducation, training, or experience

Conceptual

Madsen and Ulhoi (2001) State that training is essential for executingenvironmental management programs

Empirical

Perron et al. (2006) In a survey conducted with 62 employees of twoCanadian companies, these authors report thatthere was no significant difference in the amountof environmental knowledge found between thegroup that received environmental training andthe one that did not. Thus, they state that,besides offering training, the organization shouldalso evaluate its effectiveness

Empirical

Table I.

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considered: strategic, tactical, and operational. The first one is responsible for thestrategic formulation of the organization and the determination of its future activities.The last level is responsible for the operational, routine, and more predictableactivities. The tactical level is related to the intermediary areas or departments that arepart of the organization’s structure, such as the operation and marketing areas, if theorganization is structured according to functions (Hall, 2004).

In view of this, the organization top management is responsible for defining thestrategy and environmental policy, so it should be updated on strategic environmentalissues that can influence future businesses such as the future of the organization due toglobal warming and carbon credit marketing among others. Regarding the tacticallevel, every organizational unity manager should verify how that area could contributeto the reduction of environmental impacts and explore opportunities of a proactiveenvironmental behavior. Thus, the tactical level should watchfully manage the areaoriented environmental training sessions such as the marketing area, which couldfocus on themes like green consumer, and the production area, which could adoptproductive processes which have less impact on the environment, new materials, andalternative and environmentally adequate subcomponents. Last, in the operationallevel, the supervisors and the shop floor employees are responsible for environmentaltraining sessions that focus on finding solutions to the question about how operationaland routine activities can reduce their environmental impact (Figure 1).

The definition of environmental training and the description of its spread throughthe organization include several areas and a management team that are part of theorganization’s training program called “environmental training committee”. It could becomposed of representatives of the organization areas, a top managementrepresentative, and the Environmental Management System (EMS) manager (with orwithout ISO 14001 certification). This committee, also known in literature as “green

Figure 1.Different kinds ofenvironmental trainingbased on organizationalhierarchical levels

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team” (Strachan, 1996), is responsible for determining the organization environmentaltraining multipliers (employees able of disseminating the experience they received) aswell as for the proposition of new methodologies and procedures to improve trainingactivities. It is worth mentioning the interface between the environmental managementand human resources areas. The latter has experience in offering and developingtraining procedures and methodologies.

All employees – not only those related to specific departments – should receiveenvironmental training, which is considered one of the major factors of environmentalmanagement success (Unnikrishnan and Hegde, 2007). These needs of training should bedetected integratedly and involve those responsible for the environmental managementprograms and the other areas of the organization (Fernandez et al., 2003), including theorganization top administrators (McCloskey and Maddock, 1994). Generally,environmental management training programs aim to (Fernandez et al., 2003):

. stimulate employees motivation about environmental issues;

. integrate the best practices of environmental training; and

. guarantee full cooperation from all areas of the organization.

A systematic training program design that enables employees to identifyenvironmental problems and the best way to approach them is necessary sincebuilding the capacity of the workforce has been considered essential for setting up andmaintaining environmental management practices in organizations (Denton, 1999;Madsen e Ulhoi, 2001). Govindarajulu and Daily (2004) add that the success ofenvironmental management programs demands that employees receive propertraining. If environmental training fails or is not enough, the employees will not beprepared to deal with highly problems.

Wehrmeyer (1996) recommends seven key elements of an environmental trainingprogram:

(1) maintaining the environmental message simple and relevant;

(2) short, informal training sessions and small groups;

(3) employees involvement in the issues through open sessions;

(4) appointing leaders for the environmental management;

(5) treating environmental dimension as a new organizational cultural value;

(6) highlighting environmental results found by employees of other organizations;and

(7) evaluating the effects of the training on the routine of employees.

Through the environment training, employees become more aware of the need forimprovement in the environmental management being more open to change resultingfrom the inclusion of the environmental dimension, and in consequence, they canunderstand the importance of acting proactively (Perron et al., 2006).

Nevertheless, offering environmental training does not guarantee per se animprovement in the level of knowledge of environmental management that employeeshave. For example, in a study carried out by Perron et al. (2006), relevant to this subject,a survey conducted with employees of two Canadian companies, indicated there wasno significant environmental knowledge differences between a group that received

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environmental training and another that did not. Therefore, they state that besidesoffering training, organizations should also evaluate its effectiveness. In view of this, itis necessary that the Environmental Training Committee develop tools for theenvironmental performance evaluation for each one of the three training levels shownin Figure 1.

Besides offering environmental training to employees of organizational areas,including the outsourced ones, it is relevant, for organizations that are attempting toachieve a proactive environmental management, that other organizations in the supplychain are in consonance with the activities of environmental training offered by themain company, i.e. by the most important company in the chain. The involvement ofsuppliers in management activities is a fundamental characteristic of organizationswith proactive or strategic environmental management. The organizations of a supplychain can engage in environmental training activities of the main company throughenvironmental workshops. The suppliers benefit from the fact that they are more likelyto be aligned with the environmental performance expectations of the client company,and so they renew and maintain their supply contracts. In order to map theorganization of a supply chain that could participate in environmental workshops, themodel of Wu and Dunn (2005), which presents a scheme of materials flow and properdecisions in organizations that are properly adequate, can be applied for all suppliers inthe chain (Figure 2). Environmental training could be thought in various phases

Figure 2.Central role ofenvironmental training onlogistic decisions thatshould consider theenvironmental dimension

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(e.g. raw material, organization of inputs, and others) of the model of Wu and Dunn(2005). Emergent topics, as reverse logistics can be important for environmentaltraining activities for the entire supply chain.

The integration between the best practices and improvement of the organizationalresults is present bellow.

5. Model of integration for the alignment of environmental training andorganizational resultsFigure 3 shows the model of integration between hierarchical levels and decisionrelated to environmental training, the elements that will assure that decisions aboutenvironmental training are considered, and finally, the organizational results expecteddue to an organizational investment in environment training activities. As shown inFigure 3, in the step number 1, for each hierarchical level, the decisions that should betaken for an efficient environmental training that can contribute to the organizationalresults are defined. The strategic level, for example, should take decisions related toenvironmental training that will provide proper information to face challenges andexplore environmental opportunities typical of a proactive environmentalmanagement. In the tactical level, the decisions are related to the best practices andways the organizational areas can contribute to the environmental management inorganizations. Whereas, in the operational level, the decisions are concerned withenvironmental training issues that can provide the reduction of routine organizationalimpacts. For an efficient training in these levels, support and some essential elementsthat include requirements for the success of environmental training are needed (stepnumber 2). For example, in step number 2, there is environmental training committee,which is a team, formed by both employees of the environmental management area andthe human resources area. The goal of this team is to plan and execute environmentaltraining process of an organization. At last, it is expected environmental traininginfluences positively the organizational results (step number 3) and that theassessment of those results is the basis of a continuous improvement process.

6. ConclusionsThis article aimed at evidencing the importance of environmental training for anenvironmental management efficient and effective. The organizations are included intofar more competitive context, even in traditionally stable sectors. Therefore, theunderstanding that an environmental management can create value for thestakeholders will differentiate organizations that are pioneers from their directcompetitors by creating a competitive advantage. Clients have become sensible of theimpacts of products consumption on the environment. In the purchase decision-makingprocess, this variable will carry weight increasingly, affecting the choice of a productor service.

Therefore, the major contributions of this work were demonstrating the importanceof environmental training and proposing a model of a proactive approach helping themanagers of each organizational level to investigate the relevant questions related toenvironmental training and possible interactions with other hierarchical levels.Moreover, the issue about the essential elements for an efficient environmental trainingwas debated in this study. Such issue should be discussed more frequently inorganizations.

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Figure 3.Model of integrationbetween environmentaltraining andorganizational results

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Another contribution of this research was to emphasize the need to devote moreattention to an adequate training programs design, in which the differences betweenorganizations are highlighted for a successful training. Thus, a literature review onenvironmental training was conducted organizing them in a systematic way allowing abetter understanding for future researchers interested in this topic.

Indeed, it can be said that an in-depth discussion about fundamental elements forefficient training, and therefore, a proactive environmental management are needed.We propose a future research focusing on these issues on a daily routine oforganizations for deeper understanding of particular environmental trainingdifficulties by improving and adapting the model (Figure 3) for specific needs,situations, and sectors. In addition, it would be useful to verify the relation betweenevolutionary stages of environmental management and the environmental trainingfeatures in its organizations.

However, the main limitation of this article is the theoretical nature of the articlethat needs to be complemented by empirical evidence. For example, the modelproposed here needs to be empirically tested.

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About the authorsCharbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour holds a PhD in Production Engineering from the University ofSao Paulo, Brazil. He holds a BA in Public Administration from the Sao Paulo State University,Brazil. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Economics, Management andAccounting, University of Sao Paulo. He teaches Organizational Theory, EnvironmentalManagement in Organizations and Organizational Sustainability. He is interested in research onenvironmental management and sustainability applied to various types of organizations such ascompanies and universities. His research has been published in the International Journal of

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Sustainability in Higher Education, Journal of Cleaner Production, Industrial Management &Data Systems, and others. Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour is the corresponding author and canbe contacted at: charbel@usp.br

Adriano Alves Teixeira has a Master’s in Industrial Engineering from the Sao Paulo StateUniversity – UNESP/Bauru.

Jorge Henrique Caldeira de Oliveira is Assistant Professor of Organizational Theory inUniversity of Sao Paulo at Ribeirao Preto (FEA-RP/USP). He has a PhD in Economics from theSao Paulo State University, Brazil.

Davi Fouad Soubihia is an undergraduate student in Business Administration in theUniversity of Sao Paulo at Ribeirao Preto (FEA-RP/USP).

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