IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v14y2005i6p339-360.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of operator involvement in pollution reduction: case studies in Canadian chemical companies

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier Boiral

Abstract

In contrast to most environmental engineering processes, the effectiveness of employee involvement in pollution reduction seems uncertain, ambiguous and far from being clearly established. For companies whose environmental policies have long rested on technical investments, this uncertainty raises several essential questions, namely ‘what is the true effectiveness of this approach?’, ‘to what degree does employee involvement, most specifically operator involvement, make it possible to significantly and measurably reduce environmental impacts?’ and ‘what type of change could this induce in company operations?’. This article proposes answers to these questions based on an empirical study of the preventive and behavioural aspects of environmental management in the Canadian chemical industry. Conducted in three chemical factories from the Montreal region, the case studies show that significant results, often exceeding managers' expectations, could be obtained through the operators' involvement. However, these results and the precise organizational changes that caused them were difficult to identify, measure and foresee. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Boiral, 2005. "The impact of operator involvement in pollution reduction: case studies in Canadian chemical companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(6), pages 339-360, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:14:y:2005:i:6:p:339-360
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.431
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.431
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.431?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olivier Boiral, 2003. "ISO 9000: Outside the Iron Cage," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(6), pages 720-737, December.
    2. Ouchi, William, 1981. "Theory Z: How American business can meet the Japanese challenge," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 82-83.
    3. Barry Turner, 1981. "Some practical aspects of qualitative data analysis: One way of organising the cognitive processes associated with the generation of grounded theory," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 225-247, June.
    4. Boiral, Olivier & Sala, Jean-Marie, 1998. "Environmental management: Should industry adopt ISO 14001?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 57-64.
    5. S. Antonio Ruiz‐Quintanilla & John Bunge & Adrienne Freeman‐Gallant & Ed Cohen‐Rosenthal, 1996. "Employee Participation In Pollution Reduction: A Socio‐Technical Perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 137-144, September.
    6. Pascale, Richard Tanner & Athos, Anthony G., 1981. "The art of Japanese management," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 83-85.
    7. Beirne, Martin, 1999. "Managing to empower? a healthy review of resources and constraints," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 218-225, April.
    8. Mouritsen, Jan & Ernst, Jesper & Jørgensen, Aksel Møller, 2000. "'Green' certification as a managerial technology," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 167-187, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ji Li & Fuqiang Zhao & Silu Chen & Wanxing Jiang & Tao Liu & Shengping Shi, 2017. "Gender Diversity on Boards and Firms’ Environmental Policy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 306-315, March.
    2. Olivier Boiral & Nicolas Raineri & David Talbot, 2018. "Managers’ Citizenship Behaviors for the Environment: A Developmental Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 395-409, May.
    3. Nicolas Raineri & Pascal Paillé, 2016. "Linking Corporate Policy and Supervisory Support with Environmental Citizenship Behaviors: The Role of Employee Environmental Beliefs and Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 129-148, August.
    4. Olivier Boiral & Pascal Paillé & Nicolas Raineri, 2015. "The nature of employees’ pro-environmental behaviors," Post-Print hal-03795985, HAL.
    5. Noor Ullah Khan & Wenya Wu & Roselina Binti Ahmad Saufi & Nur Ain Ayunni Sabri & Ashfaq Ahmad Shah, 2021. "Antecedents of Sustainable Performance in Manufacturing Organizations: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-23, January.
    6. Olivier Boiral & Mario Cayer & Charles Baron, 2009. "The Action Logics of Environmental Leadership: A Developmental Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(4), pages 479-499, April.
    7. Lei Wang & Steven Li & Simon Gao, 2014. "Do Greenhouse Gas Emissions Affect Financial Performance? – an Empirical Examination of Australian Public Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(8), pages 505-519, December.
    8. Bruce Clemens & Charles E. Bamford & Thomas J. Douglas, 2008. "Choosing strategic responses to address emerging environmental regulations: size, perceived influence and uncertainty," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(8), pages 493-511, December.
    9. William Young & Matthew Davis & Ilona M. McNeill & Bindu Malhotra & Sally Russell & Kerrie Unsworth & Chris W. Clegg, 2015. "Changing Behaviour: Successful Environmental Programmes in the Workplace," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 689-703, December.
    10. Wu, Guo-Ciang & Ding, Jyh-Hong & Chen, Ping-Shun, 2012. "The effects of GSCM drivers and institutional pressures on GSCM practices in Taiwan’s textile and apparel industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 618-636.
    11. Olivier Boiral & Jean‐François Henri & David Talbot, 2012. "Modeling the Impacts of Corporate Commitment on Climate Change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(8), pages 495-516, December.
    12. Zahid Yousaf & Brutu Mădălina & Daniela Mihai & Hrestic Maria-Luiza & Ștefan Maria Cristina & Popescu Constantin, 2022. "Pollution Reduction as Catalyst between Environmental Resources Conservation Efforts and Sustainable Development: Investigation of Energy Firms in Circular Economy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-13, September.
    13. Olivier Boiral, 2009. "Greening the Corporation Through Organizational Citizenship Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 221-236, June.
    14. Elisa Alt & Emilio Díez-de-Castro & Francisco Lloréns-Montes, 2015. "Linking Employee Stakeholders to Environmental Performance: The Role of Proactive Environmental Strategies and Shared Vision," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 167-181, April.
    15. Guido Martinolli & Marco de Angelis & Núria Tordera & Luca Pietrantoni, 2021. "The Organizational Climate for Sustainable Commuting: An Italian Validation Study in the Academic Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-15, August.
    16. Olivier Boiral & Pascal Paillé, 2012. "Organizational Citizenship Behaviour for the Environment: Measurement and Validation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(4), pages 431-445, September.
    17. Muhammad Hafeez & Ida Md. Yasin & Dahlia Zawawi & Naveed Akhtar Qureshi & Syed Talib Hussain & Muhammad Arif, 2022. "A Review of the Role of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Enhancing Corporate Sustainability: An Underpinning Role of Stern and Dietz’s Value Model," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olivier Boiral, 2009. "Greening the Corporation Through Organizational Citizenship Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 221-236, June.
    2. Olivier Boiral, 2007. "Corporate Greening Through ISO 14001: A Rational Myth?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(1), pages 127-146, February.
    3. Goncalo, Jack A. & Staw, Barry M., 2006. "Individualism-collectivism and group creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 96-109, May.
    4. Eleni ARAVOPOULOU, 2015. "Zmiana Organizacyjna – Przegląd Teorii I Koncepcji," Nowoczesne Systemy Zarządzania. Modern Management Systems, Military University of Technology, Faculty of Security, Logistics and Management, Institute of Organization and Management, issue 1, pages 19-32.
    5. Daimer Higuita López, 2012. "Interiorización de las manifestaciones culturales en los miembros de la organización," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, December.
    6. Sanjay Srivastava, 2000. "Concepts of Culture and Organisational Analysis: A Perspective," Vision, , vol. 4(1_suppl), pages 32-42, January.
    7. Olivier Boiral & Pascal Paillé & Nicolas Raineri, 2015. "The nature of employees’ pro-environmental behaviors," Post-Print hal-03795985, HAL.
    8. David Chiavacci & Sebastien Lechevalier, 2017. "Japanese Political Economy Revisited," Working Papers halshs-02079751, HAL.
    9. Alexandra-Daniela SIVULCA & Nicolae BIBU & Maria-Madela ABRUDAN, 2024. "Digital Transformation And Digital Culture," Oradea Journal of Business and Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 34-43, March.
    10. Rutaichanok Jingjit & Marianna Fotaki, 2010. "Confucian Ethics and the Limited Impact of the New Public Management Reform in Thailand," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 61-73, December.
    11. Alberto Díaz de Junguitu & Erlantz Allur, 2019. "The Adoption of Environmental Management Systems Based on ISO 14001, EMAS, and Alternative Models for SMEs: A Qualitative Empirical Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-17, December.
    12. Kevin McCormick, 2007. "Sociologists and `the Japanese model': a passing enthusiasm?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(4), pages 751-771, December.
    13. Roth, Martin S. & Money, R. Bruce & Madden, Thomas J., 2004. "Purchasing processes and characteristics of industrial service buyers in the U.S. and Japan," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 183-198, May.
    14. Elisabet Garrido & Consuelo González & Raquel Orcos, 2020. "ISO 14001 and CO2 emissions: An analysis of the contingent role of country features," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 698-710, February.
    15. Ronald C. Nyhan & Herbert A. Marlowe JR, 1997. "Development and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Trust Inventory," Evaluation Review, , vol. 21(5), pages 614-635, October.
    16. Virginia W. Gerde & Jeanne M. Logsdon, 2001. "Measuring environmental performance: use of the toxics release inventory (TRI) and other US environmental databases," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(5), pages 269-285, September.
    17. Desjardins, Christoph & Baker, Mark, 2013. "The Leadership Task Model," Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, Hochschule Kempten - University of Applied Sciences, Professional School of Business & Technology, vol. 2, pages 17-39.
    18. Olga Lucía Anzola Morales & Diego Armando Marín Idárraga & Juan Carlos Cuartas Marín, 2017. "Fundamentación teórica de la cultura, la estructura y la estrategia de la organización. Referentes para el análisis y diseño organizacional," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Administración de Empresas, edition 1, number 45, August.
    19. Eleanor Westney, 2020. "Reflecting on Japan’s contributions to management theory," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(1), pages 8-24, February.
    20. Dimitrios Belias & Athanasios Koustelios, 2014. "Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction: A Review," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 4(2), pages 132-149.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:14:y:2005:i:6:p:339-360. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.