Description
Involvement is referred to in marketing as the consumer feels that a product has something to do with the consumer himself and his personality, so that a purchase has a major impact on the buyer to follow.
Företagsekonomiska institutionen Department of Business Studies
Involvement in ISO 14001
ISO 14001 from a user perspective
Niklas Bomark
Master thesis, 30hp
Abstract
Today the ISO 14001 system is used within a rather wide spectrum of firms and industries, even if the early adopters of the standard mainly where organizations in the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors (Peglaue and Baxter, 2007). Many of those early adopters have now been certified for over 10 years, and during the years several surveys and case studies have been conducted to pinpoint the motives, benefits and challenges for why organizations chose to implement and maintain the system (Massoud, 2010; Jiang and Bansal, 2003). However, one issue with research about ISO 14001 up until now is that most studies have focused upon a managerial perspective where the managers´ attitudes have been in focus rather than the employees (Boiral, 2007). Therefore, this case study set out to explore how the employees, the production operators, inside one certified organization are involved in ISO 14001 through a Grounded Theory approach. The results of the study showed that the production operators relied upon different strategies in order to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001. Further on, the study shows that the production operators where involved in ISO 14001 at a level which was required in order to keep the certification. However, they could not obtain enough legitimacy to motivate an involvement in ISO 14001 which extended what was required in order to keep the certification. Grounded in the discovery of the different strategies used by the employees, this study argues that environmental awareness could be seen as an internal barrier and as a source for unsatisfied employees. Something which risks emphasizes a feeling of being involved in a rational myth (Boiral, 2007).
Niklas Bomark | Involvement in ISO 14001 | Uppsala University | Department of Business Studies | 2011
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION PART .................................................................................................1
1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................... 1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 3 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Stance – a pragmatic view of knowledge ........................................................................................... 5 3.2 Research Design – qualitative evidence, case strategy and grounded theory ................................... 6 3.3 Literature review ................................................................................................................................ 7 3.4 Collecting – site visits, interviews and documents ............................................................................. 7 3.5 Analysis – grouping and comparing .................................................................................................. 10
PART ONE: PREREQUISITES FOR INVOLVEMENT ...................................... 13
4. NEEDS AND MOTIVES BEHIND ISO 14001 ............................................................................................. 13
4.1 The case organization ....................................................................................................................... 13 4.2 Motives behind ISO 14001 ................................................................................................................ 14
5. THE 14001 SYSTEM ........................................................................................................................... 15
5.1 An administrative system with practical routines ............................................................................ 15 5.2 Lack of feedback ............................................................................................................................... 16
SUMMARY OF PART ONE ........................................................................................................................ 17
PART TWO: STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH INVOLVEMENT .......... 18
6. IN SEARCH FOR A MEANING ................................................................................................................. 18
6.1 The Ideologists strategy .................................................................................................................... 19 6.2 The Turncoats strategy ..................................................................................................................... 19 6.3 Interoperating inside the organization ............................................................................................. 21
7. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................................................... 24
7.1 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 24 7.2 Managerial implications and theoretical consideration ................................................................... 25
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 27 8. REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................... 28
Niklas Bomark | Involvement in ISO 14001 | Uppsala University | Department of Business Studies | 2011
Introduction
The first chapter describes the topic relevant for this thesis and presents the purpose with the study. During the second chapter a theoretical review is presented, followed by a methodological discussion in chapter three.
1. Introduction
With our feet standing in the beginning of the 21st century, more than 200 years after the Industrial Revolution, environmental issues seem to have become a strong recurring feature in modern organizations (Okoye, 2009). Even if the idea of environmental and social responsibility extends further back in time1 (Taneja et al., 2011, Okoye, 2009, Cacioppe et al., 2008, Dodd, 1932), it was not until recently that voluntary environmental initiatives started to be integrated into daily business and organizational life (Boiral and Saga, 1998). One reason for the rise of voluntary environmental activities within organizations during the last years could be found in the development of market-based incentives, where organizations are proposed to use proactive strategies rather than regulatory driven ones (Massoud, 2010, Anton et al., 2004). Especially among organizations within the European Union (EU) these voluntary strategies have come to involve Environmental Management Systems (EMS) (Heras-Saizarbitoria et al. 2011). An EMS can be defined as “the part of the overall management system that includes organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing, and maintaining the environmental policy?? (Lozanoa and Valles, 2007 p.1). These systems could be described as rather systematic processes, emphasizing continuous improvement processes in the daily work with environmental activities (Heras-Saizarbitoria et al. 2011). One of the most commonly used EMS today is the ISO 14001 system which were introduced in 1996. 10 years later, in 2007, ISO 14001 was used by more than 111 000 companies in 138 countries worldwide (Peglau and Baxter, 2007). In Sweden, where 4411 companies were certificated at the end of 2006 (ISO, 2006), the impact of the standard on daily business life have been substantial. ISO 14001 is today used within a rather wide spectrum of firms and industries, even if the early adopters of the standard mainly where organizations in the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors (Peglaue and Baxter, 2007). Many of those early adopters have now been certified for at least 10 years, and over the years several surveys and case studies have been conducted to pinpoint the motives, benefits and challenges for implementing and maintaining the system (Massoud, 2010; Jiang and Bansal, 2003). However, one issue with research about ISO 14001 up until now is that most studies have focused upon a managerial perspective where the managers´ attitudes have been in focus rather than the employees (Boiral, 2007). Having research that only focuses on managerial perspectives tends to emphasize the managerial side of the problem and neglect the employee´s experiences.
Some argue that there have been debates about ethical and social responsibilities ever since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (Cacioppe et al., 2008). Others argue that it had its genesis with E. Merrick Dodd, Jr. (Taneja et al., 2011, Okoye, 2009), who believed that corporate managers, in addition to the economic responsibilities toward shareholders, also had social responsibilities towards the society (Dodd, 1932).
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By ignoring processes taking place among employees there is a risk of creating a distorted view of what is important for the employees when it comes to using the ISO 14001. Especially when considering the rather extensive process which the employees and managers in a firm usually have to go through when obtaining the certification (Jiang and Bansal, 2003). Blomgren and Sahlin Andersson (2003 p.42-49) describe these two perspectives by using two different research approaches; the reform perspective and the user perspective. The reform perspective sees work from the managerial side, where the daily work is condemned successful when the organization has reached the predetermined goals which were stated by the managers. Evaluating work from the reform perspective tends to see deviations from the original purpose as failures. The user perspective, on the other hand, look upon the daily work from an employee perspective, and focuses upon the processes which the employees goes through when perceiving the actual work – whether or not it is in accordance with the original purpose stated by the managers. The user perspective emphasizes that the daily work in fact is rather likely to occur and appear in unintentional ways, especially when one process get mixed with many other work processes. Of course it could be claimed that ISO 14001 is a management system which needs to be investigated from a managerial perspective. However, this does not change that the system does in fact affect employees further down in the organization, employees who have to participate in the routines derived from the system in order for the system to work (Kitazawa and Sarkis, 2000). Therefore, one could argue that it should be equally as important to get insights into how the users of the system perceive and are involved in ISO 14001 as it should be to explore the managers? perceptions of the system. This case study tries to explore new insights and reduce the gap in the literature when it comes to how employees, the users, are involved in the ISO 14001 processes initiated by management. As such the purpose of the thesis is to further explore and understand how the production operators at one industrial organization are involved in the ISO 14001 environmental management system. In that way this study brings on an individual level analysis in order to explore the internal dynamic processes which take part inside an industrial organization. In order to reach the purpose of this study two research questions has been formulated. The first question stress how the production operators get involved in ISO 14001, meanwhile the second question focuses upon how the production operators perceive their daily work with the ISO 14001 system. In doing so this study does not make any attempt to address how managers try to create or increase involvement among the production operators. Rather this study stress a user perspective and aims to describe the story as it is told among and from the production operators. In that way, the value of this thesis is to contribute to existing research by explore how production operators´ perceive their work with the ISO 14001 management system. A more general way to frame the value of this thesis is to see the research as a journey towards an exploration of how the technical core of the company works with and perceive one management system. From a practical view, and for the management team in a manufacturing company, the subject of this thesis is valuable in order to further explore how production operators are dealing with ISO 14001 routines in their daily work.
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2. Literature review
The ISO 14001 was released in October 1996 in order to standardize what should be included in an EMS (Peglaue and Baxter, 2007). As an EMS the ISO 14001 describes how firms and organizations should design, maintain and improve their environmental work. It is a framework, which is used in order to identify, standardize and manage environmental work, designed by the individual organization (Poksinska et. al. 2003). Further on this means that the system does not specify any particular predefined levels of environmental performance (ISO, 2011a). One consequence of the lack of predefined levels in the system is that it is hard to compare environmental performance between different organizations. The environmental performance of one certified organization varies dependent upon which procedures that are used in order to review and manage the environmental work (Poksinska et. al. 2003). In that way a healthy ISO 14001 should give the organization ability to measure and monitor its environmental performance (Ammenberg, 2001). Since the introduction of ISO 14001 several authors have disputed from a managerial perspective about the actual motives behind why organizations choose to implement the system. From an external perspective common motives for implementing ISO 14001 have been suggested to be related to: (i) improvements in corporate image (Massoud, 2010; Poksinska, 2003; Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001), (ii) customer pressure (Massoud, 2010; Poksinska, 2003), (iii) better relation to public image (Poksinska, 2003) and (iiii) demands from the government (Rivera-Camino, 2001). From an internal perspective common motives have been proposed to be about: (i) minimization of legal and economic risks for violating the environment (Schaltegger et al., 2003; Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001; Rivera-Camino, 2001), (ii) improved environmental performance (Massoud, 2010) and environmental awareness (Brorson and Almgren, 2006), (iii) cost reduction (Brorson and Almgren, 2007; Schaltegger et al., 2003) and (iiii) systematization of environmental work (Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001). It has also been suggested that ISO 14001 represents both an internal management tool and a way to reach legitimacy from external stakeholders (Boiral, 2007). Even if some studies emphasize that economic purposes are more important than environmental purposes and that external demands are more important than internal reasons (Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001), there seem to be several different motives behind why organizations chose to engage in ISO 14001. The motives behind implementing ISO 14001 among organizations are debated. However, it seems to be few doubts in what way the ISO 14001 system is promoted, both among organizations, consultants, some scholars, but also by the ISO organization itself. In a report from two ISO consultants it can be read: “The standard has enormous potential to diffuse good practice worldwide on environmental issues” (Peglau and Baxter, 2007 p.13). Further on, behind this „good practice? lies a clear emphasis on the rationality of the system, a rationality that is promoted by different stakeholders. For instance, the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment (Swedac) writes that the purpose of a management system is to provide support for leading, controlling and improving a company's or organization's activities by offering a tool to establish and maintain effective processes (Swedac.se, 2011). In order to fulfill this purpose the ISO 14001 is based upon the philosophy of Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA), where a clear aim is set to continuously strive towards improving the internal work (Swedac.se, 2011). In that way the picture given is that ISO 14001 system represent a rational method in order to decrease organizational impact on the environment. Tibor and Feldman
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(1996) describe this in a clear way when emphasizing that an organization which has been environmentally certified, in a systematized way should be able to reduce their environmental impact by meeting the requirements set by the ISO 14001 system. It is easy to follow how the logic goes; if you implement an ISO 14001 system, you will increase the rationality of your environmental work and decrease the environmental impact of the organization. Considering the ongoing debate inside academia of whether or not organizations actually improve their environmental performance with ISO 14001, the system?s efficiency seems far from common ground. The first reason for the lack of consensus is the question of how researchers should measure environmental performance and second how to compare the performance between different organizations (Nawrocka and Parker, 2008). This process is made even harder because ISO 14001 does not prescribe any standard measurements. However, in order to silence the debate researcher has suggested the need for longitudinal studies including several companies (Massoud, 2010; Hillary, 2000). The dispute concerning whether or not organizations actually improve their environmental performance through ISO 14001 is an important discussion, emphasizing the uncertainty which seems to be embedded in the system. Studies focusing upon internal barriers for implementing ISO 14001 from a managerial perspective has described how some organizations meet strong resistance from the (i) bureaucratic nature of the system, especially among those that had no previous experience with similar systems (Massoud, 2010). Other internal barriers hindering the use of ISO 14001 have been suggested to be: (ii) lack of perceived benefits (Massoud, 2010; Hillary, 2000), (iii) insufficient resources (Hillary, 2000) and (iiii) lack of awareness, commitment and concern for environmental issues (Hillary, 2000). However, these studies were conducted from a managerial perspective, where managers have been in focus for the investigation and therefore gave little insight into how the ISO 14001 were seen from a user perspective. There seems to be few studies that delves deeper and explains the processes behind implementing and using ISO 14001 from a user perspective in practice (Balzarova and Castka, 2008; Boiral, 2007). Balzarova and Castka (2008) have investigated how the underlying mechanisms in the maintenance of ISO 14001 could be described and found that the design stages of the system were crucial in order to be able to create appropriate involvement later on in the processes. In that way they emphasized the importance of having a thorough implementation process. Kitazawa and Sarkis (2000) conducted three case studies with similar attributes e.g. organizational size, history, culture and technology and found that the critical points were related to empowerment and the organizational ability to involve the employees in the continuous improvements processes. However, the study focuses upon the relationship between ISO 14001 and continuous source reduction programs through an organizational perspective. Furthermore, even if theirs study focused upon the employees, the authors framed the study towards investigating ISO 14001 from a reform perspective, where the system was seen as a method to increase environmental performance already from the beginning. By doing so they put up a blueprint of how the purpose should be viewed and then compared the blueprint against what was found among the employees. Another way to look at the system is to see ISO 14001 as a tool used in order to reach external legitimacy. Boiral (2007) has for instance shown that the process of how organizations integrate the ISO 14001 could be seen as a rational myth. The organizations participating in the case study implemented the system but gained few real improvements, except
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technical and administrative improvements. In fact, he found that most of the daily practices remained somewhat loosely coupled and in some cases even decoupled from the ISO 14001 system meant that the employees had a rather vague understanding of the system. The concepts of loose coupling are commonly accredited to Weick (1976) who used it to explain educational organizations as loosely coupled systems. During this study the idea of loose coupling will be interpreted through a dialectical interpretation accordingly to Orton and Weick, (1990 p.205). They distinguish between responsiveness and distinctiveness where a system which neither has responsiveness nor distinctiveness is not a real system, it is something which could be defined as a non-coupled system. A system characterized by responsiveness without distinctiveness is a tightly coupled system meanwhile a system with distinctiveness without responsiveness is decoupled. However, if there is both responsiveness and distinctiveness the system is loosely coupled. Boiral (2007) carried out his study from an institutional perspective, where the analysis was put on an organizational level. In that way he did not delve deeper into how the employees felt about the system and how they perceived the loosely and sometimes decoupled systems on an individual level. It is here that this case study has its foundation and as such seeks to explore and give new insights into how the employees, from a user perspective, are involved into the ISO 14001 processes initiated by the management.
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Stance – a pragmatic view of knowledge Regardless of what philosophy we turn to when it comes to how knowledge arise and of how knowing develops, it is important to reflect upon our own values and how these values and beliefs affect our research (Merriam, 1994 p.34). The stance taken during this research is inspired by the philosofy of American Pragmatism2 which treated inquiry as a mode of action and of doing (Heelan and Schulkin, 1998). Even if the view of pragmatism differs depending on the writer (Ormerod, 2006), the main theme is that knowledge arises through action and interaction (Corbin and Strauss, 2008), without any pronounced boundary between science, philosophy and ordinary action (Heelan and Schulkin, 1998). Furthermore knowledge is seen as temporary (Simpson, 2009), where at least some kind of social knowledge passes on from generation to generation (Ormerod, 2006; Corbin and Strauss, 2008). In that way knowledge is processoriented where “Knowledge leads to useful action, and action sets problems to be thought about, resolved, and thus is converted into new knowledge…” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4-5). The assumptions above give rise for a philosophy where knowledge and everyday action is closely related to each other, where the knower cannot separate him or herself from what is discovered. For the researcher, knowledge becomes something, which “… enters silently into his or her search for, and ultimately conclusions about, some event.”3 (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4), where the definition of truth becomes formulated as “for the time being this is what we know – but eventually it may be judged partly or even wholly wrong.” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4). In this way pragmatism emphasizes a theory of learning with its foundation in experience,
Pragmatism is commonly attributed to writers such as Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey and George Herbert Mead (Simpson, 2009). 3 However, even if the pragmatists believe in the impossibility for a researcher to be objective, they do not claim radical relativism. “Radical relativism reasons that since no version or interpretation can be proven, therefore no certainty about any given one can be assumed” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4).
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experimentation and action – something that often has been criticized by academics (Ormerod, 2006). However, as Ormerod (2006) says, “pragmatism is not against theory, it simply gives it a different, less exalted role, a role in the service of practice…” (p.906). From a pragmatist view, we need a method where we can build our theory of learning by “intelligent inquiry and experimentally testing hypotheses created and refined from our previous experience…” (Ormerod, 2006 p.901). Therefore, we need a theory, which is grounded in practice (Glaser and Strauss, 1965). 3.2 Research Design – qualitative evidence, case strategy and grounded theory Few qualitative studies have been exploring how production operators perceive and work with ISO 14001. As Boiral (2007) notes “… most studies on the impact of ISO 14001 are based on quantitative research and are focused on managers? attitudes”. (p.130-131). Thereof, the purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of how the production operators perceive and work with this particular system through a qualitative and exploratory study. In order to explore something which is unknown it is important to be able to stay open and consider several dimensions related to the phenomenon (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The case study strategy offer an approach to social science which is especially appropriate when seeking to explore the unknown in order to contribute to new empirical valid theory (Yin 1981, Eishenhardt and Bourgeois 1989). Yin (1981) actually compare the challenges which face the researcher who indulges in case studies with the work of the detective who´s task is to “produce a tentative explanation for a single crime (p.63). In that way it is a “research strategy which focuses on understandning the dynamics present within single settings4” (Eishenhardt 1989, p.534). Case studies can be both exploratory, descriptive and explanatory to its nature (Yin 1981), and be used to provide descripton, test theory or generate theory (Eishenhardt 1989, Corbin and Strauss 2008). This study is exploratory to its nature and aims to improve the readers understanding of the investigated phenomenon, create new meaning and generate new substantive theories (Glaser and Strauss, 1976). The single case approach was selected because it gave the opportunity to study how the production operators perceived ISO 14001 in depth with a focus upon the exploration of a specific phenomenon. The relevance of the selected case was imprinted by several goal-oriented criteria derived from a pre-study (Merriam 1998, p.61). The first criterion was that the organization should have worked with ISO 14001 during a longer period of time so as to ensure that data collection reflected valid experience of ISO 14001. The second criterion was that the organization should be able to participate in a close collaboration in order to get the chance to combine both practical and theoretical experiences into the research. Even if single case studies could be argued having a low level of statistical generalizability, it is not the primary goal of the case strategy (Eisenhardt, 1989). Instead the focus in this study lays in the exploration of unknown categories and concepts – not in quantifying or generalizing them (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). However, even if generalization in a statistical manner is not the
However, singel settings does not mean that a case study cannot incorporate several cases (Eishenhardt and Bourgeois, 1988).
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purpose with this study, the aim to explore the local phenomenon could give rise to knowledge and insights that can be valuable in other situations which are similar to the one investigated in this case (Merriam, 1998). The analytical framework, which was selected to inspire the research, was the Grounded Theory. Grounded theory provides a systematic process for categorizing and grouping qualitative data with the aim to build theories (Corbin and Strauss, 2008), especially theories grounded in practice – so called substantive theories (Glaser and Strauss, 1965). Grounded theory is well suitable when someone seeks to explore an unknown phenomenon in order to bring about greater understanding about a complex, interpreted and changeable world (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.8). 3.3 Literature review The literature search during the initial stages of the research was divided into a pre-study and the research at the case organization. During the initial stage at the pre-study the literature search was primarily focused on seeking to explore, develop and explain the concepts derived from the interviews by reading into important but disperse areas (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The literature could also be claimed to increase my inspiration, to increase new ideas and to increase a theoretical sensibility (Merriam, 1998 p.77). Central theories during this stage were Modern, Symbolic and Post-modern organizational theories (e.g. see Hatch, 2002), Agency theories (e.g. see Eisenhardt´s review in Eisenhardt, 1989), Loose coupling (see Weick, 1976) and Structure and Output theory (e.g. see for instance the introduction to Coleman´s sociology in Marsden, 2005). However, during the last phase of the pre-study, and the beginning stage at case study, one focused literature review was conducted in order to sort out what had been written in the literature about environmental work in general and ISO 14001 in specific. This was a way to carry out literature reviews recommended by Corbin and Strauss, (2008). In order to unravel gaps in the literature the literature review focused upon three aspects which usually characterizes a literature review; integrative (which summarize early research), theoretical and methodological reviews (Merriam, 1998 p.74). Central gaps that were identified in the literature were the lack of qualitative studies when it comes to ISO 14001 and the lack of a user (or worker) perspective in the literature. The focused literature review was conducted after the first analysis of the data collected through the pre-study. In that way the already identified concepts which were grounded in the data could be related and combined with the literature in the field (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The literature reviews was carried out with Merriam´s (1998 p.78) guide kept in mind; (1) search for information, (2) data base searching and article search, (3) selection of literature to review, (4) when the references and the topics started to saturate the process focuses at (5) evaluating the selected literature (Merriam, 1998 p.78). 3.4 Collecting – site visits, interviews and documents To explore how the production operators experience and perceive ISO 14001 data was collected through a variety of sources, one of the virtues of qualitative research in general (Corbin and Strauss, 2008), and for the case strategy in particular (Eishenhardt 1989, p.534). To be more
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specific, data collection was based on site visits (observations), individual- and group interviews and internal documents concerning ISO 14001 – a rich variety of sources which helped me to explore the specific phenomenon from different perspectives (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). Table 1 on the following page illustrates the methods used in order to collect the data during this study. When first arriving at the organization, a guided tour at the production facility was set up together with the environmental coordinator. This tour was important in order to understand the main context and structure of the production facility. During this guided tour notes were made in a notebook at the same time focus was on observations of central elements in both context and structure. For instance, it was during the guided tour that the use of symbols such as waste instructions and other posters emphasizing the waste disposal in the daily work were observed – observations which later on were an inspiration for further questions during the interviews. Except that observations can be a source for further questions, observations also are important because “it is not unusual for persons to say they are doing one thing but in reality they are doing something else.” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.29). One example of this happened during an interview with one of the production operators, which at the same time he was saying that the waste management was working well in the facility, discovered that someone had tossed some kind of plastic material inside the paper disposal. Observations, both during and after interviews, have in that way been a valuable source for exploring unspoken information and validating spoken information (Merriam, 1998). Further on, observations were carried out through participation in official meetings or just by listening to the production operators´ informal conversations. Everything was documented through field notes or pictures. These occasions helped to develop a deeper understanding of the production operators´ situation and why they behaved as they did. The guided tour that was carried out was followed by a two hour long interview with the environmental coordinator – an interview which was reflexive and loosely structured from broad themes (Alvesson, 1999), developed through theoretical sampling from the pre-study (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). This interview was the beginning of an intense period of interviews, transcription and basic analysis which continued until session four was completed. The interviewees were selected through a dialogue between me and the environmental coordinator where we discussed the themes that gradually emerged out of the empirical data (Merriam, 1998).
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Table 1: Interviews and Observations
The Pre-Study
The Case Study
SESSION 1
SESSION 2
SESSION 3
SESSION 4
SESSION 1
SESSION 2
SESSION 3 SESSION 4
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By selecting the interviews in a dialogue with the environmental coordinator a chance arose to validate the interviewees before and after the interviews was conducted. The interview sessions were carried out in the factory, inside separated rooms such as coffee rooms or lunchrooms. The interviews was in that way carried out in a manner which could secure that nobody which was not allowed to listen to the interviews did so. In all, 19 interviews were held with 12 production operators and 9 from the support functions during the case study (see Table 1). By talking to people from different levels of the company, from the CEO to the production operators, made it easier to explore how ISO 14001 was perceived from several different perspectives. The questions asked was derived from themes and concepts which were identified after each interview and each session (Glaser and Strauss, 1965, Corbin and Strauss, 2008). In that way each session had its own theme focusing on important aspects (see table 1) – however, these themes did not steer the interviewed in a structured way (Alvesson, 1999). Rather these themes should be seen as inspiration and guiding rather than of dictating and predetermining. As Corbin and Strauss (2008) say, “The use of unstructured interview format does not mean that the researcher has no influence over the course of an interview. A sensitive interviewer knows when to step aside and let the interviewee guide when to resume the interview“ (p.27). Each interview session were followed by a analysis session were the insight into the data could be deepened. Between each interview session, and after each analysis session, interview questions where prepared and re-maked in order to fit the future direction of the study. Almost every interview was recorded, re-transcribed and analyzed. Some interviews were not possible to record, because it was carried out meanwhile walking inside the production facility. During these occasions, notes where the main tool to record the data, written down directly after the occasion. By recording the interviews a focus could be maintained at being sensitive towards the interview. All interviews with the production operators are presented anonymously in the thesis due to ethical considerations. When it comes to internal and external documents the main issue facing was that it did not existed any documents describing how the production operators worked with ISO 14001. The main documentation was dealing with quality management. However, there were a few documents which were related to ISO 14001 such as the environmental policy, the posters on the garbage cans and recycling containers as well as the annual reports. These documents helped me to get an understanding of the ISO 14001 in a broader and a contextual perspective. 3.5 Analysis – grouping and comparing This study is heavily inspired by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and in particular Corbin and Strauss (2008) concerning their view upon the world and how research could be grounded in practice. One central point in grounding theory is to group and compare the data into different categories and to find both similarities and dissimilarities in the data (Glaser and Strauss, 1965). “Analysis is a process of generating, developing, and verifying concepts – a process that builds over time and with the acquisition of data” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.57). In order to carry out this research MAX QDA (a computer analysis program) were used. With the help of the computer program categories could be constructed together with and continuously note taking and comments 10
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without the risk of losing important data. Totally around 40 categories where identified from the data which had been collected. Each of these categories were then modified, regrouped, expanded and constantly compared and structured to each other. New data was then compared to existing categories to decide whether or not the data fit into an already existing category, or if a new emerging category was found. The coding process could be divided into different stages with different focuses. First, all stages were carried out during the pre-study and then the work started from the beginning with the study at the case organization. During the first stage at the pre-study, the data was open-coded into descriptive categories (e.g. motivations, pressures, barriers etc.). The coding was done by relying on inductive perspectives and focused at identifying central elements concerning environmental work (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). During the early stages in the analysis something which Corbin and Strauss (2008) calls micro coding where used. This meant that the data was investigated at a more granular level compared to general coding (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The purpose of the microcoding was to explore, generate ideas and to get an opportunity to get “deep into the data” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.59). The second stage during the pre-study was focused at explaining the data, and therefore the coding process was inspired by broad theoretical reflections such as reading up on agency theory, loose coupling, relative awareness and institutional theory (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The third stage during the pre-study was inspired of a more narrow theoretical review concerning ISO 14001 and what had been written in the literature in the topic. After the theoretical review the data was again compared and re-coded into new categories and some codes were modified and some were deleted or renamed. During the later stages of the research process a more general coding where used in order to be able to step back and see the data from a broader perspective (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.60). However, as Corbin and Strauss (2008) say: “… it all gets down to balance, not over- or underdoing micro- or general analysis but knowing just when and how to us each.” (p.60). The stages at the case organization followed the stages at the pre-study, with the differences that it now was possible to rely on the concepts and categories identified during the pre-study. This approach could be criticized because it could be argued that the case study was colored and limited by the concepts identified during the pre-study (Yin 1981). However, by being aware of the literature and the early identified concepts from the pre-study, it also helped me to increase my inspiration, to increase new ideas and to increase a theoretical sensibility (Merriam, 1998 p.77). During qualitative research it is the researcher who is the primary instrument for collecting and exploring what he or she should explore, and the quality of the research is dependent upon the researchers´ ability to be sensitive towards the information (Merriam, 1998 p.32). By having done the pre-study, I was better prepared for being sensitive towards the information and to explore what was going to be explored at the case organization. During the first stages at the case organization the data was, inductively, open-coded. Microanalysis was central during the first stages in order to explore, generate ideas and to get an opportunity to get deeper into what the production operators thought about ISO 14001 (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.59). The second stage was focused at integrating and explaining the data and therefore the coding process was done into the same file as the pre-study. In that way it expanded the descriptive categories which were identified during the pre-study. The third stage was inspired
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of an even narrower theoretical review concerning ISO 14001 than what was done during the pre-study. Data were either re-coded into new categories or put into existing categories. For instance, it was during this last stage that the concept “the duality of the purpose of ISO 14001” was identified as a central category. This cyclic and constant comparison was carried out until a point was reached of (temporary) saturation. In order to validate the study, the last analysis were resubmitted and discussed with the environmental coordinator at the organization.
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Part One: Prerequisites for Involvement
Part One revolves around how the organizational context influence the production operators and how these operators translated and used their version of ISO 14001. Chapter Four describes the organization selected as case study and focuses upon the organizational contexts. Chapter Five focus upon how the ISO 14001 system was designed and used inside the case organization.
4. Needs and Motives behind ISO 14001
4.1 The case organization If you ever would walk through the doors at the local headquarters at the production plant you would step inside a clean, silent and fairly bright small room. You would recognize a solid desk in front of you, and if you arrive during lunch time or in the late afternoon, you most likely would realize that there is no one there to assist you – you are left to your own. As a visitor, especially if you live with the preconception that a large organization should be a rather formal and structured phenomenon, you most likely would feel a bit confused when starting to learn about this organization. Just as you as a visitor are left to your own when you step inside the office, the employees inside the organization seem to be left to their own when it comes to what they should do. In a way, this is a rather informal, down to earth and unstructured organization. Operator 8, one of the production operators, put words to this informality, “it's like an anthill – everybody just run around and do as they like, looking at each other... everybody has worked here for so long”. It all started in the middle of Sweden, in the early 20th century when a local carpenter decided to start his own private carpenter workshop. A carpenter shop which developed into a small production plant, which in turn, over the years, developed into a global market-oriented service organization, serving customers with packaging solutions globally. However, these changes seem to have left the original production plant (which this research is about) relatively unbothered – at least when it comes to culture among the production operators. Nevertheless, the last couple of decades have indeed brought up an increase in pressure to conform to rules and demands dictated by the younger and modern corporate group. “If they (the corporate group) notice that we are too problematic down here and too unprofitable they will move the production somewhere else, they want to make as much profit as possible” (Operator 3). In fact, during the last two decades there had been some personnel cuts (Personnel Director), which for a visitor, make the production plant feel somewhat empty. Some consequences of the personnel cuts have been that the operators nowadays need to integrate additional tasks into their roles as production operators. To still be able to keep up the pace in the production meanwhile keeping the number of employees to a minimum, the managers at the production plant has started to rely upon services offered by staffing companies. A decision which seems to add pressure to produce among the temps5 (and among the ordinary operators as well). “If you do not work well enough, you are not coming back. They cannot afford to hire you to not work, so if you do not work they just find someone else. You are here for a week at a time, and you have a lot more eyes on you” (Operator
During this study, the word “Temp” refers to the employees which were hired by the staffing company and worked in the facility as “rented” production operators.
5
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8), “I'm a temp so I do not really care so much. I do not want to be a bother, if I want to stay that is” (Operator 12). The production plant may be compared to an old oak newly starting to realize that it has started to get too old and slow in order to compete with its surrounding. Even if the old roots of the past still were present inside the plant, these roots were getting blended with and somewhat questioned by new management ideas. In the beginning of the 1990s the quality management system, ISO 9000, was introduced for the production operators, and at the end of the 1990s the environmental management system ISO 14001 was implemented. Since then, the daily work at the plant has been influenced by the principles of ISO 14001 – at least according to the environmental coordinator. The environmental coordinator had earlier on been working as a production operator, but had since a few years back, gotten the responsibility to manage the ISO 14001 and ISO 9000 systems at the operating level – at „the floor?. To her assistance she had a colleague who carried out all the administrative work related to the ISO systems and the environmental manager, responsible for all environmental actions inside the facility. But it was the environmental coordinator who was responsible for the daily operative work with the ISO 14001. 4.2 Motives behind ISO 14001 According to the environmental coordinator the reason behind the implementation of ISO 14001 inside the production plant was due to external pressure from major customers. “In the beginning it was „do or die?; clients? demanded it while we demanded it of others” (Quality Administrator). Similar reasoning seems to be carried out among the production operators. Most of the operators seem to blame their customers for the implementation of ISO 14001 inside the plant. One of the more experienced operators remembered in hindsight that, “In reality, I think it was the customer who requested it – the major customer demanded it and then they followed the wish and took it in” (Operator 5). In fact, a major view among the production operators was that the managers did not have so much of a choice whether or not to implement the system. “For the company it's just about money, they have no environmental thinking whatsoever. Money controls what they do and do not, and this certification is probably a good way to keep existing customers and get new customers” (Operator 7). The motive for an organization like this to implement a system like ISO 14001 was left to wild speculations among the operators, often ending up in the conclusion that it was used due to financial reasons, pleasing and keeping their customers. During the interviews the environmental policy was described as a document, mainly stating that the organization had to take care of their customers? products. However, the operators seemed to know little about what actually was written in the policy in detail. “The environmental policy is very vague, I don?t really know how it helps. It says nothing about the environmental impact, I think, only about the need to take care of the customers…” (Operator 11). The environmental policy is in that way well suited to communicate the importance of taking care of the customers? products, and in fact, it could almost be mistaken for a quality policy – focusing on keeping a low environmental impact through high quality products. Even if some of the operators seemed to enjoy the idea of doing something good for the environment, there were few who believed that this was the main reason for the managers to
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implement the system. However, this does not mean that the operators themselves thought that the purpose of the system should be to satisfy the customers, an issue which is further elaborated during chapter six and seven. To return to the discussion of motives, obtaining ISO 14001 was perceived to be essential for the company?s survival. Perceived pressure to conform to customers? wishes has been emphasized during previous studies. These studies are often conducted from a managerial and quantitative approach (see Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001; Poksinska, 2003; Jiang and Bansal, 2003; Massoud, 2010). However, few of them have shown that these motives seem to live on as stories among the employees, which risks undermining the credibility of the system.
5. The 14001 system
5.1 An administrative system with practical routines Inside the organization the processes of implementing and obtaining the first certification seem to have meant a lot of administrative work – primarily for managers and employees connected to the environmental work. One part of this administrative work was to create and update the documentation concerning how the work was carried out inside the organization. “It is rather easy now. It flows as it should. I do reviews of our chemicals regularly. It was worse the first few years, before we came over the threshold” (Quality Administrator). Another part was to translate the ISO 14001 system into daily routines, routines which the operators had to follow (Environmental Coordinator). However, these routines were not anything the operators felt involved in. One of the operators who were working in the production during the time of the first certification told in hindsight that they did not feel so involved in the processes of implementing the system. “No, it happened just like that, it was them (the managers) who decided what would be done, but it was not so bad... it did not affect us that much” (Operator 5). From the perspective of a production operator the ISO 14001 system contained at least two representations; first and foremost it was perceived as a rather abstract administrative system, which the operators never got in contact with. Second, it was also perceived as eminently concrete – requesting that the operators should make use of the assortment plans and ensure that oil used inside the plant was not harmful to the environment. Further on, these two perspectives on the ISO 14001 system were perceived as rather loosely coupled (Weick, 1976; Orton and Weick, 1990), where the assortment did not necessarily need to be a result of the use of ISO 14001. For the production operators the loose coupling between the administrative work and the routines meant that they had difficulties in relating to the administrative side of the system. For the operators ISO 14001 was represented by the assortment and management of oil use. These routines was developed and implemented by the managers, derived from the administrative and abstract side of the system. The operators did not consider themselves particularly involved in the abstract side of the system, neither when it came to the development and implementation nor when it came to the use inside the organization. “It is just like that, it's the management determining what to do, so we just have to follow” (Operator 6). The administrative side of ISO 14001 could be described as a rather abstract managerial system, located in the periphery of the operators? mind. “I do not think there are many of us who can describe for you what is written in
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the ISO 14001 registry…” (Operator 5). However, when the yearly audits were imminent, the operators were forced to be more involved in ISO 14001: "You can hear the managers saying: „Now there?s two weeks to the next audit. Now they (the auditors) will come here and examine us, now we have to look through the system?. We have a database where we can download all the information, because when the auditors come they can ask you questions about the system – and then you have to be able to answer and show that we are informed” (Operator 2). However, when it came to the local routines, derived from ISO 14001, most of the operators actually knew rather well what it meant. “I don?t really know what you mean with environmental work, but the assortment is embodied in the daily routines, there is nothing extraordinary about it, not at all” (Operator 5). “The structure here is solid, with barrels and containers so it does not demands so much from me to carry out the assortment” (Operator 2). In fact, all operators agree that the assortment is rather easy and convenient; it is something which does not hinder production”. We cannot just let the plastic ties or steel straps lying on the floor. You have to put it somewhere” (Operator 5). So, even if the operators not were involved in the implementation and did not really know what the ISO 14001 meant as a management system, they all participated more or less in the daily routines derived from the system and they all seemed to care about the environment. 5.2 Lack of feedback The work with ISO 14001 was characterized by lack of goals. As Operator 1 said, “we have no defined goals, they are missing. We know maybe what the company?s overall goal is, but there is nothing at our level, there are no targets for us to reach”. In that way involvement depends on each person?s awareness of environmental issues. There are few possibilities to get feedback on the environmental performance for the individual operator. Instead they are left to their own beliefs and suppositions. “They (the managers) don?t say so much if we are doing something wrong, there is no such thing” (Operator 4). However, all of the operators knew that the organization would be „rewarded? if they carried out the assortment well. But, they could not pinpoint any concrete sum of how much the assortment brought in. “We know we have to pay if we do not sort the trash, but how much it is I?m not sure of. In any case nothing happens if we do not sort” (Operator 1). In fact those numbers (assortment statistic/costs) were collected at the managerial level but never communicated throughout the organization (Environmental Coordinator). The production operators all knew that their organization sold the scrap to an assortment collecting firm and in that way were able de decrease the production costs. However, it seemed reasonable to think that these cost decrease only could be realized if the assortment was designed to not disturb the ordinary production processes. When it comes down to revenue and costs the assortment could not compete with the value of increasing productivity and efficiency. “Hum, the assortment is fine as it is today, but I really believe that we cannot do anything more today. I believe that we (the operators) are too expensive for that” (Operator 5). When it comes to the environmental performance, all of the operators agreed that it was rather difficult to get an idea of how they could affect the environment and their organization?s 16
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environmental footprint. In fact, the operators could not demonstrate how the ISO 14001 system affects the environment, which gave rise for a feeling of decoupling (Orton and Weick, 1990), between the work carried on inside the organization and the actual effects on the environment. “I would like to believe that our work has positive effects to the environment, I want to believe it… but uh, I'm pretty bad at that sort of thing. You think about the environment sometimes, but you still don?t know what the consequences of your actions are… I imagine for myself that our society is getting better, but it is rather uncertain, I think” (Operator 4). There is no „real? evidence that the ISO 14001 have any environmental impact, and it is difficult to see that the environment is going to change so drastically that it will affect the internal work inside the organization in the near future. Effects to the environment are rather insecure, abstract and hard to grasp. However, most of the production operators had some kind of interest in the environment and often stressed the environment as the number one issue in the world. “Actually, if you start thinking, hm… then I would argue that everything is linked to the environment” (Operator 11).
Summary of Part One
During part one, chapter four, it was described how the production operators? daily work seemed characterized by an increased pressure to keep the production efficient. Some consequences were that they know had to prioritize among the many additional tasks which had been integrated into their roles as production operators. One of these systems resulting in creating additional tasks was perceived to be ISO 14001. However, the motives behind why the managers implemented and used ISO 14001 were believed to please the customers – a system merely perceived as cosmetic rather than a real and trustworthy, internal management tool. Part One, chapter five, showed how the production operators did not perceive themselves involved in the development and implementation of ISO 14001 and its routines. However, when it came to how the used the system, they differentiated between the administrative side of the system and the routines derived from this administrative side – where the main part of the operators only saw themselves involved in the routines. There was though moments when the operators felt more involved even in the administrative side of the system, moments when the yearly audits was imminent. Except from these moments, the work with ISO 14001 was perceived as convenient and easy. It did not disturb the regular production flow. Furthermore, the loose coupling between the administrative side and the routines derived from ISO 14001 meant that there were few goals to reach and few felt any responsibility over the routines. Together with the decoupled nature of the environmental work (meaning that it was hard for the operators to grasp whether or not the environment improved due to the internal work with ISO 14001), involvement depended on each person?s own reasons to participate in ISO 14001.
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Part Two: Strategies for dealing with Involvement
In Part Two, the two different groups which were identified among the operators is presented. These groups were found characterized through their member?s personal strategies used in order to legitimize involvement in ISO 14001. Chapter Six describes these different strategies, their strengths and practical consequences, meanwhile Chapter Seven is devoted to a broader discussion concerning practical and theoretical considerations, including the final conclusion.
6. In search for a meaning
One central concept identified through the analysis was that the production operators relied upon different arguments in order to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001. These arguments were grouped into two core strategies; the Ideological strategy and the Turncoat strategy which will be explained below. The X-axis in Figure One, seen below, is derived from part one, where it was identified that the operators thought that the reasons behind using ISO 14001 were to seek legitimacy from customers and to decrease internal costs. The Y-axis in Figure One, however, is derived from the inherit purpose of ISO 14001 as a system to improve environmental performance, as discussed in the literature review. Chapter Six starts off by describing the two core strategies and the contextual strength of these strategies. The chapter ends by a discussion of the core strategies´ differences when it comes to perceiving practical work. Figure One below illustrates the two main strategies which were identified among the production operators.
Figure 1: Grouping into two strategies
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6.1 The Ideologists strategy The Ideologists nourished a vision and believed that by working genuinely with ISO 14001, positive impacts could be gained on the environment. The operators who turned to this strategy emphasized the need for everyone to take responsibility for their own actions and the importance and strength of the collective, together we are strong and can make a difference?. “All employees have to take their responsibility; we need to help each other” (Operator 8). “The environmental work is sensitive; it does not take more than one person who misbehaves and the whole system collapses. So huh it's severe..., we all need to work hard at it” (Operator 2). Meaning was created by doing something for the common good, doing something good for the planet. “We really want to do this with the environment, we want to get started. When I think about how we work I sometimes feel guilty… it makes me wish that we could be better in the assortment” (Operator 11). The Ideological strategy consisted of arguments which were difficult to prove and pinpoint in any concrete terms. “I think the environmental work has some impacts, or that's at least something I have imagined for myself. If my work improves the environment? I do not know, but I am happily oblivious about it“ (Operator 2). Due to the perceived decoupling between the practical routines and the environmental performance of the organization, the Ideologists found it hard to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001. There was no internal control system developed which could be used as an interface in order to create a coupling and increase the validity of the arguments. Rather, the Ideologists were extradited to rely upon their own ideological beliefs when legitimizing their reasons for being involved in the system. Ideological reasoning which could be compared to the validity offered a spiritual person who seeks faith in some kind of unprovable God. Considering the perceived pressure to be efficient and priorities in the work, the arguments which were offered by the Ideological strategy could be seen as rather weak. ISO 14001 came as a possibility for these operators to subdue their conscience. It is a system which allows them to be environmentally conscious. “I get a good feeling in my stomach when carrying out the assortment” (Operator 3). But the arguments behind the strategy gave them little power to prioritize involvement in the environmental work at the expense of any production related processes. 6.2 The Turncoats strategy The Turncoats emphasized the perceived financial pressure as an important aspect to consider when prioritizing the environmental work. The insecure coupling between the practical routines and the organization?s environmental performance were reasons enough to keep their involvement in ISO 14001 to a minimum. For them it made no sense to get involved in ISO 14001 for the sake of the environment, it was too insecure and the effects of the work were perceived as rather insignificant. “It is hopeless, it is too late. Higher powers should have taken responsibility a long time ago. I would like to think that I could have a positive influence on the environment, but I do not really think that I could” (Operator 4). “Well, it feels a bit like a drop in the ocean if you know what I mean“ (Operator 6).
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If the Ideologists seemed to find an (unprovable) „ideological? connection between the practical routines and environmental performance, the Turncoats only found two decoupled systems. The only reasons left that could legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001 was customer satisfaction and internal costs. They saw ISO 14001 as a tool, mainly suited for seeking compliance with their customers? demands and as an internal tool to reduce production costs. ”Well, for me the assortment is about money, we know that the organization has to pay for the waste material if we shuffled-off with the assortment” (Operator 6). “I personally think that ISO 14001 is good to get new customers, but that?s it” (Operator 7). Another feature of the arguments from the Turncoats could be noticed as trying to appease what they thought was the managerial strategy for ISO 14001. The managers gave them their salary, and if they as operators did not do their job they could easily be replaced. The meaning was found in keeping the certification and lower internal costs by selling the assorted waste. If they could manage to do that, the managers seemed to be happy, the organization got higher revenues and they could keep their jobs. One extreme version of these Turncoats was found among some of the temps. According to the temps the most important factor when considering involvement in ISO 14001, was to not be a nuisance in the eyes of the managers. “I am a temp, so in fact, I do not really care so much about the work here. And to be honest, I don?t want to be a nuisance, not if I want to keep my work here at the plant” (Operator 12). The reason behind the temp´s extreme „turncoating? seems to be connected to the way the temps where hired. The temps where hired through a staffing company, where the case organization hired the temp on a weekly basis. This meant that, every Thursday, a meeting was held where the managers told the temp if he or she were needed in the production following week. To not be seen as a nuisance and risk being deselected these operators adapted to what they believed was the norm inside the organization. Meaning in the work with ISO 14001 was in that way ascribed to the perspectives which could offer best protection in the weekly selection process. “As a temp you have more eyes following you. Imagine if all operators would produce as much as we do, then this organization would do really great! I think that” (Operator 12). The Turncoats did not seek legitimacy in the Ideological connection between internal actions and environmental improvements. Instead they seek legitimacy through the certification, their customers and the internal costs decreases, events which all were rather concrete and easy to proof. Even if the cost reduction were loosely coupled in the sense that they did not know the exact amount, they knew what was required from them in order to reach the certification. The result of the internal cost reduction was also expected to be significantly lower than what the revenue from the production could generate – stating a rather obvious priority with the production processes over ISO 14001. Because they did not believe in ISO 14001 as a system being able to reduce the environmental footprint, all work exceeding what was needed in order to keep the certification were seen as irresponsible and wrong prioritization. The economical pressure required that the operators prioritized their work, and from a Turncoats perspective, all operators who engaged in ISO 14001 more than they were forced to do, were prioritizing wrong. However, by not framing ISO 14001 as an environmental system bringing about positive environmental performance is not necessarily the same as not having an environmental consciousness. In fact, most of the Turncoats who seemed to downplay the role of ISO 14001
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thought that the state of the climate and environment was indeed very important. Instead, they emphasized other solutions to the environmental problems, solutions which for them made more sense: “It should be introduced during your childhood, you must be born - you have to grow up with it. I think you have to rewind and take it from the beginning – the whole society. Then you do not need all these trainings which do not help anyway"(Operator 5). “I think the product itself is more of a problem - we cannot exert more influence down here, there is so little we can do" (Operator 7). For the Turncoats, the insecureness and helplessness which characterized the results of the environmental performance were evidence that it made little sense to be involved in any assortment for the sake of the planet. The search for meaning in the environmental work was found to be focused on keeping the certification, lowering the internal costs and promoting what they believed contributed most to their organization. 6.3 Interoperating inside the organization Important for this explorative study was the proposition that depending on which strategy the operators used in order to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001, different challenges in the daily work appeared. As explained during Part One, none of the operators did believe that ISO 14001 was implemented purely for environmental reasons. Rather, the common view among the operators was the belief that the organization always acted in order to increase revenue and decrease costs – and therefore came to the conclusion that ISO 14001 must be used in order to bring about increased revenue. In that way the managers were perceived as using a strategy emphasizing ISO 14001 as a method to gain legitimacy from the customers and lower internal costs6. Obviously, the Turncoats did not experience their strategy clashing with what they believed was the managerial strategy. They accepted what they thought was the organizational mission with ISO 14001. The assortment was neither too complicated nor too simple; it did not disturb the daily work because it was well integrated in the routines. It made sense because it helped them to keep the certification and it lowered the overall production costs. They seemed to mimic the managerial strategy by downplaying the importance of ISO 14001 as a system being able to reduce environmental impact. From the view of the Turncoats, the Ideological arguments were seen as rather naïve, but also as rather dangerous to the organization as a whole. According to the Turncoats, the economic pressure required that the operators prioritized their work in a wise manner which secured profitability for the organization and their future jobs. “I do not think we can do any more without as it will cost too much. We are so expensive today that it doesn?t pay back. We will always have a limit there. But then
However, this does not necessarily mean that the managerial strategy really was meant in the way it was perceived and described by the operators.
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there is always…for the sake of the environment we could probably do more. But when the employer says that you cannot do it, because he will lose money on it… that is what I think at least. The employer looks at the money first and then, somewhere below, you will find the environment, where I do not know. It?s money controlling most in our lives” (Operator 5). The Ideologists, however, seemed to interoperate rather badly with what the operators thought was the managerial strategy. In order for the work to be meaningful, the Ideologists strategy required involvement which motivated the operators to take an active part in the ISO 14001 in order to decrease the organization?s environmental footprint. At its minimum the environmental work related to the ISO 14001 system should be trustworthy; the operators should at least carry out their routines and show little interest. However, this was not perceived possible within the organizational context which was present at the time for the interviews. In fact, the Ideologists perceived them as opposed by the managers and the Turncoats, where they only seemed to focus on the production processes. “Ehh people just don?t care in this organization, everybody just focuses on producing... And there is a huge tolerance (from the management and among operators) when it comes to the environmental work, so it is easy to just keep focus on producing… I would not say there is any assortment worth mentioning at this plant” (Operator 8). It was the Ideologists who were most critical to the routines carried out inside the plant. The Ideologists questioned what was really possible to do inside the production plant concerning ISO 14001 and the routines derived from the system. In fact, some of them even described the assortment as something fraudulent and false because they felt that the work did not have any crucial environmental effect. “Sometimes I wonder how they can get certified. How much have they got under the table?, – you know the (ISO consultants) consultants. As soon as the consultants leave, everything goes back to normal again, as we used to handle the assortment. Everything is prepared, so there's no point in doing these visits, if it had been unprepared they had not got certified" (Operator 3). At worst the routines carried out inside the plant made little sense for the Ideological operators. At these moments the work with ISO 14001 was perceived as a rational myth (Boiral, 2007), helping the organization to gain legitimacy in order to satisfy their customers without making any real attempts to improve the environment. Because the Ideological operators nourished the vision and belief that a true ISO 14001 system should gain positive impacts on the environment – the work, as it was carried out, was not particularly successful. “I mean we are few people who seem to bother, the rest seem to believe that it is unnecessary to know about it” (Operator 3). In that way the Ideologists perceived a clash between their own strategy and what they believed was the strategy used by the managers, adopted by the Turncoats.
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At the time for the interviews the production operators had recently had an environmental education, focusing on how they could improve the company?s environmental impact. The education seems to have been carried out through emphasizing melting glaciers and endangered polar bears (Operator 8), at least it was what the operators remembered in hindsight. In that way, the operators thought that the education tried to connect the internal work to a broader purpose of doing something for the common good. However, this approach was accepted among the operators in different ways, dependent on which strategy they followed. Among the Ideologists, the education was perceived as interesting and overall positive. They could relate to the perspective, on how we all have to take responsibility. "We had a very nice environmental education last week. I actually got really into it! I thought, wow there are more who are thinking like me... but then you get so tired when you hear what the other operators thought. It seems it was just me and a few more who agreed. The rest seem to not care about it" (Operator 3). Among the Turncoats the education did not make a good impression. It was described as something “… rather strange” (Operator 6), something which did not make any more sense than an ordinary TV-documentary. “The environmental education was really abstract, it was something which left me unaffected” (Operator 4). From a Turncoats point of view, the education was a bold attempt trying to increase the environmental awareness among the operators, through same reasoning as the Ideologists usually performed. The education did not make any sense because the environmental work was characterized by insecureness and helplessness. In that way the education rather drastically showed the differences between the Ideologists and the Turncoats in terms of motivation to be involved in ISO 14001, and also reminded the Ideologists of the priority the present environmental work held. Tired of being the one of few Ideologists, Operator 3 seemed to start losing faith in the possibilities of ever being able to carry out a trustworthy environmental work inside the plant. In that way the education actually seemed to lower the production operator´s motivation to engage in the ISO 14001 system. To be cynical, it seems that the education did not give an increased environmental awareness among the Turncoats. Rather, the education seems to have been perceived as rather abstract, just making the managers intentions with ISO 14001 confusing. It did not either made the Ideologists more involved in and happier about how ISO 14001 where used inside the organization. Rather the education seems to have reminded them about the low priority of ISO 14001 in the daily work. How alone they were in the struggle for an improved environmental performance.
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7. Discussion
7.1 Conclusions The purpose of this case study was to explore and reach a better understanding of how the production operators at one industrial organization were involved in the ISO 14001 environmental management system. In that way this study focused upon analysis on an individual level in order to explore the internal dynamic processes occurring inside the organization. When it comes to how the production operators get involved in ISO 14001, the case study showed that the production operators relied upon different strategies in order to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001. Two core strategies were identified; the Ideological strategy and the Turncoat strategy. The Turncoat strategy emphasized that any involvement in the ISO 14001 system should not exceed the minimum requirements set to obtain certification. Rather a sound balance between costs and revenue should be kept when considering the assortment routine. The Ideological strategy, on the other side, emphasized a rather exhaustive involvement in ISO 14001 – which should exceed the requirements of ISO 14001. These operators were motivated to become genuinely involved in the system. In that way, the Ideologists appeared to be suited to drive involvement among the production operators. However, even if the Ideological operators emphasized a strong will to be involved in the system, they did not succeed in getting involved beyond what was required to keep the system. Meaning that both the Turncoats and the Ideologists did not get involved in ISO 14001 more than what was required in order to keep the certification. The reason for the Ideologists failure to carry out their full potential involvement was suggested to be related to the strategies? weak arguments, characterized by the decoupling between ISO 14001 and the organization?s actual environmental performance. As long as this decoupling exists inside the organization, the operators who relied on the Ideological strategy would be forced to base their arguments upon ideological grounds. Further on, as long as the economical pressure was perceived to be strong, the Ideologists arguments were perceived as weak – making it difficult to gain legitimacy for any involvement in ISO 14001 exceeding the requirements for certification. Dependent upon which strategy was used, the production operators perceived their daily work with ISO 14001 differently. For the Turncoats an increased involvement in ISO 14001 was seen threatening their ability to be efficient in the production, which meant a higher risk of the production getting outsourced to a low cost country. Through their eyes ISO 14001 did not help the environment either. From a Turncoats perspective the work with ISO 14001 was neither too complicated nor too simple, it did not disturb the daily work and the routines were well integrated. As long as they were able to keep the certification and lower the internal costs through the assortment, they were satisfied. For the Ideologist the present involvement with ISO 14001 was seen as a disappointment. In their opinion, ISO 14001 was a possibility to participate in a mission towards improving the environment, improving the common good. For the Ideological operators the work with ISO 14001 was perceived as something fraudulent and false because it was far from good enough to make any real improvements to the environment. These ideologists felt caught in a system favoring only measurable events and neglecting the rest.
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Interestingly, independently of which strategy the operators turned to, they all believed that the work with ISO 14001 made few positive impacts on the environment. However, they turned to different reasons for why ISO 14001 was ineffective. The Ideologists emphasized that the environmental work were failing because no one seemed to care about ISO 14001. In that way they saw possibilities within the system and strived to improve the involvement among the production operators. The Turncoats on the other hand, emphasized that it was impossible to improve the environment through their work with ISO 14001. They felt helpless and questioned their role and responsibility. Instead of taking responsibility, they blamed other organizations they thought had greater environmental impact or they turned their faith to other methods than ISO 14001. The reasoning above about the Ideologist and the Turncoats shows the internal dynamics which could take place inside an organization, demanding that ISO 14001 is legitimated through different perspectives in order to secure acceptance among the diversity. In the organization there were few other forces (if any) which could be arguing leading to an involvement in ISO 14001 among the production operators, exceeding the requirements for certification. One force could be the auditing consultants, who on a yearly basis conducted audits and approved the organization for continued certification. The production operators perceived that the auditing processes only increased involvement when the auditing where imminent. Therefore it could be argued that this force was rather deedless in order to drive continuous involvement among the production operators. And especially worthless if the idea is to drive engagement further on, exceeding the requirements for keeping the certification. One other force could be the organizations´ customers and theirs demand that the organization should be ISO 14001 certified. But, as customers only required the certification, they could not drive involvement among the production operators more than just forcing them to keep the certification with an effort matching the minimum requirements. A third possible force could be the decrease in internal costs which appeared as a result of the organization selling its assorted waste material to a waste organization. The result of the decrease in costs was kept from the operators, and added to the decoupling feeling of having two separate systems, where the results from the environmental work was presented in the first, and the internal work with ISO 14001 in the other – separated. And in any way, the cost decreases could never be as profitable as the production processes, meaning that the assortment would not be allowed to disturb the production processes. Therefore, the cost decreases are considered to be ineffective as a driving force for increased involvement. 7.2 Managerial implications and theoretical consideration The logic behind the way of thinking during this study does imply some practical consequences for what organizations should consider when implementing and using ISO 14001. First and foremost, this study stresses the importance for managers to be able to successfully overcome any loose coupling or decoupling between the internal work and the environmental performance. By reducing the gap, environmental friendly managers could provide the Ideologists with powerful tools, which in turn could convince the Turncoats to be more involved in ISO 14001. Remember that the main reason for why Turncoats did not involve in the ISO 14001 were due to the lack of perceived benefits. None of them were against environmental work; they did just not 25
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perceive that ISO 14001 could bring about any changes. Reducing the gap should increase Ideologists argumentation and also increase the possibility to convince the Turncoats. Second, this study also stresses the risk of investing in environmental education without also consider the uncertainty which is inherent in the environmental work. As seen during this study, the environmental education could make the internal struggle between different strategies even more obvious and in that way impede the work and increase the conflicts. Here it could be wise to seek wisdom among the pragmatist, such as Dewey, which treated knowledge development as a mode of action and of doing (Heelan and Schulkin, 1998), something which should be though about, resolved and converted into new knowledge ” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). By eliminating the interface between thoughts, methods and actions, any possibilities of creating new insights and develop new knowledge seems implausible. Thu, managers need to learn how to create the interface linking the internal actions with the environmental performance. And because ISO 14001 does not require this interface to be created, it seems up to organizations, managers and employees to invent this link. Lastly this study also touches upon the concept of environmental awareness. Environmental awareness is commonly perceived as something important when considering ISO 14001 (Brorson and Almgren, 2006). However, the reasoning developed during this study suggests that it could be wise to not automatically frame environmental awareness as something positive. In fact this study argues that when an organization lacks resources and have decoupled actions and outputs when it comes to environmental work, high environmental awareness among the employees could be seen as a barrier for the overall involvement in the work. In these circumstances environmental awareness seems to give rise to unsatisfied employees with a feeling of being involved in a rational myth as described in Boiral, (2007). However, because of the stance performed during this study, the results should be seen as temporary (Simpson, 2009). Remembering that social knowledge develops with us and need to be a subject for further research in order to pass on from generation to generation (Ormerod, 2006; Corbin and Strauss, 2008). Further research could for instance focus upon developing the different strategies identified during this study and test whether or not they could be identified among other organizations. This study is also exploratory to its nature, which means that the qualitative evidence of this study is not appropriate to use in any statistical generalizing. However, the aim with this study was to improve the readers understandning of the investigated phenomenon, meaning that the same reasoning conducted from this case organzition could be valuable in other situations as well. “For the time being this is what we know – but eventually it may be judged partly or even wholly wrong.” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4).
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Acknowledgements
My profound appreciation goes out to my supervisor, Magnus Frostensson, for the support which has helped me to see the work in new lights. I would also like to thank all of whom who participated in the study and made this study possible. Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my girlfriend Gitte; for her patient, love and believe in my ideas to carry through this project. Stockholm, May 2011 Niklas Bomark
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8. References
Alvession, M., Beyond Neo-Positivits, Romantics and Localists; A Reflexive Approach to Interviews in Organization Research, Institute of Economic Research Working Paper Series, Lund Univeristy, Seeden, 1999. Ammenberg, J. (2001), “How do standardised environmental management systems affect environmental performance and business?”, Licentiate Thesis no. 907, Department of Physics and Measurement Technology, Linkoöping Universitet, Linkoöping. Anton, Wilma Rose Q., Deltas, George, and Khanna, Madhu. Incentives for environmental selfregulation and implications for environmental performance. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 48 (2004) 632–654. Blomgren, Maria., Sahlin-Andersson Kerstin (2003). Ledning på distans. Landstingsförbundet. Stockholm. Balzarova, Michaela A., Castka, Pavel. Underlying mechanisms in the maintenance of ISO 14001 environmental management system. Journal of Cleaner Production 16 (2008) 1949-1957. Boiral, O., Saga, J-M. Environmental Management: Should Industry Adopt ISO 14001?. Environmental Management. Business Horizon. 1998; January-February. Boiral, O. Corporate greening through ISO 14001: a rational myth? Organization Science 2007;18(1):127–46. Brorson T, Almgren R. ISO 14001 för små och medelstora företag (ISO 14001 for small and medium sized enterprises). Stockholm, Sweden: SIS Förlag; 2006. Cacioppe, Ron., Forster, Nick., Fox. Michael. A Survey of Managers? Perceptions of Corporate Ethics and Social Responsibility and Actions that may Affect Companies? Success. Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 82:681–700. Corbin, J. and Strauss, A. (2008) Basics of Qualitative Research 3e. Sage publications. Los Angeles. Dodd, Jr., E. Merrick. For Whom Are Corporate Managers Trustees? Harvard Law Review. Vol. Xlv May 8, 1932 No. 7 Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review The Academy of Management Review Vol. 14, No. 1 (Jan., 1989), pp. 57-74 Eisenhardt, K. M., L. J. Bourgeois. 1988. Politics of strategic decision making in high-velocity environments: Toward a midrange theory. Acad. Management J. 31(4) 737–770.
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Glaser, Barney G. and Strauss, Anselm. Discovery of Substantive Theory: A Basic Strategy Underlying Qualitative Research. The American Behavioral Scientist. February, 1965. Hamschmidt, J. & Dyllick, T. (2001). ISO 14001: Profitable? Yes! But is it eco-effective? Greener Management International, uppl. 34, ss. 43-54. Hatch, J. M. (2002). Organisationsteori – Moderna, symboliska och postmoderna perspektiv. Studentliteratur. Lund. Heelan, Patrick A. & Schulkin, Jay. Hermeneutical Philosophy And Pragmatism: A Philosophy Of Science. Synthese 115: 269–302, 1998. Heras-Saizarbitoria, Inaki., Arana Land?n, German., Molina-Azor?n, Jose´ Francisco. Do drivers matter for the benefits of ISO 14001? International Journal of Operations &Production Management Vol. 31 No. 2, 2011 pp. 192-215. Hillary, R. (2000). ISO 14001 – Case Studies and Practical Experiences. Greenleaf, Sheffield. ISO, 2011a. Access: 2011-02-27. http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_standards/iso_9000_iso_14000/iso_14000 _essentials.htm. Jiang, Ruihua Joy and Bansal, Pratima. Seeing the Need for ISO 14001. Journal of Management Studies 40:4 June 2003. Kitazawa, S., J. Sarkis. 2000. The relationship between ISO 14001 and continuous source reduction programs. Internat. J. Oper. Production Management 20(2) 225–248. Lozanoa, M, Valles J. An analysis of the implementation of an environmental management system in a local public administration. Journal of Environmental Management 2007;82:495–511. Massoud, A M. et al. Drivers, barriers and incentives to implementing environmental management systems in the food industry: A case of Lebanon. Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 200–209. Marsden, Peter V. The Sociology of James S. Coleman Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 31, (2005), pp. xii, 1-24 . Merriam, Sharan B. (1998) Fallstudien som forskningsmetod. Studentlitteratur, Lund. Nawrocka and Parker (2008) Finding the connection: environmental management systems and environmental performance. Journal of Cleaner Production 17 (2009) 601–607 Okoye, Adaeze. Theorising Corporate Social Responsibility as an Essentially Contested Concept: Is a Definition Necessary? Journal of Business Ethics (2009) 89:613–627.
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Ormerod,R. The History and Ideas of Pragmatism. The Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 57, No. 8 (Aug., 2006), pp. 892-909. Orton, Douglas J., Weick, Karl E. Loosely Coupled Systems: A Reconceptualization. Academy/Management Review, 1990, Vol. 15, No. 2. 203-223. Peglaue, Reinhard., Baxter, Martin (2007). A Decade of ISO 14001. Available: 07-02-2011, http://www.iso.org/iso/14001_decade_ims3_07.pdf. Poksinska B, Dahlgaard JJ, Eklund JAE. Implementing ISO 14000 in Sweden: motives, benefits and comparisons with ISO 9000. The International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management 2003;20:585. Rivera-Camino, J 2001, 'The Implementation of Environmental Management Systems Standards in Europe: An Organizational Approach', International Journal of Management, 18, 1, p. 3, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 May 2011. Simpson, Barbara. Pragmatism, Mead and the Practice Turn. Organization Studies 30(12): 1329– 1347. Swedac.se, 2011 Access 27-05-2011: http://www.swedac.se/sv/Omraden/Certifiering/Ledningssystem/ Taneja, Shallini. S., Kumar Taneja, Pawan., Gupta, Rajen K. Researches in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Shifting Focus, Paradigms, and Methodologies. Journal of Business Ethics 2011. Tibor, Tom and Feldman, Ira. (1996). ISO 14000: A guide to the new environmental management standards. Irwin Professional Pub. Chicago. Weick, Karl E. Educational Organizations as Loosely Coupled Systems. Administrative Science Quarterly. March 1976, volume21. Yin, R. K. The case study crisis: Some answers. Administrative Science Quarterly 26(1) 58–65. 1981.
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doc_323787167.pdf
Involvement is referred to in marketing as the consumer feels that a product has something to do with the consumer himself and his personality, so that a purchase has a major impact on the buyer to follow.
Företagsekonomiska institutionen Department of Business Studies
Involvement in ISO 14001
ISO 14001 from a user perspective
Niklas Bomark
Master thesis, 30hp
Abstract
Today the ISO 14001 system is used within a rather wide spectrum of firms and industries, even if the early adopters of the standard mainly where organizations in the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors (Peglaue and Baxter, 2007). Many of those early adopters have now been certified for over 10 years, and during the years several surveys and case studies have been conducted to pinpoint the motives, benefits and challenges for why organizations chose to implement and maintain the system (Massoud, 2010; Jiang and Bansal, 2003). However, one issue with research about ISO 14001 up until now is that most studies have focused upon a managerial perspective where the managers´ attitudes have been in focus rather than the employees (Boiral, 2007). Therefore, this case study set out to explore how the employees, the production operators, inside one certified organization are involved in ISO 14001 through a Grounded Theory approach. The results of the study showed that the production operators relied upon different strategies in order to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001. Further on, the study shows that the production operators where involved in ISO 14001 at a level which was required in order to keep the certification. However, they could not obtain enough legitimacy to motivate an involvement in ISO 14001 which extended what was required in order to keep the certification. Grounded in the discovery of the different strategies used by the employees, this study argues that environmental awareness could be seen as an internal barrier and as a source for unsatisfied employees. Something which risks emphasizes a feeling of being involved in a rational myth (Boiral, 2007).
Niklas Bomark | Involvement in ISO 14001 | Uppsala University | Department of Business Studies | 2011
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION PART .................................................................................................1
1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................... 1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 3 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Stance – a pragmatic view of knowledge ........................................................................................... 5 3.2 Research Design – qualitative evidence, case strategy and grounded theory ................................... 6 3.3 Literature review ................................................................................................................................ 7 3.4 Collecting – site visits, interviews and documents ............................................................................. 7 3.5 Analysis – grouping and comparing .................................................................................................. 10
PART ONE: PREREQUISITES FOR INVOLVEMENT ...................................... 13
4. NEEDS AND MOTIVES BEHIND ISO 14001 ............................................................................................. 13
4.1 The case organization ....................................................................................................................... 13 4.2 Motives behind ISO 14001 ................................................................................................................ 14
5. THE 14001 SYSTEM ........................................................................................................................... 15
5.1 An administrative system with practical routines ............................................................................ 15 5.2 Lack of feedback ............................................................................................................................... 16
SUMMARY OF PART ONE ........................................................................................................................ 17
PART TWO: STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH INVOLVEMENT .......... 18
6. IN SEARCH FOR A MEANING ................................................................................................................. 18
6.1 The Ideologists strategy .................................................................................................................... 19 6.2 The Turncoats strategy ..................................................................................................................... 19 6.3 Interoperating inside the organization ............................................................................................. 21
7. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................................................... 24
7.1 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 24 7.2 Managerial implications and theoretical consideration ................................................................... 25
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 27 8. REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................... 28
Niklas Bomark | Involvement in ISO 14001 | Uppsala University | Department of Business Studies | 2011
Introduction
The first chapter describes the topic relevant for this thesis and presents the purpose with the study. During the second chapter a theoretical review is presented, followed by a methodological discussion in chapter three.
1. Introduction
With our feet standing in the beginning of the 21st century, more than 200 years after the Industrial Revolution, environmental issues seem to have become a strong recurring feature in modern organizations (Okoye, 2009). Even if the idea of environmental and social responsibility extends further back in time1 (Taneja et al., 2011, Okoye, 2009, Cacioppe et al., 2008, Dodd, 1932), it was not until recently that voluntary environmental initiatives started to be integrated into daily business and organizational life (Boiral and Saga, 1998). One reason for the rise of voluntary environmental activities within organizations during the last years could be found in the development of market-based incentives, where organizations are proposed to use proactive strategies rather than regulatory driven ones (Massoud, 2010, Anton et al., 2004). Especially among organizations within the European Union (EU) these voluntary strategies have come to involve Environmental Management Systems (EMS) (Heras-Saizarbitoria et al. 2011). An EMS can be defined as “the part of the overall management system that includes organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing, and maintaining the environmental policy?? (Lozanoa and Valles, 2007 p.1). These systems could be described as rather systematic processes, emphasizing continuous improvement processes in the daily work with environmental activities (Heras-Saizarbitoria et al. 2011). One of the most commonly used EMS today is the ISO 14001 system which were introduced in 1996. 10 years later, in 2007, ISO 14001 was used by more than 111 000 companies in 138 countries worldwide (Peglau and Baxter, 2007). In Sweden, where 4411 companies were certificated at the end of 2006 (ISO, 2006), the impact of the standard on daily business life have been substantial. ISO 14001 is today used within a rather wide spectrum of firms and industries, even if the early adopters of the standard mainly where organizations in the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors (Peglaue and Baxter, 2007). Many of those early adopters have now been certified for at least 10 years, and over the years several surveys and case studies have been conducted to pinpoint the motives, benefits and challenges for implementing and maintaining the system (Massoud, 2010; Jiang and Bansal, 2003). However, one issue with research about ISO 14001 up until now is that most studies have focused upon a managerial perspective where the managers´ attitudes have been in focus rather than the employees (Boiral, 2007). Having research that only focuses on managerial perspectives tends to emphasize the managerial side of the problem and neglect the employee´s experiences.
Some argue that there have been debates about ethical and social responsibilities ever since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (Cacioppe et al., 2008). Others argue that it had its genesis with E. Merrick Dodd, Jr. (Taneja et al., 2011, Okoye, 2009), who believed that corporate managers, in addition to the economic responsibilities toward shareholders, also had social responsibilities towards the society (Dodd, 1932).
1
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By ignoring processes taking place among employees there is a risk of creating a distorted view of what is important for the employees when it comes to using the ISO 14001. Especially when considering the rather extensive process which the employees and managers in a firm usually have to go through when obtaining the certification (Jiang and Bansal, 2003). Blomgren and Sahlin Andersson (2003 p.42-49) describe these two perspectives by using two different research approaches; the reform perspective and the user perspective. The reform perspective sees work from the managerial side, where the daily work is condemned successful when the organization has reached the predetermined goals which were stated by the managers. Evaluating work from the reform perspective tends to see deviations from the original purpose as failures. The user perspective, on the other hand, look upon the daily work from an employee perspective, and focuses upon the processes which the employees goes through when perceiving the actual work – whether or not it is in accordance with the original purpose stated by the managers. The user perspective emphasizes that the daily work in fact is rather likely to occur and appear in unintentional ways, especially when one process get mixed with many other work processes. Of course it could be claimed that ISO 14001 is a management system which needs to be investigated from a managerial perspective. However, this does not change that the system does in fact affect employees further down in the organization, employees who have to participate in the routines derived from the system in order for the system to work (Kitazawa and Sarkis, 2000). Therefore, one could argue that it should be equally as important to get insights into how the users of the system perceive and are involved in ISO 14001 as it should be to explore the managers? perceptions of the system. This case study tries to explore new insights and reduce the gap in the literature when it comes to how employees, the users, are involved in the ISO 14001 processes initiated by management. As such the purpose of the thesis is to further explore and understand how the production operators at one industrial organization are involved in the ISO 14001 environmental management system. In that way this study brings on an individual level analysis in order to explore the internal dynamic processes which take part inside an industrial organization. In order to reach the purpose of this study two research questions has been formulated. The first question stress how the production operators get involved in ISO 14001, meanwhile the second question focuses upon how the production operators perceive their daily work with the ISO 14001 system. In doing so this study does not make any attempt to address how managers try to create or increase involvement among the production operators. Rather this study stress a user perspective and aims to describe the story as it is told among and from the production operators. In that way, the value of this thesis is to contribute to existing research by explore how production operators´ perceive their work with the ISO 14001 management system. A more general way to frame the value of this thesis is to see the research as a journey towards an exploration of how the technical core of the company works with and perceive one management system. From a practical view, and for the management team in a manufacturing company, the subject of this thesis is valuable in order to further explore how production operators are dealing with ISO 14001 routines in their daily work.
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2. Literature review
The ISO 14001 was released in October 1996 in order to standardize what should be included in an EMS (Peglaue and Baxter, 2007). As an EMS the ISO 14001 describes how firms and organizations should design, maintain and improve their environmental work. It is a framework, which is used in order to identify, standardize and manage environmental work, designed by the individual organization (Poksinska et. al. 2003). Further on this means that the system does not specify any particular predefined levels of environmental performance (ISO, 2011a). One consequence of the lack of predefined levels in the system is that it is hard to compare environmental performance between different organizations. The environmental performance of one certified organization varies dependent upon which procedures that are used in order to review and manage the environmental work (Poksinska et. al. 2003). In that way a healthy ISO 14001 should give the organization ability to measure and monitor its environmental performance (Ammenberg, 2001). Since the introduction of ISO 14001 several authors have disputed from a managerial perspective about the actual motives behind why organizations choose to implement the system. From an external perspective common motives for implementing ISO 14001 have been suggested to be related to: (i) improvements in corporate image (Massoud, 2010; Poksinska, 2003; Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001), (ii) customer pressure (Massoud, 2010; Poksinska, 2003), (iii) better relation to public image (Poksinska, 2003) and (iiii) demands from the government (Rivera-Camino, 2001). From an internal perspective common motives have been proposed to be about: (i) minimization of legal and economic risks for violating the environment (Schaltegger et al., 2003; Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001; Rivera-Camino, 2001), (ii) improved environmental performance (Massoud, 2010) and environmental awareness (Brorson and Almgren, 2006), (iii) cost reduction (Brorson and Almgren, 2007; Schaltegger et al., 2003) and (iiii) systematization of environmental work (Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001). It has also been suggested that ISO 14001 represents both an internal management tool and a way to reach legitimacy from external stakeholders (Boiral, 2007). Even if some studies emphasize that economic purposes are more important than environmental purposes and that external demands are more important than internal reasons (Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001), there seem to be several different motives behind why organizations chose to engage in ISO 14001. The motives behind implementing ISO 14001 among organizations are debated. However, it seems to be few doubts in what way the ISO 14001 system is promoted, both among organizations, consultants, some scholars, but also by the ISO organization itself. In a report from two ISO consultants it can be read: “The standard has enormous potential to diffuse good practice worldwide on environmental issues” (Peglau and Baxter, 2007 p.13). Further on, behind this „good practice? lies a clear emphasis on the rationality of the system, a rationality that is promoted by different stakeholders. For instance, the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment (Swedac) writes that the purpose of a management system is to provide support for leading, controlling and improving a company's or organization's activities by offering a tool to establish and maintain effective processes (Swedac.se, 2011). In order to fulfill this purpose the ISO 14001 is based upon the philosophy of Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA), where a clear aim is set to continuously strive towards improving the internal work (Swedac.se, 2011). In that way the picture given is that ISO 14001 system represent a rational method in order to decrease organizational impact on the environment. Tibor and Feldman
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(1996) describe this in a clear way when emphasizing that an organization which has been environmentally certified, in a systematized way should be able to reduce their environmental impact by meeting the requirements set by the ISO 14001 system. It is easy to follow how the logic goes; if you implement an ISO 14001 system, you will increase the rationality of your environmental work and decrease the environmental impact of the organization. Considering the ongoing debate inside academia of whether or not organizations actually improve their environmental performance with ISO 14001, the system?s efficiency seems far from common ground. The first reason for the lack of consensus is the question of how researchers should measure environmental performance and second how to compare the performance between different organizations (Nawrocka and Parker, 2008). This process is made even harder because ISO 14001 does not prescribe any standard measurements. However, in order to silence the debate researcher has suggested the need for longitudinal studies including several companies (Massoud, 2010; Hillary, 2000). The dispute concerning whether or not organizations actually improve their environmental performance through ISO 14001 is an important discussion, emphasizing the uncertainty which seems to be embedded in the system. Studies focusing upon internal barriers for implementing ISO 14001 from a managerial perspective has described how some organizations meet strong resistance from the (i) bureaucratic nature of the system, especially among those that had no previous experience with similar systems (Massoud, 2010). Other internal barriers hindering the use of ISO 14001 have been suggested to be: (ii) lack of perceived benefits (Massoud, 2010; Hillary, 2000), (iii) insufficient resources (Hillary, 2000) and (iiii) lack of awareness, commitment and concern for environmental issues (Hillary, 2000). However, these studies were conducted from a managerial perspective, where managers have been in focus for the investigation and therefore gave little insight into how the ISO 14001 were seen from a user perspective. There seems to be few studies that delves deeper and explains the processes behind implementing and using ISO 14001 from a user perspective in practice (Balzarova and Castka, 2008; Boiral, 2007). Balzarova and Castka (2008) have investigated how the underlying mechanisms in the maintenance of ISO 14001 could be described and found that the design stages of the system were crucial in order to be able to create appropriate involvement later on in the processes. In that way they emphasized the importance of having a thorough implementation process. Kitazawa and Sarkis (2000) conducted three case studies with similar attributes e.g. organizational size, history, culture and technology and found that the critical points were related to empowerment and the organizational ability to involve the employees in the continuous improvements processes. However, the study focuses upon the relationship between ISO 14001 and continuous source reduction programs through an organizational perspective. Furthermore, even if theirs study focused upon the employees, the authors framed the study towards investigating ISO 14001 from a reform perspective, where the system was seen as a method to increase environmental performance already from the beginning. By doing so they put up a blueprint of how the purpose should be viewed and then compared the blueprint against what was found among the employees. Another way to look at the system is to see ISO 14001 as a tool used in order to reach external legitimacy. Boiral (2007) has for instance shown that the process of how organizations integrate the ISO 14001 could be seen as a rational myth. The organizations participating in the case study implemented the system but gained few real improvements, except
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technical and administrative improvements. In fact, he found that most of the daily practices remained somewhat loosely coupled and in some cases even decoupled from the ISO 14001 system meant that the employees had a rather vague understanding of the system. The concepts of loose coupling are commonly accredited to Weick (1976) who used it to explain educational organizations as loosely coupled systems. During this study the idea of loose coupling will be interpreted through a dialectical interpretation accordingly to Orton and Weick, (1990 p.205). They distinguish between responsiveness and distinctiveness where a system which neither has responsiveness nor distinctiveness is not a real system, it is something which could be defined as a non-coupled system. A system characterized by responsiveness without distinctiveness is a tightly coupled system meanwhile a system with distinctiveness without responsiveness is decoupled. However, if there is both responsiveness and distinctiveness the system is loosely coupled. Boiral (2007) carried out his study from an institutional perspective, where the analysis was put on an organizational level. In that way he did not delve deeper into how the employees felt about the system and how they perceived the loosely and sometimes decoupled systems on an individual level. It is here that this case study has its foundation and as such seeks to explore and give new insights into how the employees, from a user perspective, are involved into the ISO 14001 processes initiated by the management.
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Stance – a pragmatic view of knowledge Regardless of what philosophy we turn to when it comes to how knowledge arise and of how knowing develops, it is important to reflect upon our own values and how these values and beliefs affect our research (Merriam, 1994 p.34). The stance taken during this research is inspired by the philosofy of American Pragmatism2 which treated inquiry as a mode of action and of doing (Heelan and Schulkin, 1998). Even if the view of pragmatism differs depending on the writer (Ormerod, 2006), the main theme is that knowledge arises through action and interaction (Corbin and Strauss, 2008), without any pronounced boundary between science, philosophy and ordinary action (Heelan and Schulkin, 1998). Furthermore knowledge is seen as temporary (Simpson, 2009), where at least some kind of social knowledge passes on from generation to generation (Ormerod, 2006; Corbin and Strauss, 2008). In that way knowledge is processoriented where “Knowledge leads to useful action, and action sets problems to be thought about, resolved, and thus is converted into new knowledge…” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4-5). The assumptions above give rise for a philosophy where knowledge and everyday action is closely related to each other, where the knower cannot separate him or herself from what is discovered. For the researcher, knowledge becomes something, which “… enters silently into his or her search for, and ultimately conclusions about, some event.”3 (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4), where the definition of truth becomes formulated as “for the time being this is what we know – but eventually it may be judged partly or even wholly wrong.” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4). In this way pragmatism emphasizes a theory of learning with its foundation in experience,
Pragmatism is commonly attributed to writers such as Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey and George Herbert Mead (Simpson, 2009). 3 However, even if the pragmatists believe in the impossibility for a researcher to be objective, they do not claim radical relativism. “Radical relativism reasons that since no version or interpretation can be proven, therefore no certainty about any given one can be assumed” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4).
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experimentation and action – something that often has been criticized by academics (Ormerod, 2006). However, as Ormerod (2006) says, “pragmatism is not against theory, it simply gives it a different, less exalted role, a role in the service of practice…” (p.906). From a pragmatist view, we need a method where we can build our theory of learning by “intelligent inquiry and experimentally testing hypotheses created and refined from our previous experience…” (Ormerod, 2006 p.901). Therefore, we need a theory, which is grounded in practice (Glaser and Strauss, 1965). 3.2 Research Design – qualitative evidence, case strategy and grounded theory Few qualitative studies have been exploring how production operators perceive and work with ISO 14001. As Boiral (2007) notes “… most studies on the impact of ISO 14001 are based on quantitative research and are focused on managers? attitudes”. (p.130-131). Thereof, the purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of how the production operators perceive and work with this particular system through a qualitative and exploratory study. In order to explore something which is unknown it is important to be able to stay open and consider several dimensions related to the phenomenon (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The case study strategy offer an approach to social science which is especially appropriate when seeking to explore the unknown in order to contribute to new empirical valid theory (Yin 1981, Eishenhardt and Bourgeois 1989). Yin (1981) actually compare the challenges which face the researcher who indulges in case studies with the work of the detective who´s task is to “produce a tentative explanation for a single crime (p.63). In that way it is a “research strategy which focuses on understandning the dynamics present within single settings4” (Eishenhardt 1989, p.534). Case studies can be both exploratory, descriptive and explanatory to its nature (Yin 1981), and be used to provide descripton, test theory or generate theory (Eishenhardt 1989, Corbin and Strauss 2008). This study is exploratory to its nature and aims to improve the readers understanding of the investigated phenomenon, create new meaning and generate new substantive theories (Glaser and Strauss, 1976). The single case approach was selected because it gave the opportunity to study how the production operators perceived ISO 14001 in depth with a focus upon the exploration of a specific phenomenon. The relevance of the selected case was imprinted by several goal-oriented criteria derived from a pre-study (Merriam 1998, p.61). The first criterion was that the organization should have worked with ISO 14001 during a longer period of time so as to ensure that data collection reflected valid experience of ISO 14001. The second criterion was that the organization should be able to participate in a close collaboration in order to get the chance to combine both practical and theoretical experiences into the research. Even if single case studies could be argued having a low level of statistical generalizability, it is not the primary goal of the case strategy (Eisenhardt, 1989). Instead the focus in this study lays in the exploration of unknown categories and concepts – not in quantifying or generalizing them (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). However, even if generalization in a statistical manner is not the
However, singel settings does not mean that a case study cannot incorporate several cases (Eishenhardt and Bourgeois, 1988).
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purpose with this study, the aim to explore the local phenomenon could give rise to knowledge and insights that can be valuable in other situations which are similar to the one investigated in this case (Merriam, 1998). The analytical framework, which was selected to inspire the research, was the Grounded Theory. Grounded theory provides a systematic process for categorizing and grouping qualitative data with the aim to build theories (Corbin and Strauss, 2008), especially theories grounded in practice – so called substantive theories (Glaser and Strauss, 1965). Grounded theory is well suitable when someone seeks to explore an unknown phenomenon in order to bring about greater understanding about a complex, interpreted and changeable world (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.8). 3.3 Literature review The literature search during the initial stages of the research was divided into a pre-study and the research at the case organization. During the initial stage at the pre-study the literature search was primarily focused on seeking to explore, develop and explain the concepts derived from the interviews by reading into important but disperse areas (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The literature could also be claimed to increase my inspiration, to increase new ideas and to increase a theoretical sensibility (Merriam, 1998 p.77). Central theories during this stage were Modern, Symbolic and Post-modern organizational theories (e.g. see Hatch, 2002), Agency theories (e.g. see Eisenhardt´s review in Eisenhardt, 1989), Loose coupling (see Weick, 1976) and Structure and Output theory (e.g. see for instance the introduction to Coleman´s sociology in Marsden, 2005). However, during the last phase of the pre-study, and the beginning stage at case study, one focused literature review was conducted in order to sort out what had been written in the literature about environmental work in general and ISO 14001 in specific. This was a way to carry out literature reviews recommended by Corbin and Strauss, (2008). In order to unravel gaps in the literature the literature review focused upon three aspects which usually characterizes a literature review; integrative (which summarize early research), theoretical and methodological reviews (Merriam, 1998 p.74). Central gaps that were identified in the literature were the lack of qualitative studies when it comes to ISO 14001 and the lack of a user (or worker) perspective in the literature. The focused literature review was conducted after the first analysis of the data collected through the pre-study. In that way the already identified concepts which were grounded in the data could be related and combined with the literature in the field (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The literature reviews was carried out with Merriam´s (1998 p.78) guide kept in mind; (1) search for information, (2) data base searching and article search, (3) selection of literature to review, (4) when the references and the topics started to saturate the process focuses at (5) evaluating the selected literature (Merriam, 1998 p.78). 3.4 Collecting – site visits, interviews and documents To explore how the production operators experience and perceive ISO 14001 data was collected through a variety of sources, one of the virtues of qualitative research in general (Corbin and Strauss, 2008), and for the case strategy in particular (Eishenhardt 1989, p.534). To be more
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specific, data collection was based on site visits (observations), individual- and group interviews and internal documents concerning ISO 14001 – a rich variety of sources which helped me to explore the specific phenomenon from different perspectives (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). Table 1 on the following page illustrates the methods used in order to collect the data during this study. When first arriving at the organization, a guided tour at the production facility was set up together with the environmental coordinator. This tour was important in order to understand the main context and structure of the production facility. During this guided tour notes were made in a notebook at the same time focus was on observations of central elements in both context and structure. For instance, it was during the guided tour that the use of symbols such as waste instructions and other posters emphasizing the waste disposal in the daily work were observed – observations which later on were an inspiration for further questions during the interviews. Except that observations can be a source for further questions, observations also are important because “it is not unusual for persons to say they are doing one thing but in reality they are doing something else.” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.29). One example of this happened during an interview with one of the production operators, which at the same time he was saying that the waste management was working well in the facility, discovered that someone had tossed some kind of plastic material inside the paper disposal. Observations, both during and after interviews, have in that way been a valuable source for exploring unspoken information and validating spoken information (Merriam, 1998). Further on, observations were carried out through participation in official meetings or just by listening to the production operators´ informal conversations. Everything was documented through field notes or pictures. These occasions helped to develop a deeper understanding of the production operators´ situation and why they behaved as they did. The guided tour that was carried out was followed by a two hour long interview with the environmental coordinator – an interview which was reflexive and loosely structured from broad themes (Alvesson, 1999), developed through theoretical sampling from the pre-study (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). This interview was the beginning of an intense period of interviews, transcription and basic analysis which continued until session four was completed. The interviewees were selected through a dialogue between me and the environmental coordinator where we discussed the themes that gradually emerged out of the empirical data (Merriam, 1998).
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Table 1: Interviews and Observations
The Pre-Study
The Case Study
SESSION 1
SESSION 2
SESSION 3
SESSION 4
SESSION 1
SESSION 2
SESSION 3 SESSION 4
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By selecting the interviews in a dialogue with the environmental coordinator a chance arose to validate the interviewees before and after the interviews was conducted. The interview sessions were carried out in the factory, inside separated rooms such as coffee rooms or lunchrooms. The interviews was in that way carried out in a manner which could secure that nobody which was not allowed to listen to the interviews did so. In all, 19 interviews were held with 12 production operators and 9 from the support functions during the case study (see Table 1). By talking to people from different levels of the company, from the CEO to the production operators, made it easier to explore how ISO 14001 was perceived from several different perspectives. The questions asked was derived from themes and concepts which were identified after each interview and each session (Glaser and Strauss, 1965, Corbin and Strauss, 2008). In that way each session had its own theme focusing on important aspects (see table 1) – however, these themes did not steer the interviewed in a structured way (Alvesson, 1999). Rather these themes should be seen as inspiration and guiding rather than of dictating and predetermining. As Corbin and Strauss (2008) say, “The use of unstructured interview format does not mean that the researcher has no influence over the course of an interview. A sensitive interviewer knows when to step aside and let the interviewee guide when to resume the interview“ (p.27). Each interview session were followed by a analysis session were the insight into the data could be deepened. Between each interview session, and after each analysis session, interview questions where prepared and re-maked in order to fit the future direction of the study. Almost every interview was recorded, re-transcribed and analyzed. Some interviews were not possible to record, because it was carried out meanwhile walking inside the production facility. During these occasions, notes where the main tool to record the data, written down directly after the occasion. By recording the interviews a focus could be maintained at being sensitive towards the interview. All interviews with the production operators are presented anonymously in the thesis due to ethical considerations. When it comes to internal and external documents the main issue facing was that it did not existed any documents describing how the production operators worked with ISO 14001. The main documentation was dealing with quality management. However, there were a few documents which were related to ISO 14001 such as the environmental policy, the posters on the garbage cans and recycling containers as well as the annual reports. These documents helped me to get an understanding of the ISO 14001 in a broader and a contextual perspective. 3.5 Analysis – grouping and comparing This study is heavily inspired by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and in particular Corbin and Strauss (2008) concerning their view upon the world and how research could be grounded in practice. One central point in grounding theory is to group and compare the data into different categories and to find both similarities and dissimilarities in the data (Glaser and Strauss, 1965). “Analysis is a process of generating, developing, and verifying concepts – a process that builds over time and with the acquisition of data” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.57). In order to carry out this research MAX QDA (a computer analysis program) were used. With the help of the computer program categories could be constructed together with and continuously note taking and comments 10
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without the risk of losing important data. Totally around 40 categories where identified from the data which had been collected. Each of these categories were then modified, regrouped, expanded and constantly compared and structured to each other. New data was then compared to existing categories to decide whether or not the data fit into an already existing category, or if a new emerging category was found. The coding process could be divided into different stages with different focuses. First, all stages were carried out during the pre-study and then the work started from the beginning with the study at the case organization. During the first stage at the pre-study, the data was open-coded into descriptive categories (e.g. motivations, pressures, barriers etc.). The coding was done by relying on inductive perspectives and focused at identifying central elements concerning environmental work (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). During the early stages in the analysis something which Corbin and Strauss (2008) calls micro coding where used. This meant that the data was investigated at a more granular level compared to general coding (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The purpose of the microcoding was to explore, generate ideas and to get an opportunity to get “deep into the data” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.59). The second stage during the pre-study was focused at explaining the data, and therefore the coding process was inspired by broad theoretical reflections such as reading up on agency theory, loose coupling, relative awareness and institutional theory (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). The third stage during the pre-study was inspired of a more narrow theoretical review concerning ISO 14001 and what had been written in the literature in the topic. After the theoretical review the data was again compared and re-coded into new categories and some codes were modified and some were deleted or renamed. During the later stages of the research process a more general coding where used in order to be able to step back and see the data from a broader perspective (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.60). However, as Corbin and Strauss (2008) say: “… it all gets down to balance, not over- or underdoing micro- or general analysis but knowing just when and how to us each.” (p.60). The stages at the case organization followed the stages at the pre-study, with the differences that it now was possible to rely on the concepts and categories identified during the pre-study. This approach could be criticized because it could be argued that the case study was colored and limited by the concepts identified during the pre-study (Yin 1981). However, by being aware of the literature and the early identified concepts from the pre-study, it also helped me to increase my inspiration, to increase new ideas and to increase a theoretical sensibility (Merriam, 1998 p.77). During qualitative research it is the researcher who is the primary instrument for collecting and exploring what he or she should explore, and the quality of the research is dependent upon the researchers´ ability to be sensitive towards the information (Merriam, 1998 p.32). By having done the pre-study, I was better prepared for being sensitive towards the information and to explore what was going to be explored at the case organization. During the first stages at the case organization the data was, inductively, open-coded. Microanalysis was central during the first stages in order to explore, generate ideas and to get an opportunity to get deeper into what the production operators thought about ISO 14001 (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.59). The second stage was focused at integrating and explaining the data and therefore the coding process was done into the same file as the pre-study. In that way it expanded the descriptive categories which were identified during the pre-study. The third stage was inspired
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of an even narrower theoretical review concerning ISO 14001 than what was done during the pre-study. Data were either re-coded into new categories or put into existing categories. For instance, it was during this last stage that the concept “the duality of the purpose of ISO 14001” was identified as a central category. This cyclic and constant comparison was carried out until a point was reached of (temporary) saturation. In order to validate the study, the last analysis were resubmitted and discussed with the environmental coordinator at the organization.
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Part One: Prerequisites for Involvement
Part One revolves around how the organizational context influence the production operators and how these operators translated and used their version of ISO 14001. Chapter Four describes the organization selected as case study and focuses upon the organizational contexts. Chapter Five focus upon how the ISO 14001 system was designed and used inside the case organization.
4. Needs and Motives behind ISO 14001
4.1 The case organization If you ever would walk through the doors at the local headquarters at the production plant you would step inside a clean, silent and fairly bright small room. You would recognize a solid desk in front of you, and if you arrive during lunch time or in the late afternoon, you most likely would realize that there is no one there to assist you – you are left to your own. As a visitor, especially if you live with the preconception that a large organization should be a rather formal and structured phenomenon, you most likely would feel a bit confused when starting to learn about this organization. Just as you as a visitor are left to your own when you step inside the office, the employees inside the organization seem to be left to their own when it comes to what they should do. In a way, this is a rather informal, down to earth and unstructured organization. Operator 8, one of the production operators, put words to this informality, “it's like an anthill – everybody just run around and do as they like, looking at each other... everybody has worked here for so long”. It all started in the middle of Sweden, in the early 20th century when a local carpenter decided to start his own private carpenter workshop. A carpenter shop which developed into a small production plant, which in turn, over the years, developed into a global market-oriented service organization, serving customers with packaging solutions globally. However, these changes seem to have left the original production plant (which this research is about) relatively unbothered – at least when it comes to culture among the production operators. Nevertheless, the last couple of decades have indeed brought up an increase in pressure to conform to rules and demands dictated by the younger and modern corporate group. “If they (the corporate group) notice that we are too problematic down here and too unprofitable they will move the production somewhere else, they want to make as much profit as possible” (Operator 3). In fact, during the last two decades there had been some personnel cuts (Personnel Director), which for a visitor, make the production plant feel somewhat empty. Some consequences of the personnel cuts have been that the operators nowadays need to integrate additional tasks into their roles as production operators. To still be able to keep up the pace in the production meanwhile keeping the number of employees to a minimum, the managers at the production plant has started to rely upon services offered by staffing companies. A decision which seems to add pressure to produce among the temps5 (and among the ordinary operators as well). “If you do not work well enough, you are not coming back. They cannot afford to hire you to not work, so if you do not work they just find someone else. You are here for a week at a time, and you have a lot more eyes on you” (Operator
During this study, the word “Temp” refers to the employees which were hired by the staffing company and worked in the facility as “rented” production operators.
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8), “I'm a temp so I do not really care so much. I do not want to be a bother, if I want to stay that is” (Operator 12). The production plant may be compared to an old oak newly starting to realize that it has started to get too old and slow in order to compete with its surrounding. Even if the old roots of the past still were present inside the plant, these roots were getting blended with and somewhat questioned by new management ideas. In the beginning of the 1990s the quality management system, ISO 9000, was introduced for the production operators, and at the end of the 1990s the environmental management system ISO 14001 was implemented. Since then, the daily work at the plant has been influenced by the principles of ISO 14001 – at least according to the environmental coordinator. The environmental coordinator had earlier on been working as a production operator, but had since a few years back, gotten the responsibility to manage the ISO 14001 and ISO 9000 systems at the operating level – at „the floor?. To her assistance she had a colleague who carried out all the administrative work related to the ISO systems and the environmental manager, responsible for all environmental actions inside the facility. But it was the environmental coordinator who was responsible for the daily operative work with the ISO 14001. 4.2 Motives behind ISO 14001 According to the environmental coordinator the reason behind the implementation of ISO 14001 inside the production plant was due to external pressure from major customers. “In the beginning it was „do or die?; clients? demanded it while we demanded it of others” (Quality Administrator). Similar reasoning seems to be carried out among the production operators. Most of the operators seem to blame their customers for the implementation of ISO 14001 inside the plant. One of the more experienced operators remembered in hindsight that, “In reality, I think it was the customer who requested it – the major customer demanded it and then they followed the wish and took it in” (Operator 5). In fact, a major view among the production operators was that the managers did not have so much of a choice whether or not to implement the system. “For the company it's just about money, they have no environmental thinking whatsoever. Money controls what they do and do not, and this certification is probably a good way to keep existing customers and get new customers” (Operator 7). The motive for an organization like this to implement a system like ISO 14001 was left to wild speculations among the operators, often ending up in the conclusion that it was used due to financial reasons, pleasing and keeping their customers. During the interviews the environmental policy was described as a document, mainly stating that the organization had to take care of their customers? products. However, the operators seemed to know little about what actually was written in the policy in detail. “The environmental policy is very vague, I don?t really know how it helps. It says nothing about the environmental impact, I think, only about the need to take care of the customers…” (Operator 11). The environmental policy is in that way well suited to communicate the importance of taking care of the customers? products, and in fact, it could almost be mistaken for a quality policy – focusing on keeping a low environmental impact through high quality products. Even if some of the operators seemed to enjoy the idea of doing something good for the environment, there were few who believed that this was the main reason for the managers to
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implement the system. However, this does not mean that the operators themselves thought that the purpose of the system should be to satisfy the customers, an issue which is further elaborated during chapter six and seven. To return to the discussion of motives, obtaining ISO 14001 was perceived to be essential for the company?s survival. Perceived pressure to conform to customers? wishes has been emphasized during previous studies. These studies are often conducted from a managerial and quantitative approach (see Hamschmidt and Dyllick, 2001; Poksinska, 2003; Jiang and Bansal, 2003; Massoud, 2010). However, few of them have shown that these motives seem to live on as stories among the employees, which risks undermining the credibility of the system.
5. The 14001 system
5.1 An administrative system with practical routines Inside the organization the processes of implementing and obtaining the first certification seem to have meant a lot of administrative work – primarily for managers and employees connected to the environmental work. One part of this administrative work was to create and update the documentation concerning how the work was carried out inside the organization. “It is rather easy now. It flows as it should. I do reviews of our chemicals regularly. It was worse the first few years, before we came over the threshold” (Quality Administrator). Another part was to translate the ISO 14001 system into daily routines, routines which the operators had to follow (Environmental Coordinator). However, these routines were not anything the operators felt involved in. One of the operators who were working in the production during the time of the first certification told in hindsight that they did not feel so involved in the processes of implementing the system. “No, it happened just like that, it was them (the managers) who decided what would be done, but it was not so bad... it did not affect us that much” (Operator 5). From the perspective of a production operator the ISO 14001 system contained at least two representations; first and foremost it was perceived as a rather abstract administrative system, which the operators never got in contact with. Second, it was also perceived as eminently concrete – requesting that the operators should make use of the assortment plans and ensure that oil used inside the plant was not harmful to the environment. Further on, these two perspectives on the ISO 14001 system were perceived as rather loosely coupled (Weick, 1976; Orton and Weick, 1990), where the assortment did not necessarily need to be a result of the use of ISO 14001. For the production operators the loose coupling between the administrative work and the routines meant that they had difficulties in relating to the administrative side of the system. For the operators ISO 14001 was represented by the assortment and management of oil use. These routines was developed and implemented by the managers, derived from the administrative and abstract side of the system. The operators did not consider themselves particularly involved in the abstract side of the system, neither when it came to the development and implementation nor when it came to the use inside the organization. “It is just like that, it's the management determining what to do, so we just have to follow” (Operator 6). The administrative side of ISO 14001 could be described as a rather abstract managerial system, located in the periphery of the operators? mind. “I do not think there are many of us who can describe for you what is written in
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the ISO 14001 registry…” (Operator 5). However, when the yearly audits were imminent, the operators were forced to be more involved in ISO 14001: "You can hear the managers saying: „Now there?s two weeks to the next audit. Now they (the auditors) will come here and examine us, now we have to look through the system?. We have a database where we can download all the information, because when the auditors come they can ask you questions about the system – and then you have to be able to answer and show that we are informed” (Operator 2). However, when it came to the local routines, derived from ISO 14001, most of the operators actually knew rather well what it meant. “I don?t really know what you mean with environmental work, but the assortment is embodied in the daily routines, there is nothing extraordinary about it, not at all” (Operator 5). “The structure here is solid, with barrels and containers so it does not demands so much from me to carry out the assortment” (Operator 2). In fact, all operators agree that the assortment is rather easy and convenient; it is something which does not hinder production”. We cannot just let the plastic ties or steel straps lying on the floor. You have to put it somewhere” (Operator 5). So, even if the operators not were involved in the implementation and did not really know what the ISO 14001 meant as a management system, they all participated more or less in the daily routines derived from the system and they all seemed to care about the environment. 5.2 Lack of feedback The work with ISO 14001 was characterized by lack of goals. As Operator 1 said, “we have no defined goals, they are missing. We know maybe what the company?s overall goal is, but there is nothing at our level, there are no targets for us to reach”. In that way involvement depends on each person?s awareness of environmental issues. There are few possibilities to get feedback on the environmental performance for the individual operator. Instead they are left to their own beliefs and suppositions. “They (the managers) don?t say so much if we are doing something wrong, there is no such thing” (Operator 4). However, all of the operators knew that the organization would be „rewarded? if they carried out the assortment well. But, they could not pinpoint any concrete sum of how much the assortment brought in. “We know we have to pay if we do not sort the trash, but how much it is I?m not sure of. In any case nothing happens if we do not sort” (Operator 1). In fact those numbers (assortment statistic/costs) were collected at the managerial level but never communicated throughout the organization (Environmental Coordinator). The production operators all knew that their organization sold the scrap to an assortment collecting firm and in that way were able de decrease the production costs. However, it seemed reasonable to think that these cost decrease only could be realized if the assortment was designed to not disturb the ordinary production processes. When it comes down to revenue and costs the assortment could not compete with the value of increasing productivity and efficiency. “Hum, the assortment is fine as it is today, but I really believe that we cannot do anything more today. I believe that we (the operators) are too expensive for that” (Operator 5). When it comes to the environmental performance, all of the operators agreed that it was rather difficult to get an idea of how they could affect the environment and their organization?s 16
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environmental footprint. In fact, the operators could not demonstrate how the ISO 14001 system affects the environment, which gave rise for a feeling of decoupling (Orton and Weick, 1990), between the work carried on inside the organization and the actual effects on the environment. “I would like to believe that our work has positive effects to the environment, I want to believe it… but uh, I'm pretty bad at that sort of thing. You think about the environment sometimes, but you still don?t know what the consequences of your actions are… I imagine for myself that our society is getting better, but it is rather uncertain, I think” (Operator 4). There is no „real? evidence that the ISO 14001 have any environmental impact, and it is difficult to see that the environment is going to change so drastically that it will affect the internal work inside the organization in the near future. Effects to the environment are rather insecure, abstract and hard to grasp. However, most of the production operators had some kind of interest in the environment and often stressed the environment as the number one issue in the world. “Actually, if you start thinking, hm… then I would argue that everything is linked to the environment” (Operator 11).
Summary of Part One
During part one, chapter four, it was described how the production operators? daily work seemed characterized by an increased pressure to keep the production efficient. Some consequences were that they know had to prioritize among the many additional tasks which had been integrated into their roles as production operators. One of these systems resulting in creating additional tasks was perceived to be ISO 14001. However, the motives behind why the managers implemented and used ISO 14001 were believed to please the customers – a system merely perceived as cosmetic rather than a real and trustworthy, internal management tool. Part One, chapter five, showed how the production operators did not perceive themselves involved in the development and implementation of ISO 14001 and its routines. However, when it came to how the used the system, they differentiated between the administrative side of the system and the routines derived from this administrative side – where the main part of the operators only saw themselves involved in the routines. There was though moments when the operators felt more involved even in the administrative side of the system, moments when the yearly audits was imminent. Except from these moments, the work with ISO 14001 was perceived as convenient and easy. It did not disturb the regular production flow. Furthermore, the loose coupling between the administrative side and the routines derived from ISO 14001 meant that there were few goals to reach and few felt any responsibility over the routines. Together with the decoupled nature of the environmental work (meaning that it was hard for the operators to grasp whether or not the environment improved due to the internal work with ISO 14001), involvement depended on each person?s own reasons to participate in ISO 14001.
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Part Two: Strategies for dealing with Involvement
In Part Two, the two different groups which were identified among the operators is presented. These groups were found characterized through their member?s personal strategies used in order to legitimize involvement in ISO 14001. Chapter Six describes these different strategies, their strengths and practical consequences, meanwhile Chapter Seven is devoted to a broader discussion concerning practical and theoretical considerations, including the final conclusion.
6. In search for a meaning
One central concept identified through the analysis was that the production operators relied upon different arguments in order to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001. These arguments were grouped into two core strategies; the Ideological strategy and the Turncoat strategy which will be explained below. The X-axis in Figure One, seen below, is derived from part one, where it was identified that the operators thought that the reasons behind using ISO 14001 were to seek legitimacy from customers and to decrease internal costs. The Y-axis in Figure One, however, is derived from the inherit purpose of ISO 14001 as a system to improve environmental performance, as discussed in the literature review. Chapter Six starts off by describing the two core strategies and the contextual strength of these strategies. The chapter ends by a discussion of the core strategies´ differences when it comes to perceiving practical work. Figure One below illustrates the two main strategies which were identified among the production operators.
Figure 1: Grouping into two strategies
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6.1 The Ideologists strategy The Ideologists nourished a vision and believed that by working genuinely with ISO 14001, positive impacts could be gained on the environment. The operators who turned to this strategy emphasized the need for everyone to take responsibility for their own actions and the importance and strength of the collective, together we are strong and can make a difference?. “All employees have to take their responsibility; we need to help each other” (Operator 8). “The environmental work is sensitive; it does not take more than one person who misbehaves and the whole system collapses. So huh it's severe..., we all need to work hard at it” (Operator 2). Meaning was created by doing something for the common good, doing something good for the planet. “We really want to do this with the environment, we want to get started. When I think about how we work I sometimes feel guilty… it makes me wish that we could be better in the assortment” (Operator 11). The Ideological strategy consisted of arguments which were difficult to prove and pinpoint in any concrete terms. “I think the environmental work has some impacts, or that's at least something I have imagined for myself. If my work improves the environment? I do not know, but I am happily oblivious about it“ (Operator 2). Due to the perceived decoupling between the practical routines and the environmental performance of the organization, the Ideologists found it hard to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001. There was no internal control system developed which could be used as an interface in order to create a coupling and increase the validity of the arguments. Rather, the Ideologists were extradited to rely upon their own ideological beliefs when legitimizing their reasons for being involved in the system. Ideological reasoning which could be compared to the validity offered a spiritual person who seeks faith in some kind of unprovable God. Considering the perceived pressure to be efficient and priorities in the work, the arguments which were offered by the Ideological strategy could be seen as rather weak. ISO 14001 came as a possibility for these operators to subdue their conscience. It is a system which allows them to be environmentally conscious. “I get a good feeling in my stomach when carrying out the assortment” (Operator 3). But the arguments behind the strategy gave them little power to prioritize involvement in the environmental work at the expense of any production related processes. 6.2 The Turncoats strategy The Turncoats emphasized the perceived financial pressure as an important aspect to consider when prioritizing the environmental work. The insecure coupling between the practical routines and the organization?s environmental performance were reasons enough to keep their involvement in ISO 14001 to a minimum. For them it made no sense to get involved in ISO 14001 for the sake of the environment, it was too insecure and the effects of the work were perceived as rather insignificant. “It is hopeless, it is too late. Higher powers should have taken responsibility a long time ago. I would like to think that I could have a positive influence on the environment, but I do not really think that I could” (Operator 4). “Well, it feels a bit like a drop in the ocean if you know what I mean“ (Operator 6).
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If the Ideologists seemed to find an (unprovable) „ideological? connection between the practical routines and environmental performance, the Turncoats only found two decoupled systems. The only reasons left that could legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001 was customer satisfaction and internal costs. They saw ISO 14001 as a tool, mainly suited for seeking compliance with their customers? demands and as an internal tool to reduce production costs. ”Well, for me the assortment is about money, we know that the organization has to pay for the waste material if we shuffled-off with the assortment” (Operator 6). “I personally think that ISO 14001 is good to get new customers, but that?s it” (Operator 7). Another feature of the arguments from the Turncoats could be noticed as trying to appease what they thought was the managerial strategy for ISO 14001. The managers gave them their salary, and if they as operators did not do their job they could easily be replaced. The meaning was found in keeping the certification and lower internal costs by selling the assorted waste. If they could manage to do that, the managers seemed to be happy, the organization got higher revenues and they could keep their jobs. One extreme version of these Turncoats was found among some of the temps. According to the temps the most important factor when considering involvement in ISO 14001, was to not be a nuisance in the eyes of the managers. “I am a temp, so in fact, I do not really care so much about the work here. And to be honest, I don?t want to be a nuisance, not if I want to keep my work here at the plant” (Operator 12). The reason behind the temp´s extreme „turncoating? seems to be connected to the way the temps where hired. The temps where hired through a staffing company, where the case organization hired the temp on a weekly basis. This meant that, every Thursday, a meeting was held where the managers told the temp if he or she were needed in the production following week. To not be seen as a nuisance and risk being deselected these operators adapted to what they believed was the norm inside the organization. Meaning in the work with ISO 14001 was in that way ascribed to the perspectives which could offer best protection in the weekly selection process. “As a temp you have more eyes following you. Imagine if all operators would produce as much as we do, then this organization would do really great! I think that” (Operator 12). The Turncoats did not seek legitimacy in the Ideological connection between internal actions and environmental improvements. Instead they seek legitimacy through the certification, their customers and the internal costs decreases, events which all were rather concrete and easy to proof. Even if the cost reduction were loosely coupled in the sense that they did not know the exact amount, they knew what was required from them in order to reach the certification. The result of the internal cost reduction was also expected to be significantly lower than what the revenue from the production could generate – stating a rather obvious priority with the production processes over ISO 14001. Because they did not believe in ISO 14001 as a system being able to reduce the environmental footprint, all work exceeding what was needed in order to keep the certification were seen as irresponsible and wrong prioritization. The economical pressure required that the operators prioritized their work, and from a Turncoats perspective, all operators who engaged in ISO 14001 more than they were forced to do, were prioritizing wrong. However, by not framing ISO 14001 as an environmental system bringing about positive environmental performance is not necessarily the same as not having an environmental consciousness. In fact, most of the Turncoats who seemed to downplay the role of ISO 14001
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thought that the state of the climate and environment was indeed very important. Instead, they emphasized other solutions to the environmental problems, solutions which for them made more sense: “It should be introduced during your childhood, you must be born - you have to grow up with it. I think you have to rewind and take it from the beginning – the whole society. Then you do not need all these trainings which do not help anyway"(Operator 5). “I think the product itself is more of a problem - we cannot exert more influence down here, there is so little we can do" (Operator 7). For the Turncoats, the insecureness and helplessness which characterized the results of the environmental performance were evidence that it made little sense to be involved in any assortment for the sake of the planet. The search for meaning in the environmental work was found to be focused on keeping the certification, lowering the internal costs and promoting what they believed contributed most to their organization. 6.3 Interoperating inside the organization Important for this explorative study was the proposition that depending on which strategy the operators used in order to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001, different challenges in the daily work appeared. As explained during Part One, none of the operators did believe that ISO 14001 was implemented purely for environmental reasons. Rather, the common view among the operators was the belief that the organization always acted in order to increase revenue and decrease costs – and therefore came to the conclusion that ISO 14001 must be used in order to bring about increased revenue. In that way the managers were perceived as using a strategy emphasizing ISO 14001 as a method to gain legitimacy from the customers and lower internal costs6. Obviously, the Turncoats did not experience their strategy clashing with what they believed was the managerial strategy. They accepted what they thought was the organizational mission with ISO 14001. The assortment was neither too complicated nor too simple; it did not disturb the daily work because it was well integrated in the routines. It made sense because it helped them to keep the certification and it lowered the overall production costs. They seemed to mimic the managerial strategy by downplaying the importance of ISO 14001 as a system being able to reduce environmental impact. From the view of the Turncoats, the Ideological arguments were seen as rather naïve, but also as rather dangerous to the organization as a whole. According to the Turncoats, the economic pressure required that the operators prioritized their work in a wise manner which secured profitability for the organization and their future jobs. “I do not think we can do any more without as it will cost too much. We are so expensive today that it doesn?t pay back. We will always have a limit there. But then
However, this does not necessarily mean that the managerial strategy really was meant in the way it was perceived and described by the operators.
6
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there is always…for the sake of the environment we could probably do more. But when the employer says that you cannot do it, because he will lose money on it… that is what I think at least. The employer looks at the money first and then, somewhere below, you will find the environment, where I do not know. It?s money controlling most in our lives” (Operator 5). The Ideologists, however, seemed to interoperate rather badly with what the operators thought was the managerial strategy. In order for the work to be meaningful, the Ideologists strategy required involvement which motivated the operators to take an active part in the ISO 14001 in order to decrease the organization?s environmental footprint. At its minimum the environmental work related to the ISO 14001 system should be trustworthy; the operators should at least carry out their routines and show little interest. However, this was not perceived possible within the organizational context which was present at the time for the interviews. In fact, the Ideologists perceived them as opposed by the managers and the Turncoats, where they only seemed to focus on the production processes. “Ehh people just don?t care in this organization, everybody just focuses on producing... And there is a huge tolerance (from the management and among operators) when it comes to the environmental work, so it is easy to just keep focus on producing… I would not say there is any assortment worth mentioning at this plant” (Operator 8). It was the Ideologists who were most critical to the routines carried out inside the plant. The Ideologists questioned what was really possible to do inside the production plant concerning ISO 14001 and the routines derived from the system. In fact, some of them even described the assortment as something fraudulent and false because they felt that the work did not have any crucial environmental effect. “Sometimes I wonder how they can get certified. How much have they got under the table?, – you know the (ISO consultants) consultants. As soon as the consultants leave, everything goes back to normal again, as we used to handle the assortment. Everything is prepared, so there's no point in doing these visits, if it had been unprepared they had not got certified" (Operator 3). At worst the routines carried out inside the plant made little sense for the Ideological operators. At these moments the work with ISO 14001 was perceived as a rational myth (Boiral, 2007), helping the organization to gain legitimacy in order to satisfy their customers without making any real attempts to improve the environment. Because the Ideological operators nourished the vision and belief that a true ISO 14001 system should gain positive impacts on the environment – the work, as it was carried out, was not particularly successful. “I mean we are few people who seem to bother, the rest seem to believe that it is unnecessary to know about it” (Operator 3). In that way the Ideologists perceived a clash between their own strategy and what they believed was the strategy used by the managers, adopted by the Turncoats.
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At the time for the interviews the production operators had recently had an environmental education, focusing on how they could improve the company?s environmental impact. The education seems to have been carried out through emphasizing melting glaciers and endangered polar bears (Operator 8), at least it was what the operators remembered in hindsight. In that way, the operators thought that the education tried to connect the internal work to a broader purpose of doing something for the common good. However, this approach was accepted among the operators in different ways, dependent on which strategy they followed. Among the Ideologists, the education was perceived as interesting and overall positive. They could relate to the perspective, on how we all have to take responsibility. "We had a very nice environmental education last week. I actually got really into it! I thought, wow there are more who are thinking like me... but then you get so tired when you hear what the other operators thought. It seems it was just me and a few more who agreed. The rest seem to not care about it" (Operator 3). Among the Turncoats the education did not make a good impression. It was described as something “… rather strange” (Operator 6), something which did not make any more sense than an ordinary TV-documentary. “The environmental education was really abstract, it was something which left me unaffected” (Operator 4). From a Turncoats point of view, the education was a bold attempt trying to increase the environmental awareness among the operators, through same reasoning as the Ideologists usually performed. The education did not make any sense because the environmental work was characterized by insecureness and helplessness. In that way the education rather drastically showed the differences between the Ideologists and the Turncoats in terms of motivation to be involved in ISO 14001, and also reminded the Ideologists of the priority the present environmental work held. Tired of being the one of few Ideologists, Operator 3 seemed to start losing faith in the possibilities of ever being able to carry out a trustworthy environmental work inside the plant. In that way the education actually seemed to lower the production operator´s motivation to engage in the ISO 14001 system. To be cynical, it seems that the education did not give an increased environmental awareness among the Turncoats. Rather, the education seems to have been perceived as rather abstract, just making the managers intentions with ISO 14001 confusing. It did not either made the Ideologists more involved in and happier about how ISO 14001 where used inside the organization. Rather the education seems to have reminded them about the low priority of ISO 14001 in the daily work. How alone they were in the struggle for an improved environmental performance.
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7. Discussion
7.1 Conclusions The purpose of this case study was to explore and reach a better understanding of how the production operators at one industrial organization were involved in the ISO 14001 environmental management system. In that way this study focused upon analysis on an individual level in order to explore the internal dynamic processes occurring inside the organization. When it comes to how the production operators get involved in ISO 14001, the case study showed that the production operators relied upon different strategies in order to legitimize their involvement in ISO 14001. Two core strategies were identified; the Ideological strategy and the Turncoat strategy. The Turncoat strategy emphasized that any involvement in the ISO 14001 system should not exceed the minimum requirements set to obtain certification. Rather a sound balance between costs and revenue should be kept when considering the assortment routine. The Ideological strategy, on the other side, emphasized a rather exhaustive involvement in ISO 14001 – which should exceed the requirements of ISO 14001. These operators were motivated to become genuinely involved in the system. In that way, the Ideologists appeared to be suited to drive involvement among the production operators. However, even if the Ideological operators emphasized a strong will to be involved in the system, they did not succeed in getting involved beyond what was required to keep the system. Meaning that both the Turncoats and the Ideologists did not get involved in ISO 14001 more than what was required in order to keep the certification. The reason for the Ideologists failure to carry out their full potential involvement was suggested to be related to the strategies? weak arguments, characterized by the decoupling between ISO 14001 and the organization?s actual environmental performance. As long as this decoupling exists inside the organization, the operators who relied on the Ideological strategy would be forced to base their arguments upon ideological grounds. Further on, as long as the economical pressure was perceived to be strong, the Ideologists arguments were perceived as weak – making it difficult to gain legitimacy for any involvement in ISO 14001 exceeding the requirements for certification. Dependent upon which strategy was used, the production operators perceived their daily work with ISO 14001 differently. For the Turncoats an increased involvement in ISO 14001 was seen threatening their ability to be efficient in the production, which meant a higher risk of the production getting outsourced to a low cost country. Through their eyes ISO 14001 did not help the environment either. From a Turncoats perspective the work with ISO 14001 was neither too complicated nor too simple, it did not disturb the daily work and the routines were well integrated. As long as they were able to keep the certification and lower the internal costs through the assortment, they were satisfied. For the Ideologist the present involvement with ISO 14001 was seen as a disappointment. In their opinion, ISO 14001 was a possibility to participate in a mission towards improving the environment, improving the common good. For the Ideological operators the work with ISO 14001 was perceived as something fraudulent and false because it was far from good enough to make any real improvements to the environment. These ideologists felt caught in a system favoring only measurable events and neglecting the rest.
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Interestingly, independently of which strategy the operators turned to, they all believed that the work with ISO 14001 made few positive impacts on the environment. However, they turned to different reasons for why ISO 14001 was ineffective. The Ideologists emphasized that the environmental work were failing because no one seemed to care about ISO 14001. In that way they saw possibilities within the system and strived to improve the involvement among the production operators. The Turncoats on the other hand, emphasized that it was impossible to improve the environment through their work with ISO 14001. They felt helpless and questioned their role and responsibility. Instead of taking responsibility, they blamed other organizations they thought had greater environmental impact or they turned their faith to other methods than ISO 14001. The reasoning above about the Ideologist and the Turncoats shows the internal dynamics which could take place inside an organization, demanding that ISO 14001 is legitimated through different perspectives in order to secure acceptance among the diversity. In the organization there were few other forces (if any) which could be arguing leading to an involvement in ISO 14001 among the production operators, exceeding the requirements for certification. One force could be the auditing consultants, who on a yearly basis conducted audits and approved the organization for continued certification. The production operators perceived that the auditing processes only increased involvement when the auditing where imminent. Therefore it could be argued that this force was rather deedless in order to drive continuous involvement among the production operators. And especially worthless if the idea is to drive engagement further on, exceeding the requirements for keeping the certification. One other force could be the organizations´ customers and theirs demand that the organization should be ISO 14001 certified. But, as customers only required the certification, they could not drive involvement among the production operators more than just forcing them to keep the certification with an effort matching the minimum requirements. A third possible force could be the decrease in internal costs which appeared as a result of the organization selling its assorted waste material to a waste organization. The result of the decrease in costs was kept from the operators, and added to the decoupling feeling of having two separate systems, where the results from the environmental work was presented in the first, and the internal work with ISO 14001 in the other – separated. And in any way, the cost decreases could never be as profitable as the production processes, meaning that the assortment would not be allowed to disturb the production processes. Therefore, the cost decreases are considered to be ineffective as a driving force for increased involvement. 7.2 Managerial implications and theoretical consideration The logic behind the way of thinking during this study does imply some practical consequences for what organizations should consider when implementing and using ISO 14001. First and foremost, this study stresses the importance for managers to be able to successfully overcome any loose coupling or decoupling between the internal work and the environmental performance. By reducing the gap, environmental friendly managers could provide the Ideologists with powerful tools, which in turn could convince the Turncoats to be more involved in ISO 14001. Remember that the main reason for why Turncoats did not involve in the ISO 14001 were due to the lack of perceived benefits. None of them were against environmental work; they did just not 25
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perceive that ISO 14001 could bring about any changes. Reducing the gap should increase Ideologists argumentation and also increase the possibility to convince the Turncoats. Second, this study also stresses the risk of investing in environmental education without also consider the uncertainty which is inherent in the environmental work. As seen during this study, the environmental education could make the internal struggle between different strategies even more obvious and in that way impede the work and increase the conflicts. Here it could be wise to seek wisdom among the pragmatist, such as Dewey, which treated knowledge development as a mode of action and of doing (Heelan and Schulkin, 1998), something which should be though about, resolved and converted into new knowledge ” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). By eliminating the interface between thoughts, methods and actions, any possibilities of creating new insights and develop new knowledge seems implausible. Thu, managers need to learn how to create the interface linking the internal actions with the environmental performance. And because ISO 14001 does not require this interface to be created, it seems up to organizations, managers and employees to invent this link. Lastly this study also touches upon the concept of environmental awareness. Environmental awareness is commonly perceived as something important when considering ISO 14001 (Brorson and Almgren, 2006). However, the reasoning developed during this study suggests that it could be wise to not automatically frame environmental awareness as something positive. In fact this study argues that when an organization lacks resources and have decoupled actions and outputs when it comes to environmental work, high environmental awareness among the employees could be seen as a barrier for the overall involvement in the work. In these circumstances environmental awareness seems to give rise to unsatisfied employees with a feeling of being involved in a rational myth as described in Boiral, (2007). However, because of the stance performed during this study, the results should be seen as temporary (Simpson, 2009). Remembering that social knowledge develops with us and need to be a subject for further research in order to pass on from generation to generation (Ormerod, 2006; Corbin and Strauss, 2008). Further research could for instance focus upon developing the different strategies identified during this study and test whether or not they could be identified among other organizations. This study is also exploratory to its nature, which means that the qualitative evidence of this study is not appropriate to use in any statistical generalizing. However, the aim with this study was to improve the readers understandning of the investigated phenomenon, meaning that the same reasoning conducted from this case organzition could be valuable in other situations as well. “For the time being this is what we know – but eventually it may be judged partly or even wholly wrong.” (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 p.4).
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Acknowledgements
My profound appreciation goes out to my supervisor, Magnus Frostensson, for the support which has helped me to see the work in new lights. I would also like to thank all of whom who participated in the study and made this study possible. Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my girlfriend Gitte; for her patient, love and believe in my ideas to carry through this project. Stockholm, May 2011 Niklas Bomark
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8. References
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