Relationships between human resource dimensions and environmental management in companies: proposal of a model

Abstract

This work deals with the main contributions of human resource dimensions for the environmental management in a company. While the specialized literature concerning the technical aspects of environmental management expands, there is a gap in the bibliography: integrated approaches between human resource dimensions and environmental management. An extensive bibliographical review was undertaken in order to systematize the human resource dimensions and their contributions concerning the effectiveness of the environmental management system. A model that analyses the relationships between these dimensions and the typical phases of an environmental management system is presented, within a perspective of application for academicians and managers.

Introduction

Environmental degradation has increased with the expansion of the levels of production and consumption in the world, which were intensified by the consolidation of the Industrial Revolution [1]. Thus, as the work of companies and the global environmental conditions are interlocked [2], companies have to change their posture in order to deal with the ecological dimension towards proactive environmental management [3], which is developed by a course of action guided by the management of products, productive processes and strategies which prevent the emergence of environmental problems [4]. At the core of this strategic management, the environmental issue becomes the responsibility of all management areas of an organization [5], including its suppliers [6].

Sustainable Development, which may be understood as meeting the needs of the current generations without impeding future generations to meet theirs [7], cannot be solved without the effective implementation of environmental management in companies. Considering that the environmental management has become essential for the survival of companies [8], researchers have to investigate the organizational factors that favour the internal decisions of companies [9].

Within the multiple tools that aim at implementing the process of environmental management in companies, environmental management systems (EMS) must be highlighted. The term “system” means an integrated set of elements, which operate in a synchronized and non-chaotic way aiming to achieve a common objective [10]. Thus, the environmental management system consists of the organizational totality of its actions which are carried out in a systematized way in order to monitor the environmental impacts of its activities, and to manage issues related to the ecological dimension [11].

The adoption and maintenance of an EMS requires aligning human resource management with environmental management [12]. Zutshi and Sohal [13] and Wee and Quazi [14] reinforce the necessity of human resources to make EMS effective. However, this interaction between practices of human resources and environmental strategy is considered as a secondary theme, not only in the scientific production concerning human resource management [15], [16], [17], [18], but also in the classic papers related to environmental management [3], [19], [20]. At the same time that researchers deal with the integration of the ecological dimension in the context of management areas, such as marketing [21], production [22], [23], [24] and finance [25], little is known about the dynamics of the interaction between human resource dimensions and environmental management in a company [26]. It is important to highlight that this deficiency is broader because it is symptomatic to observe that the international bibliography on management and organizational change practically does not mention the functional area of human resource management [27].

For this reason, the main aim of this article is: in view of an integrated perspective, what are the main contributions of the human resource dimensions to implement and maintain an EMS? Based on this problem, the objectives of this article are presented as follows: (a) to present the various phases which constitute an EMS; (b) to analyse in detail the main contribution of the human resource dimensions for the modus operandi of EMS, taking into account practical examples of this interaction; and (c) to present a model which integrates these elements. This proposal complements the models presented in [9] and [12].