Increasing concern about environmental aspects have motivated organisations to implement Environmental Management Systems.
Studies find, that change management efforts enhance the environmental performance of manufacturing establishments as well as continual support of the top management.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provide ways in which company policies and processes affect its stakeholders and the natural environment. It has become an important factor to firm's performance. Increased public awareness and regulatory pressures motivate businesses to implement new practices and systems.
These generally focus on waste reduction, design for the environment and full-cost accounting.
The general assumption is that ISO14001 standard implementation allows to improve the organisation's environmental performance.
There is, however, limited research on how the standards and new processes are incorporated into the business culture and business processes. This can be due to the fact that businesses may purely implement the EMS for strategic purposes and economic benefits. Some, for ethical and symbolic reasons.
Many businesses implement the standard without proper consideration for the employees ability to accept the change.
The change may become rather difficult if the relevant level of urgency is not defined. Therefore a weak version of EMS is implemented.
Shannon K. Ronnenberg ( 2010) conduct a study to stress the importance of change management processes for effective implementation of EMS in the business.
The EMS
An Environmental Management System (EMS) provides organised framework and procedures that influence the control of environmental issues.
It is a "part of the overall management system that includes organisational practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing, and maintaining the environmental policy. [Such a system provides] a framework for managing environmental responsibilities, including regulatory compliance" (US EPA, 2009).
The standard can be self-declared or certified. Introduced in 1996, ISO 14001 is the most widely accepted EMS certification. The standard is based on importance of continual improvement. It consist the process of Plan-Do-check-Act (PDCA) circle (Deming, 1986/2000, p. 88; Shewhart, 1939, p. 45).
It is important to mention, that certified sites are not required to meet particular environmental performance standards.
The change management context
Ronnenberg ( 2010) suggests, that the attention to change management within the implementation processes has not gained sufficient recognition. Would a proper change management framework implemented during the adoption of EMS improve the system environmental performance?
Some research also indicates that in organisations certified the environmental performance may be worse than those who have never implemented the standard. Would the reason be with the way change was implemented?
Much of the EMS implementation literature fails to implement main change management frameworks. One of the is Lewin's model (1947).
Lewin referred to the operation of these change forces as unfreezing (preparing and justifying an upcoming change), movement (implementing the change) and refreezing (institutionalising a change so as to make it a permanent part of business practices and expectancies) (Lewin, 1947).
ISO standard provides the framework for implementation steps of establishing the policy, planning, technical activities, audits, corrective actions and management review. It does not, however incorporate the change management practices in the context of the implementation and maintenance of the system.
Some papers stress the importance of cultural preparedness, but do not provide a clear definition and framework for the implementation.
Some of the important factors within change management are considered: training, empowerment, rewards and top management support. However these are relatively theoretical and there is a need for a comprehensive model to support the change.
Unfreezing
Unfreezing involves enhancing the perceived necessity and urgency of the need for change among the stakeholders. Here, during the EMS adoptions introductory training sessions can enhance the awareness of the environmental issues. Businesses must make efforts to remove biases regarding the importance of the EMS from being purely a "marketing trick" to a deeper understanding of improvement in the environmental performance and effect on the wider society. The research found that the greater the degree of unfreezing during the implementation the better the environmental performance. Management must be actively involved in the unfreezing process.
Movement
It is important do develop a vision, empower the staff and ensure short term wins. Top management support, supervisory support, training, involvement and communication become critical to the successful implementation. Movement is also significantly affecting the environmental performance.
Refreezing
Here, we give the movement phrase a continuous momentum. This is to prevent regression. New paradigm is created. We still to ensure small wins, rewriting job descriptions and giving new responsibilities and using the reward system to reinforce desired behaviours. Change need to sustain. The research also found that the greater the degree of unfreezing the greater the prediction of environmental performance.
The findings
As pressure grows on businesses to expand their success metrics to include the environmental performance many firms are adopting the EMS. The study conducted by Ronnenberg ( 2010) wants to enhance the PDCA circle with change management models. It is trying to address the deficiency in the current implementation models. Attention to change management models should be paid. Author also explains that the potential failure of EMSs or poor performance may be influenced by insufficient change management processes.
An interesting findings were derived that Unfreezing did not have significant impact on the environmental performance. What significantly affects it is the top management support in the Movement phrase. An unexpected finding was found that the employee involvement did not significantly affect the performance. This contradicts the literature in that matter. Some managers might of assume that based on their personal beliefs. The study recommended comprehensive training for managers and supervisors and how to manage the employee participation in the improvements process.
The Framework
The research suggests a change management framework within the Unfreezing, Movement and Freezing steps. It highlights the importance of originally overlooked change management steps during traditional implementation. The sense of urgency must be maintained. There are emotional and work-related barriers that will influence the standard implementation success. Incorporating the framework will impact the environmental performance significantly.
Bibliography:
Deming, W.E. (1986/2000), Out of the Crisis, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Lewin, K. (1947), “Frontiers in group dynamics”, Human Relations, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 5-41.
Ronnerberg S., (2010), " The important role of change management in environmental management system implementation", accessed from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443571111131971/full/pdf?title=the-important-role-of-change-management-in-environmental-management-system-implementation ( accessed on 16/07/2022)
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