Green Organizational Culture: An Exploration of Dimensions

Abstract

Awareness of environmental issues and stakeholder expectations has led organizations to be concerned about the impact of their products, processes and packaging on the natural environment. Environmental sustainability has become an essential tool for the competitive advantage of firms. Organizations need to bring about cultural transformation to sustain competitive advantage. This orientation has brought green organizational culture to centre stage as firms seek to institutionalize and incorporate environmental focus throughout the organization. The belief that integrating environmental concerns with organizational culture should result in sustainable competitive advantage mandates that firms measure the extent of ‘greening’ of the culture. Literature review reveals that ‘green organizational culture’ has begun to receive attention in recent years. However, a standardized and empirically validated instrument is not available for measuring the extent to which green values are internalized throughout the firm. The present study aims to fill this gap by developing a questionnaire to study green organizational culture (GOC). The model proposed by Harris and Crane (2002 , Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 15, pp. 214–234) is used as a basis for questionnaire development. A two-stage method of structural equation modelling in AMOS 23 is employed for data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis in SPSS reveals three dimensions of the construct measured by two items. Confirmatory factor analysis confirms the factor structure. The instrument satisfies the conditions of convergent and discriminant validity and the model fulfils the criteria for model fitness. Measurement of green organizational culture has important implications for creating and reinforcing greening through human resource policies and practices.

Impact of green human resource management on organizational reputation and attractiveness: The mediated-moderated model

“…In addition, environmental responsibility is central to the business's survival and profit. These study results align with prior work by Gürlek and Tuna (2018), Kim (2020), Aggarwal andAgarwala (2021), andShah et al (2021), who all reported that OA as a firm goal is accomplished through green culture and personal environmental orientation.…”

“…Bauer and Aiman-Smith (1996) found that an organization's proactive stance on the environment is positively associated with OA, acceptance of job offers, and an intention to pursue employment with that organization. Following Aggarwal and Agarwala (2021), Gürlek and Tuna (2018), Kim (2020), andShah et al (2021), we propose that OA as a firm goal can be accomplished through a green culture and personal environmental orientation. H4: Green culture has a positive influence on OA H5: Personal environmental orientation has a positive influence on OA…”

Relationship of green human resource management with environmental performance: mediating effect of green organizational culture

“…Wang (2019) defined organizational culture as a shared system of values, beliefs, ideas and attitude that shape the organizational behavior. Culture helps the organization in transforming Relationship of GHRM with EP and GOC's effect the thinking of employees (Rao and Holt, 2005) and acts as a competitive advantage for an organization (Aggarwal and Agarwala, 2021;Shah et al, 2021). Harris and Crane (2002) defined GOC as an extent to which assumptions, values, symbols and artifacts of the organization reflect the desire to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner.…”

“…Dangelico (2015) suggested that organizations have to take conscious efforts to involve and develop all the organizational members to solve environmental problems that eventually lead to improved EP of the organization. Harris and Crane's (2002) model of green culture helps the organization in identifying where (degree, depth and diffusion) the environmental management efforts should be incorporated in the organization to lead a sustained business advantage (Aggarwal and Agarwala, 2021). demonstrated that the enablers of GOC (leadership emphasis, message credibility, and peer involvement and employee empowerment) provide a foundation for the improvement of green competitiveness of the firm.…”

“…The analysis with respect to the three dimensions can help the organization to channelize the resources judiciously in appropriate directions to get the maximum benefit and can lead to in-depth discussions on green culture within organizational meetings. These three dimensions can be a source of quantification of green culture and can help the organization in identifying gaps among existing green practices (Aggarwal and Agarwala, 2021). Thus, the existence of green practices and green culture helps employees transform their day-to-day activities into environmentally responsible behavior and leads to improvement in the EP of the organization.…”