Linkages among Employee Perceptions of Organizational Commitment to the Green Movement and Organizational Culture, and Their Perceived Impacts upon Outcomes (2009)

ABSTRACT In this research, we find support for a proposed set of linkages among employee perceptions of organizational orientation, individual orientation, and outcomes, in terms of positive impacts of the and organizational performance. Specifically, we find that employees who believe that their organizations are aligned with the are more likely to also see the organization as higher in outcomes in terms of overall performance and their perceptions of the positive impact of the will also be higher. INTRODUCTION In this research, we consider how employee perceptions of the organization's commitment to the and employee perceptions that the organization has implemented practices in a high quality manner. A stimulus for our work has been widespread recent discussion of the need to shift attention to issues of sustainability, a concept that is central to the movement. The Green Movement Recent events, and especially rising gasoline prices, a depressed housing market, and instabilities in the world economy, have led to considerable discussion of the current status of the green a phenomenon that has appeared over the past 20 years (Stafford, 2003). It encompasses areas such as green buying by consumers (Mainieri, et al., 1997), Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) by government agencies and ultimately by organizations in the private sector (Elwood & Case, 2000), Environmentally Benign Design and Manufacturing (EBDM) (Newsdesk, 2006), and Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) (Blodget, 2007). In each case, discussion has centered on purchasing, manufacturing, and investing in ways, which are environmentally beneficial. Historically, emphasis has been placed on insuring that EPP products are attractive to consumers (Ottman, Stafford & Hartman, 2006; Dale, 2008) and insuring that organizations have sufficient incentives to behave in environmentally-constructive ways (Elwood & Case, 2000). In contrast, a second stream in the literature has suggested that the green movement may be in decline. Specifically, one of the Current Issues in the Greening of Industry (July 2007) suggests that the current new-found environmental ethic may be somewhat ephemeral and that ... corporate greening could go bust in ways analogous to other recent fad-like phenomena. Moreover, Stafford (2003) points out that ... issues as a whole appear to be taking a back seat to concerns of terrorism, war, and the economy. However, Dale (2008) points out that, with soaring energy prices pushing up the price of mainstream goods, products are becoming just as - or even more - affordable these days. Stafford also notes that concerns about oil could lead to a to reduce dependence on oil in the U.S., and thus foster this aspect of the movement. During this unsettled period, one important set of questions centers upon consumers, who, themselves are employees as well and the issue of determining the extent of their commitment to the movement. We have recently (Li, Hartman & Zee, 2008) reported our initial work to design a scale to measure commitment to the movement. Our emphasis was on development of an instrument which would tap the key concerns of the movement. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, points out that the Green Movement originated from Green Politics, a political ideology. Greens, the supporters of the movement, advocate politics and place a high importance on ecological and environmental goals. The greens share many ideas with the ecology, conservation, environmental, feminist, and peace movements; civil liberties, social justice and nonviolence are the issues they focus upon as well. We reported encouraging initial findings which suggest that the instrument can be used to examine consumer/employee commitment. Environmental friendliness and sustainability are the major concerns of products, manufacturing and service, and organizations (Liu & He, 2005). …