Green organizational culture in manufacturing SMEs: an analysis of causal relationships

Abstract

Purpose

The concern for environmental sustainability has created the need for businesses to embrace new environmentally responsible behavior, values and beliefs. Developing green culture has the capability of influencing employee attitudes and behavior and instilling certain values that shape an internal culture. The purpose of this study is to understand the causal relationship between the factors that influence green organization culture (GOC) in manufacturing small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) since they are considered significant contributors to environmental pollution. The study also aims to execute the driving and dependency power analysis to find the most and least significant factors of GOC.

Design/methodology/approach

The study identified eight factors through an extensive literature review and validated them with the specialists. The total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) approach was employed for discovering the interaction among the identified factors and developing their structural hierarchy. Further matriced impact croises multiplication applique (MICMAC) analysis was carried out to determine the driving-dependence power of each factor.

Findings

The study discovered that the factors namely “Top management commitment and support towards green practices and workforce greening F(2)”, “Internal regulatory forces towards the environmental system (F3)” and “Organization's mission including environmental concern (F6)” were observed to be the most significant ones. “Environment that creates green work-life balance F(8)” and “Environment that promotes green attitude and behavior F(4)” were identified to be extremely dependent on the remaining factors.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed outline has been established in the context of India and is restricted to manufacturing SMEs. The methodology presented in the study relies solely on experts' opinions which are qualitative in nature. Integration with a different method can be used to do statistical validation and add new variables to the problem, thereby reducing restrictions. The findings may facilitate manufacturing SME owners/managers and HR managers to recognize the most and least important factors of GOC and their causal relationships. This will increase awareness of GOC practices among managers thus contributing to environmental performance.

Practical implications

It is essential for manufacturing small and medium enterprises to enhance their GOC for reducing its negative impact on the environment and further for gaining competitive advantage. Also, this research will offer insights into environmental management and enlarge awareness in the subsequent fields: of academics, practitioners and decision-makers who are engaged in managing environmental issues at various stages.

Originality/value

The researchers believe that the study is highly significant for manufacturing SMEs as they contribute to the economy as well as environmental degradation. Also, none of the research focused on understanding the causal relationships between the factors of GOC using the TISM approach in the Indian manufacturing SMEs context. This research adds an important contribution to the current GOC literature.

Citation

Subramanian, N. and Suresh, M. (2023), "Green organizational culture in manufacturing SMEs: an analysis of causal relationships", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 44 No. 5, pp. 789-809. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-09-2021-0557