Understanding the environmental worldviews of Malaysian project managers

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dimensionality of the environmental concern scale (NEP) and to understand the environmental worldviews of Malaysian project managers.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among developer organisations registered with Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia in Klang Valley. Response was obtained from project managers and the final sample collected was 87 cases, representing a response rate of 24.5 per cent. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to investigate the underlying structure of the NEP items while frequency distribution for the data set was used to gauge the environmental worldviews of the respondents. In addition, face-to-face interviews were carried out to gather more information to complements the findings of quantitative analyses.

Findings

Five factors were extracted but due to heavy cross-loadings, two items from the original scale were dropped, reducing it to be a 13-item scale. The four factors retained explained 61.6 per cent of the variance and were duly named Human over nature, ecocrisis, rights of nature and limits of growth. High scores on both pro-NEP and pro-dominant social paradigm items revealed the co-existence of both ecological and utilitarian view of the environment among project managers. Similar outcome was obtained from interviews with project managers where they indicated efforts in finding compatibility between protecting the environment and exploiting natural resources for development.

Research limitations/implications

The sample was restricted to housing developers in Klang Valley, thus the findings cannot be generalised to all developer organisations or other construction occupational groups.

Practical implications

This research supported the multidimensionality claim of the environmental scale (NEP) where four distinctive dimensions were identified. The usage of individual subscales in understanding environmental beliefs may reveal interesting patterns in that each dimension could have positive and negative connotations on human behaviours. In addition, the co-existence of both an ecological and a utilitarian view of the environment revealed that these worldviews align well with sustainable development principles.

Originality/value

This study is one of the few local studies that attempt to understand the environmental worldviews of project managers.

Citation

Lau, J.L., Hashim, A.H., Samah, A.A. and Salim, A.S.S. (2016), "Understanding the environmental worldviews of Malaysian project managers", Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 307-324. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-06-2016-0012