Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 30, Number 3
Summer 1999
Environmental Management in Operations: The Selection of
Environmental Technologies
Robert D. Klassen
Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario,
1151 Richmond Street North, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7,
email: rklassen@ivey.uwo.ca
D. Clay Whybark
Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, Carroll Hall, CB 3490, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3490,
email: clay_whybark@unc.edu
ABSTRACT. Manufacturing firms have given management
of the natural environment higher priority as public awareness
and scrutiny has increased. To help understand management’s
role in this process, a basic conceptual model of environmental
management within operations is developed. The model proposes
that the general orientation of operations managers on environmental
issues ranges from proactive to reactive, and this is intrinsically
related to the investment pattern in environmental technologies.
Results from an empirical validation of this model are presented
for a sample of plants from the furniture industry. Three distinct
groups were identified based on the linkage between environmental
management orientation and investment in environmental technologies.
Counter to the prescriptive environmental literature, which recommends
that proactive orientation should emphasize pollution prevention
(i.e., fundamental product and process changes), proactive managers
implemented a balanced portfolio that also included a sizable
proportion of pollution control technologies (i.e., traditional
end-of-pipe controls and remediation). Contextual factors also
differentiate among these three groups, thus suggesting options
for senior management to assist plant managers to become more
proactive and to improve environmental performance.
Subject Areas: Cluster Analysis, Natural Environment,
Operations Strategy, and Survey Research. |