An Investigation of Environmental Paradigms and Organizational Classifications
Abstract
The extent of environmental management in organizations is largely determined by what paradigms are espoused with respect to maintaining both natural resources and raw materials. Environmental management paradigms possibly stem from whether an organization is private or public, producing a product or providing a service. However, no established methods exist for comparing organizations with regard to environmental management approaches and perspectives. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether particular organizational classifications are linked to specific environmental management paradigms. This study incorporates several environmental management concepts to develop an analytical instrument for observing organizations. Environmental management paradigms provide a common spectrum of comparing organizations to one another. Environmental management systems provide a common basis on which to evaluate organizations. Environmental corporate responses identify environmental perspectives. The combination of paradigms, systems, and corporate responses results in the creation of a tool for analyzing organizations. After analyzing ten of each type of organization, it is found that private with product organizations appear to have the highest overall degree of environmental management, followed by the private with service arena and finally the public with service sector. Theoretical reasons for the results include: financial benefits, production control, long term planning, and managerial cohesion.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA334405
Entities
People
- Marvin T. Ee
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology