Reconciling green at work: a classic grounded theory study

Buravas, Maleeya (2022) Reconciling green at work: a classic grounded theory study. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Given the environmental crisis that pervades the current global agenda, business and civic leaders are expected to demonstrate heuristic and tangible actions in order to be seen to implement a positive impact upon the world’s eco-environment (Asgary et al., 2019). Extant literature in the area of sustainability in business recognises the importance of convincing internal stakeholders of both the efficacy and the significance of a firm’s green strategies (Renwick et al., 2013). Whilst scholars have attempted to seek both novel and effective ways to promote green engagement amongst the internal workforce (Gond et al., 2017), their studies have mainly focused upon the managerial perspectives and neglected the attitudes of other internal stakeholders. Moreover, most of these studies explored firms’ green strategies through the lens of general management theories. A theory to facilitate the understanding of organisational behaviour, in the ‘green’ context has not yet been developed. This doctoral study, therefore, aims to bridge the gap in the literature by generating a new theory for this field. The classic grounded theory research method, employing qualitative data, was applied and through constant comparison, theoretical sampling and memoing, a substantive theory in ‘organisational green behaviour’, entitled “Reconciling Green at Work” gradually emerged. The substantive area of this study covered UK-based, profit organisations, and thirty-one participants from various UK-based organisations were interviewed. The theory proposes that internal stakeholders seek to reconcile green tasks/goals with other work priorities in order to resolve their main concern, which is compliance with green strategies within the workplace. Four types of internal stakeholders emerged: The Pro-Greens, the Willing-Greens, the Hidden-Greens, and the Anti-Greens, based upon their observable green behaviours in response to a firm’s green strategies. The theory recommends that managers should pay attention to the explicitness, readiness, and accessibility of green strategies because these three dimensions not only directly impact the psychological and behavioural processes of internal stakeholders but also influence the prevailing green ambience within a firm. Finally, the theory suggests future research into organisational green behaviour focuses more on the psychological aspects of individuals within a firm.

KEYWORDS: sustainability in business; greening an organisation; green strategies behaviour; green psychology; internal stakeholders; employee green behaviour; classic grounded theory

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2023 09:23
Last Modified:	14 Feb 2023 09:23
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/91123
DOI:

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