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Faculty of Economics and Business
Master Thesis, MSc. Supply Chain Management
Exploring the effect of employee training in environmental
practices: A multiple case study research
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Acknowledgements
In this way I would like to express my appreciation to my supervisor Dr. Chengyong Xiao for the great guidance during the process of writing my thesis. The feedback, tips and suggestions provided helped me to bring my research to a higher level.
Moreover, I would like to thank all interviewees who made time to participate in this research. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, it was not easy to find candidates that were willing to cooperate in this research. Therefore, my appreciation.
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Abstract
The world is facing serious challenges regarding liveability due to climate change. This leads to the experience of pressure by firms from internal and external stakeholders to implement sustainability practices into their operations, improving environmental performance. Although many of the literature researched the influence of external stakeholders, the literature on the impact of internal stakeholders is rather scant.
This thesis contributes to literature by filling the gap that exists regarding internal stakeholder involvement in environmental practices, focussing on employees. The following research question is answered: How does training of employees influence the impact they have on
environmental practices within an organisation? By means of an exploratory multiple case
study, this research contributes to literature by theory building. For the collected data, five interviews have been conducted over four cases within the Dutch energy sector. This sector was chosen since is shows a need of sustainable development due to the ongoing energy transition. The data provided by the cases made it possible to conduct within-case and across-case analysis, providing codes that confirmed current literature, while also adding new elements to the literature. The data shows that employee training is initiated through top management (top-down) and by suggestions of employees (bottom-up training). In both training forms employees are involved, leading to increased performance and satisfaction. Furthermore, the data shows that employee training and employee involvement complement each other. The new insights have been incorporated in an overview, showing the influence of employee training and employee involvement on performance within GSCM practices. Moreover, this research provides several propositions with managerial implications to apply in practice, contributing to literature and providing guidance for further research.
Keywords: sustainability, environmental practices, GSCM practices, employee involvement,
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ...7
2. Literature review ... 10
2.1 Environmental sustainability programs ... 10
2.1.1 Green purchasing ... 11 2.1.2 Green manufacturing ... 11 2.1.3 Green distribution ... 12 2.1.4 Reverse Logistics ... 12 2.2 Employee training ... 13 2.3 Employee involvement ... 14 2.4 Research framework ... 15 3. Methodology ... 16 3.1 Research design ... 16 3.2 Research setting ... 17 3.3 Data collection ... 18 3.3.1 Primary data ... 18 3.3.2 Secondary data... 20 3.4 Data analysis ... 21 4. Findings ... 22
4.1 Employee training and involvement ... 22
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4.2.5 Transfer of knowledge ... 29
4.3 Influence of employee training ... 30
5. Discussion ... 30
5.1 Contribution of employee training on employee involvement ... 31
5.2 Contribution of employee training in GSCM practices ... 33
6. Conclusion ... 35
6.1 Theoretical contributions ... 35
6.2 Managerial implications ... 36
6.3 Limitations and further research ... 36
Bibliography... 38
Appendices ... 46
Appendix A: Interview Protocol ... 46
Appendix B: Invitation letter ... 49
Appendix C: Within-case analysis ... 50
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Abbreviations
GSCM: Green Supply Chain Management NGO’s: Non-Governmental Organisations SCM: Supply Chain Management
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1. Introduction
Currently, the world is facing challenges regarding liveability. Besides the current Covid-19 pandemic, climate change is posing serious threat to the liveability of the world (Salas et al., 2020). As a result, firms generally experience growing pressures from internal and external stakeholders, including the government, employees, customers, and NGO’s, to implement environmental practices. These pressures drive firms to participate in environmental programs to improve their environmental performance and satisfy their stakeholders (Darnall & Sides, 2008; Meixell & Luoma, 2015). As a result, environmental management has emerged as a strategic issue for most firms (Porter & Kramer, 2006).
Besides environmental compliance, environmental practices such as green purchasing programs or sustainable product design (eco-design) (Green et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2016), can also lead to increased economical, ecological and operational performance (Green et al., 2012; Huang et al., 2017; Khaksar et al., 2016; Rao & Holt, 2005). These environmental practices are driven by environmental programs that are initiated by stakeholders (Carmin et al., 2003). Initiators can be the industry itself, governments or independent third party organisations who initiate these environmental programs in order to promote the ideas regarding sustainability and exert pressure toward other organisations (Carmin et al., 2003; Xiao et al., 2018). The environmental programs are designed to enhance the scope of existing environmental regulations and to address issues which do not fall in the current regulatory framework (Koehler, 2007). Organisations need to implement (elements of) the program into their operations. In order to make the environmental programs effective, involvement of employees can help (Prakash & Potoski, 2012). To facilitate employee involvement in environmental programs, coordination should be established between human resource management and environmental management. This makes it possible to implement employee training and assessments regarding environmental practices (Jackson et al., 2014; Teixeira et al., 2016). Furthermore, other management practices, such as lean management and Total Quality Management (TQM), can be used to influence operational performance (Chi et al., 2011; Delmas & Pekovic, 2018).
Greenwood (2007) describes that employee engagement makes employees feel more responsible for their actions and thus lead to “higher ability, motivation and opportunity for
participative activities” (Tariq et al., 2016, p. 4). However, literature has yet to explore how
8 pays” (p. 11). The literature on environmental programs (Renwick et al., 2013; Tariq et al.,
2016; Zaki & Norazman, 2019) has mainly focused on employee empowerment: how it can influence the employee and how empowerment can facilitate implementing environmental practices.
Moreover, the literature highlights how organisations cope with external and internal pressure of stakeholders (González-Benito & González-Benito, 2006; Sarkis et al., 2010; Sharma & Henriques, 2005; Wolf, 2014). The pressure of stakeholders within an organisation is not clearly understood yet, particularly the influence of employees on environmental programs has received rather scant attention so far. However, it is clear that training can facilitate employee participation in environmental practices (Sarkis et al., 2010), although literature has provided limited insights into the mechanisms through which such trainings can facilitate employee participation in environmental practices. By gaining insight in the mechanisms of employee training, employees can be deployed more effectively within environmental practices, leading to the potential of increasing the effect of environmental practices and therefore environmental programs. Combining the elements of encouraging research regarding green training of employees (Renwick et al., 2013) and the fact that training could be used to give employees their abilities regarding environmental practises, this research will explore the following research question: How does training of employees influence the impact they have on
environmental practices within an organisation? By answering the research question, this
research provides insights in how employees influence environmental practices within an organisation.
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Research was conducted by means of a multiple case study, focusing on at least medium sized firms that participate in environmental practices, organise employee training in a certain form and operate in the Dutch energy sector. In order to ensure reliability, four cases were included (Eisenhardt, 1989). The primary method for data collection were semi-structured interviews, for which in total five interviews have been conducted. An interview was conducted for each case with at least one representative that is responsible for employee training and/or sustainable practices. The collected data was then transcribed and coded alongside an abductive strategy. By means of within-case analysis and cross-case analysis, codes emerged that fit the current literature, as well as new codes that provides new insights regarding employee training in environmental practices. This analysis composed the basis for answering the research question. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap that currently exists regarding the influence of employees on sustainable practices of an organisation. This paper contributes to literature by exploring a narrow-investigated subject in an empirical setting. Where prior studies mainly focussed on the influence of external stakeholders on environmental programs (Wolf, 2014), this research was aimed on the influence of internal stakeholders, with a focus on employees. Discussed is how employee training contributes to the involvement of employees in environmental practices. By means of a qualitative case study, the mechanisms on the relationship between employee training and employee involvement are shown.
The findings will present the main forms of training that organisations use in order to implement training. This is subdivided in top-down and bottom-up training and will be discussed into details. Furthermore, the findings discuss the interplay between employee involvement and employee training. Discussed is how they influence and complement each other, whereafter the findings will show how employee training and employee involvement plays a role in environmental practices. Based on these findings, managerial implications are derived that discusses how top management should incorporate training within their organisation in order to increase employee satisfaction and performance.
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2. Literature review
This section will introduce the key constructs of the research more in-depth. The first section will discuss environmental sustainability programs. The second section will discuss employee training within sustainability programs and the last section will examine elements regarding employee involvement.
2.1 Environmental sustainability programs
Environmental practices refer to the efforts to minimize the negative impact of firms and their supply chains on the natural environment, which leads to a green supply chain (Mollenkopf et al., 2010). For example, Zaid et al. (2018) showed that organisations that invested in programs regarding health and safety of employees led to higher satisfaction with employees and higher performance. Green supply chain management (GSCM) serves several main purposes that can be elaborated in external reporting, internal control, and internal analysis. These elements help organisations to understand their business better and also help to be able to continuously improve (Hervani et al., 2005). A definition that GSCM describes best is: “integrating
environmental thinking into SCM, including product design, material sourcing and selection, manufacturing processes, delivery of the final product to the consumers as well as end-of-life management of the product after its useful life” (Srivastava, 2007, p.54). Typical GSCM practices include green purchasing, green manufacturing, green distribution and reverse logistics (Hervani et al., 2005). In order to achieve the goal of integrating environmental thinking within SCM, organisations have to overcome internal barriers such as high costs and lack of legitimacy, and external barriers like regulations that inhibit innovation and poor supplier commitment (Walker et al., 2008). How organisations overcome these barriers depends on how they have set their strategy on the triple bottom line, making trade-offs among the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability (Zaid et al., 2018). These trade-offs will affect the performance of the described GSCM practices.
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Sarkis (2003) describes that organisations are constantly trying to integrate environmental practices into their strategic plans and daily operations(Sarkis, 2003), and that the GSCM practices play a role in implementing environmental programs. In order to see how GSCM is involved within organisations, the typical GSCM practices highlighted will be discussed per element.
2.1.1 Green purchasing
Green purchasing can be described as “a process whereby organisations meet their needs for
goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organisation, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimizing damage to the environment” (DEFRA, 2006, p.10). Green purchasing has a
crucial role within a supply chain since it has the ability to reduce environmental footprint and to increase the social impact of an organisation. This is achieved by selecting the right suppliers and forming partnerships with other members in the supply chain (Grant & Trautrims, 2012; Zsidisin & Siferd, 2001). Also, the elements of reuse, recycle and reduce (3 R’s) play a role in green purchasing since these elements provide sustainability practices which help to reduce costs (Chin et al., 2015).
Moreover, firms with a large purchasing volume are more involved in green purchasing than firms that have small purchasing volume. A large purchasing volume increases the attractiveness and support for environmental programs (Min & Galle, 2001). The purchasing department lays the foundation of contact with other parties and start collaborations in order to be able to implement sustainability programs. As such, purchasing clearly plays an important role within an organization and helps to translate sustainability goals to services and materials bought for the firm (Tassabehji & Moorhouse, 2008).
Jayaram & Vickery (1998) show in their research that employee involvement and training are relevant to the purchasing function and that it is related to procurement lead time performance. More involvement leads to higher purchasing performance.
2.1.2 Green manufacturing
The term green manufacturing entails the creation of products while minimizing the impact on the nature (Deif, 2011). Jayal et al. (2010) defined green manufacturing as “the creation of
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department which focusses on product development and elimination of waste in order to minimize material usage. Additionally, manufacturing systems that adopt the production process route with fewer resources and energy consumption are implemented, leading to lower emissions of greenhouse gasses (Sezen & Çankaya, 2013).
However, in order to implement green manufacturing, several barriers have to be overcome. Mittal & Sangwan (2014) show in their study that several elements hinder the implementation of green manufacturing within a firm, like lack of awareness/information of available technologies, lack of organizational resources available such as skilled staff and financial resources, and low top management commitment. In order to overcome these barriers, employees can play a role. By informing employees and providing machinery and process maps, employees will be aware of sustainability and environmental practices. This makes it possible for employees to play a role in effective green manufacturing (Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek & Saniuk, 2015).
2.1.3 Green distribution
Green distribution refers to environmental practices regarding packaging, transportation of goods and storage. Green distribution aims to downsize packaging, promote recycling and reuse programs and usage of recyclable pallet systems, among others (Chin et al., 2015). The transportation of goods can be done by use of alternative fuel vehicles and grouping orders together in order to lower the distances travelled (Chin et al., 2015). Furthermore, location-allocation decisions of a facility has influence on the establishment, transportation and the total costs of logistics (Afshari et al., 2014). Placing the facility at a certain location decides the number of kilometres to be covered and therefore the greenhouse gas emissions. Within sustainability programs, green distribution thus affects the way goods are transported and packaged, creating opportunities to lower greenhouse emissions and add value to the sustainability programs of an organisation.
2.1.4 Reverse Logistics
Reverse logistics show many successful cases worldwide in developed and developing countries. By understanding the barriers and overcoming them, reverse logistics can be applied, leading to cost savings, more profit and reduced waste by means of an effective recycling process (Ho et al., 2012).
Pacheco et al. (2018) describe reverse logistics as “the process of planning, implementing and
13 finished goods, from the point of manufacturing, distribution or consumption, to the point of proper recovery or disposal” (p.1451). It entails the delivery activities that are involved in
product returns, recycling, reuse, disposal, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and many more (Chan et al., 2010). For example, organisations use reverse logistics to collect end-of-life products in order to remanufacture them and restore value. Therefore, reverse logistics can be seen as an value adding activity and is vital for organisations to stay competitive (Bernon & Cullen, 2007). The main goal of reverse logistics is to minimise wastes and in order to achieve that, integration and collaboration of all supply chain members is critical (Azevedo et al., 2011). There are several barriers related to the implementation of reverse logistics. A first barrier is lack of information and technological systems. These systems determine the extent of the product recovery that is possible (Raci & Shankar, 2005; Rogers & Tibben-Lembke, 2001). Moreover, other barriers are resistance to change to reverse logistics, lack of appropriate performance measures, lack of commitment by top management and lack of training and education (Raci & Shankar, 2005; Rogers & Tibben-Lembke, 2001).
Driving forces that can help with the implementation of the reverse logistics practises are managers’ support or commitment and the environmental factor within a company (Ho et al., 2012). Furthermore, based on the barriers, employees can help to overcome them and positively influence the effectivity of such a program as reversed logistics when they get well educated and trained in the new technology and processes needed for executing sustainability programs (Raci & Shankar, 2005).
2.2 Employee training
Organisations try to gain competitive advantage in many ways. Currently, organisations try to become more sustainable and in order to do so, employees need to be trained. This could lead to new knowledge and skills of employees that could increase performance and competitiveness of the organisation (Hanaysha, 2016). Top management realises that training and development is critical in order to improve employee performance since it bridges the gap between current performance and the standard desired performance (Elnaga & Imran, 2013).
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issues (Raci & Shankar, 2005). Furthermore, implementing environmental training gives companies the possibility to recruit talented applicants with a preference for working in companies with proactive environmental management. This could create more competitive advantage in order to attract new employees with new knowledge (Sarkis et al., 2010). Moreover, the basic principle of training is that it needs to be meaningful for workers to be successful and that it is a planned, continuous process that consist of several stages and steps, being design, implementation, evaluation and follow-up training (Diab, 2015).
Furthermore, the effects of training on employees is that it improves job satisfaction since employees perform better in their job, and that it increases the ability to satisfy customers (Elnaga & Imran, 2013). Regarding environmental practices, based on the findings of Elnaga & Imran (2013), the assumption can be made that when employees are trained in the subject of sustainability, they perform better in this subject and therefore have higher satisfaction and performance. Because of the trained staff and higher satisfaction, this then leads to competitive advantage and employee loyalty (Chang et al., 2010). Training of employees leads to success in any organisation, especially in new developed sustainable technologies and processes of organisations (Raci & Shankar, 2005). Moreover, employee training helps with employee involvement, which will be further discussed in following paragraph.
2.3 Employee involvement
Employee involvement is a broad concept and can encompass a variety of practices. Bhatti & Qureshi (2007) define it as “a process in which influence is shared among individuals who are
otherwise hierarchically unequal” (p. 56). This influence translates itself to employees that
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improved financial performance and loyalty makes involvement a strong intervention, leading to competitive advantage (Riordan et al., 2005). It is also important for organisations to involve employees with a variety of racial backgrounds since this increases possibilities of innovation and brings new ideas to the organisations (Yang & Konrad, 2011). Wallace et al. (2016) further discussed that employee involvement can lead to innovation. In their study they show that employee involvement strengthens the relationship between promotion focus and thriving, and that this in turn has a positive impact on innovation.
However, according to Renwick et al. (2013), organisations do not put enough focus on involving employees in green initiatives yet. Although organisations extensively develop green abilities, the full potential of employee involvement is not being used yet. This leads to the suggestion that when organisations make full use of the potential of employee involvement, this can lead to improved implementation of green initiatives (Renwick et al., 2013). Employee involvement in sustainability programs can be traced back to green human resource management (GHRM). For organisations, it helps to improve environmental performance by setting environmental values and principles, leading to an increase of green initiatives within an organisation (Zaid et al., 2018). This can also lead to higher satisfaction and performance with employees, which in turn increases the loyalty of employees (Zaid et al., 2018).
For sustainability practices, it is interesting to gain insights in employee involvement since the involvement of employees is not that straightforward yet. In order to involve employees, it is crucial that these employees know important elements of a practice that is needed in order to successfully execute sustainability programs. In order to achieve this, employee training will play a role, making it easier to involve employees in a program.
2.4 Research framework
16 Figure 2.1: Research framework
The research framework shows the essential elements of this research. As became clear in the literature review, the different GSCM practices have a positive effect on firm performance at environmental and operational level. This is shown through the connection (arrow) between “GSCM Practices” and “Firm Performance”. Furthermore, the literature discussed the positive effect of employee involvement as a mediator on the latter relationship. In the framework this is shown as “Employee involvement” linking to the relationship between “GSCM Practices” and “Firm Performance”. Additionally, the literature further specifies how employee training can contribute to employee involvement in order to improve firm performance. This is incorporated in the framework through linking “Employee training” to “Employee involvement” in order to show the relationship to each other.
3. Methodology
This section will describe how the research is designed, what the research setting is and how data is collected and analysed.
3.1 Research design
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building (Yin, 2009). Furthermore, a multiple case study is chosen above a single-case study since the results of multiple case studies are more generalisable than that of single case studies (Gerring & McDermott, 2007). Moreover, multiple cases help to increase the validity of the findings (Yin, 2013).
The unit of analysis was focused on organisations in the Dutch energy sector that initiated or participated in environmental practices. Data is collected from managers that are responsible for employee training and environmental practices in order to gain insight in how employee training plays a role within their organisation and how this influences the execution of environmental practices and environmental programs. Since several cases are used, cross-case analysis was incorporated, increasing the validity of the results and leading to richer theory building (Perry, 1998). Moreover, this research is of exploratory nature because it researches a subject that has not been thoroughly investigated before. Additionally, the research is executed in an abductive manner, combining deductive and inductive elements in a pre-specified research framework.
3.2 Research setting
This research is conducted in the context of the Dutch energy sector. The sample that was used is composed of four cases, a number that is considered to be adequate because the ideal number of cases lies between four to ten cases (Eisenhardt, 1989). The use of multiple case study makes it possible to conduct within-case and cross-case data analysis (Eisenhardt, 1989). In order to create a purposeful selection of cases to facilitate theory generalization, cases are select based on theoretical replication logic (Seawright & Gerring, 2008), allowing comparison between most-similar cases and increasing external validity of the data (Karlsson, 2016; Yin, 2009). To make theoretical replication possible, cases had to meet certain selection criteria. In total there are four case selection criteria used, allowing the development of in-depth understanding of the examined circumstances (Patton, 1990). The first criterion is related to firms participating in environmental practices. The second criterion is that organisations make use of employee training in a certain form, showing possibilities for development of employees. The third criterion requires organisations to be at least medium sized, as small firms have fewer resources to invest in environmental practices (Walker et al., 2008). The last criterion is that the organisation is operating in the Dutch energy sector.
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in the Netherlands. The energy production in the Netherlands is mainly executed through gas (56%) and coal (26%) extraction (Bulavskaya & Reynès, 2018). These forms of energy production are non-renewable, showing the need of innovations and green initiatives. New initiatives mean new rules and new ways of working, which requires training of employees. Therefore, it is interesting to see how organisations work towards these initiatives and how training of employees plays a role in these programs. The selected cases are described in table 3.1.
Table 3.1 Case selection
Case Type Industry sector
# Employees Turnover (in millions €) # interviewees A Energy provider Energy 20.000 15.930 1 B Gas wholesaler Energy 140 8.800 2
C Grid operator Energy 7.300 1.800 1
D Energy
operator
Energy 150+ 70 1
As can be seen in table 3.1, all cases selected are active in the energy sector. It was made sure that the organisations were operating on the Dutch market and that all organisations were at least medium sized (100+ personnel (Silva et al., 2014)). Moreover, the cases selected were able to provide information regarding environmental practices and employee training.
3.3 Data collection
Both primary and secondary data were collected for this research. These forms will be discussed individually.
3.3.1 Primary data
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insights in how and why processes of employee training in sustainable practices are executed (Karlsson, 2016).
This research tries to present the underlying mechanisms between employee training and employee involvement in environmental practices through an exploratory study. Multiple interviews have been conducted with managers responsible for employee training and/or environmental practices. This is done in combination with different data sources in the form of year-reports and organisations’ websites to aim for data-source triangulation (Perry, 1998), increasing construct validity of the data. For each case, at least one interview with a representative is conducted.
The interviews conducted are executed by use of an interview protocol that contains the procedure of data collection and objectives to be derived from the interviews. The protocol was based on a funnel model described by Karlsson (2016) in which the interview started with broad, open-ended questions. As the interview progressed, questions became more specific in order to answer the research question. This interview protocol is added in appendix A.
The protocol was constructed on a brief introduction regarding information concerning the research details. Basic information about the interview were provided. This was followed by general questions regarding the interviewed organisation in order to form an image of the interviewee and the organisation. The third element discussed environmental practices. Elements regarding participation in environmental practices, environmental barriers and sustainability goals were questioned. This was combined with follow-up questions regarding employee training and employee involvement, describing forms of employee training and how employees are involved within the organisation. During the interviews, mainly open questions were asked in order to obtain detailed responses. Additionally, the questions were based on the core concepts of the literature discussed in chapter 2. In order to ensure that the correct data was collected and that the questions were clear, a pilot interview was conducted in order to be able to rephrase and adapt elements of the interview when necessary.
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study protocol were covered in order to make sure the data obtained is useful. If elements were missing, these were questioned separately.
The interviews were conducted through video conference software’s Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Next to that, a telephone call was used. Although face-to-face meetings are preferred since it is more personal and provides the opportunity to observe body language, this was not possible due to the current Covid-19 pandemic. After an interview took place, it was transcribed in a digital format by means of Microsoft Word. This made it possible to produce case narratives that could be used in data analysis (Karlsson, 2016), making the data more easily traceable and also increasing the reliability of the research (Yin, 2009). An overview of the interviews conducted is added in table 3.2.
Table 3.2 Overview of interviews
3.3.2 Secondary data
Additional data were derived from the sustainability reports, annual reports and from websites of the interviewed organisations. This is shown in table 3.3. The use of different sources of data is used as a form of triangulation of evidence, increasing the construct validity of the presented data (Yin, 2009). Secondary data was reviewed before conducting interviews in order to gain insight in sustainability measures executed by the interviewed organisations. This made it possible to acquire more detailed information of environmental programs that the firms participate in.
Case # interviewee Role Interview approach
Interview duration (min)
Transcript length (pages) A 1 B2B Trainer Phone call 55:30 10
21 Table 3.3 Overview of secondary data
Case Document Pages
A Company A Annual Report 2019
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B Annual Report Company B 2019 80 C Company C_Jaarverslag_2019 230 D Website 1 3.4 Data analysis
Once all documents were transcribed and all data was in place, the data was analysed and coded by means of Microsoft Excel. In total 5 documents are coded in the process, which are the interviews described in table 3.2. The executed coding approach was based on an abductive strategy, a form that combines both inductive and deductive elements (Karlsson, 2016). Deductive coding was conducted before inductive coding in order to identify already possible codes and improves the efficiency of the process of inductive coding (Campbell et al., 2013). The aim of the research was to develop a theory on how training influences employee involvement in sustainability practices. Firstly, the provided data was compared to the research framework in which existing literature was used, checking emerging codes against the main variables. This made it possible to identify the codes that fit the established framework and the new codes that emerged from the interviews.
The process of coding was initiated by conducting within-case analysis for each case separately (Eisenhardt, 1989). The within-case analysis process started by analysing the transcript of the interview in combination of listening to the interview. Themes and dimensions that were considered to be useful for the research were put in an Excel file and produces the column
“example quotes”, being the exact words that were spoken by the interviewee. To provide an
example: “We believe it is important that people follow as many training courses as possible,
that they continue to develop. But in a general sense we place high responsibility on the people themselves”. The example quotes are then analysed and shortened to “first order descriptive”
codes in order to stress the main issues of the quote (Burnard, 1991). In case of the provided example, this led to the following 1st order code: “Employees are responsible for their own
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codes were developed, axial coding analysis was conducted in order to identify similarities and differences between the descriptive codes. This led to “second order interpretive codes”, which reduces the descriptive codes to a more manageable number of categories (Burnard, 1991). Regarding the example, this was then put in the 2nd order code of “training policies” since this regards the vision on employee training of an organisation. After the similarities and differences became clear, the interpretive codes were further narrowed down to aggregate dimensions that were introduced deductively as identified in the theory (Burnard, 1991). For this, an extra column was added next to the coding tree, linking the codes to the relevant dimension. In the case of the example, this was then linked to the dimension of “employee training” since the described elements are part of how employees are trained. An excerpt of within-case analysis can be found in appendix C.
Once the within-case analysis was completed, cross-case analysis was conducted by pattern matching between the cases in order to find patterns and common links regarding training and involvement of employees. The complete coding tree of the cross-case analysis is presented in appendix D. The outcomes of the cross-case analysis led to the development of propositions regarding employee training, adding a contribution to the literature. Furthermore, in order to increase the validity of the data, a draft of the final results and discussion based on the findings were delivered to the participating firms of this research (Long & Johnson, 2000).
4. Findings
This section discusses the findings that came up through the analysis of the cases. Since this paper examines how employee training influences the impact employees have on environmental programs, the results discussed will be presented alongside the elements discussed in the conceptual model of figure 2.1. This makes it possible to provide clear linkages between the collected data and the research framework. First, the elements of employee training and involvement will be discussed. This is then followed by a description of how the practices are performed and how employee training and involvement influences this performance. The findings section is closed with a main statement on how employee training influences performance.
4.1 Employee training and involvement
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4.1.1 Employee training
The data analysed shows various elements that are linked to employee training. First of all, companies describe to have two forms of training offerings: top-down and bottom-up. Top-down training is described as an onboarding program and is initiated by top management: “If
you join Company A, you have an onboarding program as it is called. … and you actually get the basics … so knowledge and skills” (Case A). This onboarding program provides employees
with basic knowledge about the market and the organisation’s vision and mission. It also provides a uniformity and a common feeling of connectedness with employees: “But they
immediately feel connected with each other, because at the same time they have shared quite a bit at the start” (Case D). The created connection makes that employees want to work for an
organisation, resulting in commitment to an organisation.
Bottom-up training is focussed on the individual employee, providing them with the responsibility to suggest what training is needed in order to be able function optimally: “We
believe it is important that people follow as many training courses as possible, that they continue to develop. But in a general sense we place high responsibility on the people themselves” (Case B). This form of training is offered since organisations believe that not all
sorts of training can be directed from the top management level: “But you cannot direct that
from the top” (Case C). The combination of responsibility and a variety of development
opportunities seems to increase the involvement and satisfaction level: “There are simply very
good facilities. We also see this in our satisfaction surveys” (Case C). This can be explained by
the fact that employees decide how they can influence and improve their work, leading to autonomy. However, in order to make employee training work, the completed training should actually be used. If this is not the case, motivation of employees will go down, leading to lower performance due to less involvement: “Because we have found out that if you train people, but
you then do nothing with it, you might as well not train them, because it causes them to become less motivated so that they perform less after a training instead of better” (Case A).
Moreover, a barrier described during the implementation of employee training is that training sometimes comes with resistance due to obstructed beliefs of employees: “And the other side
of it is that we train people in that energy transition, we also give them new skills, but during that training all kinds of resistance arise due to obstructed beliefs” (Case A). To overcome this,
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Based on the data, it can be assumed that the onboarding program (top-down) is used as a way to get employees committed to the organisation and to learn new employees the vision and mission of the organisation. The bottom-up training facilitation increases satisfaction and involvement since employees decide themselves what training is needed. The combination of both forms of training makes it possible to create optimal work circumstances to perform. First, employees learn what the organisation stands for and how the mission and vision can be incorporated in the daily work activities. Furthermore, when employees decide training is needed in order to improve performance, they can suggest a specific training to their management team and show the impact they can make.
4.1.2 Employee involvement
The data describes that employee involvement is incorporated in two ways: through goals of the organisation: “Sustainability is in twofold: on one side, we want to achieve a fossil fuel-free
generation. On the other side, in order to achieve this, an organisation should support its employees and give them some freedom and coaching in order to let them freely discuss how to achieve this fossil fuel-free generation” (Case A), and by involving employees in improving
training programs that are initiated by management: “There is of course a need somewhere, but
we happen to be working on the plan for next year. What we do for that is simply an inventory: what did you think of this year, what needs to be added, what would you like and so on” (Case
A). In addition, the former section described involvement of employees as bottom-up training in which employees are encouraged to suggest necessary training in order to develop skills and knowledge needed. Additionally, organizations involve employees in projects to challenge them and to show what the offerings are in their working field: “From time to time we do involve
colleagues in specific projects, also to give them some new challenges and to introduce them to what is going on outside the direct gas trade” (Case B). This provides employees with
awareness of current developments, leading to new insights that could be learned in training and eventually implemented in the organisation.
Moreover, the data suggests that employee involvement establishes intrinsic motivation within employees. By means of conversations in peer groups can be shown what employees find important. Instead of organising these important elements from management, employees are challenged to initiate it themselves: “So you see that the group of people we work with, that
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it possible to inspire each other and gives the employees intrinsic motivation to begin initiatives and feel involved, leading to increased employee satisfaction. Besides satisfaction, the data showed that intrinsic motivation leads to higher performance since employees execute work based on what they find important.
A challenge that comes up regarding employee involvement is time. The data showed that employees are challenged to begin initiatives for which they are intrinsically motivated. However, day-to-day work still must be carried out. A high focus on employee involvement in initiatives could lead to workers being focussed too much on their own initiatives instead of day-to-day work. Trade-offs have to be made in this matter, leading to a limited level of employee involvement: “In addition, there is also a challenge on time. … But you can imagine
that if I have to choose between participating in a volunteer project or completing a number of other projects, that can sometimes get in the way in terms of time” (Case D). As described,
employees have the freedom to start with initiatives. However, too much freedom could lead to employees being lost in their work, focussing too much on initiatives instead of executing day-to-day work which employees are hired for. The challenge that evolves from this problem is that organisations should guide their employees towards a clear division of work activities. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that employee training and involvement complement each other. Employee involvement influences employee training in such a way that employees help to decide what training is needed in order to achieve the organisation’s goals, while employee training helps to involve employees by developing skills needed in order to achieve the company’s goals. The data shows that there is an interplay between employee training and involvement, leading to the assumption that it could increase the commitment and performance of employees. Moreover, involvement leads to intrinsic motivation with employees to start initiatives, increasing satisfaction and leading to committed employees. However, the data also shows that a new barrier comes up in terms of time. In order to overcome this barrier and ensure work is carried out well, guidance should be provided by management. 4.2 GSCM Practices
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4.2.1 Green purchasing
Based on section 2.1.1, the main elements of green purchasing are meeting the needs of the organisation and society while minimizing damage to the environment. The findings of the research conducted show that organisations are considering not only what is beneficial for them, but also what is beneficial for society: “So we kind of have to get rid of the fact that we just care
about every element that generates money, that that makes us happy. We must of course value social human capital more and take it more seriously” (Case C). This shows that a transition is
going on in the energy sector and that organisations are aware of this, leading to a search within the organisations for efforts to minimize damage on the environment.
To achieve that the whole organisation takes green elements into account in their daily processes, employees need to know what is expected of them and how they have to execute their tasks properly according to the organisation’s goals set. The cases show that organisations highly value the development of knowledge with employees: “The first step is to know the
principles of the energy market and understand why we do what we do and where. That is actually largely about sustainability. So, the mission in the market, how it is with sustainability in the world, Europe, and the Netherlands. then we will continue working towards our mission”
(Case D).
The transition is described to be going fast and means that processes in the working field are changing, leading to new required skills. In order to achieve this, employees are involved to learn new aspects of the work processes: “…the aim is also to introduce people to new aspects
of old work. So also to give new insights” (Case B). This way, employees learn how the working
field develops, leading to awareness of new skills required. This can lead to employees developing these skills, resulting in increased performance.
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4.2.2 Green manufacturing
Previous literature showed that several barriers can occur during the implementation of green manufacturing (Mittal & Sangwan, 2014). These elements concern lack of awareness or information of available technologies, lack of organizational resources available, such as skilled staff and financial resources, and low top management commitment.
To overcome lack of awareness and information of available technologies, the cases show that employee training is used to improve the knowledge of employees. This is mainly offered with bottom-up training. For example, “training-menus” are offered in which several courses are presented based on the wishes of employees: “We have a personal development menu. That is
literally a menu that is refreshed every six months -, to ensure that the menus we offer are also in line with current learning needs” (Case D). Employees can register for training in order to
develop their knowledge and skills, being able to make an impact in the processes of the organisation.
When looking at the second barrier described, organizational resources are becoming more available for employees. By focussing on training for the individual employees, specialised training fields are offered to educate employees state of the art, achieving the skills necessary that are not within the company yet. This is achieved through collaborations: “We have
continuous training plazas; we work intensively with universities of applied sciences and MBOs” (Case C).
Furthermore, the cases show that top management in the energy sector is well aware of environmental practices and are committed to these matters. Management invests a lot in training programs to increase the skills of employees and improve their knowledge: “We are
very much investing in training at the training plazas. That is a permanent core task and we just have to keep working on it” (Case C). As described, the training possibilities are derived
from the wishes of employees, showing that a bottom-up approach is used. To anticipate on the wishes of employees, management organises assessments, coaching sessions, and annual meetings in order to gain knowledge on the needs and progress of employees.
4.2.3 Green distribution
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First of all, in the case of organisation B, location-allocation decisions played an important role for their new office location. This location was situated in the city centre, near the head train station. This was done in order to promote travel by public transport instead of cars in order to limit the greenhouse gasses emitted by employees: “What we also did very consciously, we
were on the A7 very difficult to reach for people who wanted to come by public transport. Now we are next to the station and very consciously have very few parking spaces” (Case B). For
Case B, this led to dissatisfaction with employees as they were not able to park their car: “We
really wanted to get people out of that car. Well, I do not want to say that it was received with a lot of enthusiasm. But you have no choice because there is no room for cars”. This shows
that employees must learn how to deal with sustainability initiatives set by the top management, which can be achieved by informing employees the need of these processes. If employees know why measures are taken, it is easier to understand and to cope with them.
The presented case shows that the measures initiated regarding green distribution are clearly linked to policy. To overcome the described dissatisfaction, an onboarding program (top-down training) could help in which is explained what drivers are to implement such measures. This way, employees can link it to the mission and vision, creating consciousness of the importance to change. Based on the data, it can be concluded that policy links with top-down training. Top management initiates the process of transferring important aspects of the organisation in order to inform and train the employees.
4.2.4 Reverse logistics
As was discussed in the literature review, reverse logistics are activities regarding the extension of the lifecycle of products with a main goal to minimise waste. To achieve this, supply chain collaboration is critical. In terms of collaboration, the cases show that these are established with universities and universities of applied sciences, as was discussed in section 4.2.2. This is done in order to train and develop their (future) employees. By collaborating with such institutes, knowledge can be obtained that is not within the organisation yet. Other collaborations are initiated to reach a common goal set by both organisations: “On the other hand, what is often even more striking are the collaborations with companies that also want to radiate sustainability” (Case A). Collaborations with other organisations are a great possibility to share
knowledge in order to improve environmental practices.
Furthermore, the cases show that collaborations are related to making neighbourhoods greener, disconnecting them from gas and connecting them to a network of only renewable energy: “All
29 there is electric driving and charging points must be connected” (Case C). For this transition
in making neighbourhoods greener, knowledge is required since fairly new technologies will be used to disconnect houses from gas. This means that employee training is required. Both top-down and bottom-up training could be incorporated in this case. Top-down training when management deems it necessary to follow a training regarding this technology, or bottom-up training when employees assume they need specific training in order to be able to develop the necessary skills for new technological developments.
The literature showed that several barriers play a role in reverse logistics, such as lack of commitment by top management and lack of training and education. The cases show that top management is aware of environmental practices and that employee training is incorporated in order to increase awareness and develop new skills. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that organisations have become well committed to environmental practices and that training possibilities to develop employees are well provided.
4.2.5 Transfer of knowledge
As the cases were being analysed, it came forward that besides the described GSCM practices, transfer of knowledge is presented as a practice on its own. Transfer of knowledge can be described as a practice in which the organisations educate external parties and individuals about the importance of sustainability. Regarding the interviewed organisations, this mainly entails collaborations for education and training at public bodies like universities.
The mentioned energy transition (section 4.2.1) leads to new expectations with customers, leading to changes in the work specifications of employees: “Nowadays, due to the commercials
and outings in the media, customers expect that customer service not only answers their questions, but also that they will be told some sort of total solution for their home situation or your company. As in proactive advice and expert in the energy transition” (Case A). This
change of expectations leads to new work specifications for which training is needed in order to meet the requirements of customers. To anticipate on these new requirements, top management can initiate top-down training to make sure employees are provided with the required knowledge and skills.
Moreover, an important element of the transfer of knowledge is transparency. The cases describe that transparency is needed in order to accomplish intrinsic motivation with employees and to show society what is performed in order to become a greener organisation:
30 like they really know why they do what they do and why we work together every day” (Case D).
Additionally, to transfer the knowledge that is needed in the sector, collaborations are started with universities, as stated before. This is needed because due to the transition, a lot of vacancies are available in the working field of technicians for example: “That have all network operators
because there are simply far too few technicians. There are really almost 200 to 250 open vacancies every year. We are then forced to continuously train” (Case C). Besides collaboration
for training, another measure is providing lectures and seminars: “Secondly, we also do a lot of
lectures, seminars and things like that at universities and universities of applied sciences”
(Case D). These lectures are used to share the knowledge of the organisation, providing individuals with knowledge regarding environmental practices. In the case of students, this would mean that they possess skills and knowledge needed in the current market, making it easier to adapt within organisations where these skills are needed.
4.3 Influence of employee training in GSCM practices
The finding shows several interesting insights regarding the influence of employee training on employee involvement. First, the data showed that employee training and employee involvement complement each other, as described in section 4.1.2. Additionally, the data shows that two forms of training are used: bottom-up and top-down. Bottom-up training provides employees with the responsibility to decide which training is needed in order to develop skills and knowledge. This form of training involves employees in a way that they can arrange their own work, leading to increased performance and satisfaction.
Top-down training on the other hand, is initiated by management. This concerns training that management deems necessary for its employees. In order to involve employees in this form, management asks employees how they could enhance the training in order to improve the outcomes for future employees that will follow this training. This process makes that employees feel heard and involved.
Furthermore, the data shows that employee training influences GSCM practices in such a way that it helps to develop skills and knowledge that are missing. By involving employees in this process, continuous investments are put into training. These sorts of training are only the vital programs that are necessary to increase performance in a certain GSCM practise.
5. Discussion
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discussed in chapter 4 have been obtained from four different cases and provide significant insights for research and managerial practices regarding employee training in environmental practices. The elements of the conceptual model have been reviewed and provided information on how organisations arrange training for their employees, on which beliefs this is based and how training can influence employee involvement in GSCM practices.
Based on the findings, it becomes clear that the involved organisations appear to be well aware of the current energy transition and that sustainability is becoming an element which is intertwined within the mission and vision of these organisations. This directly influences the performance in environmental practices.
The findings also show that basic training is provided when joining an organisation in the form of top-down training. For further development in skills and knowledge, employees carry the responsibility themselves by means of bottom-up training in most cases. Bottom-up training involves employees in a way that they can suggest training which they believe is necessary in order to increase their knowledge and skills on a certain subject. Additionally, other forms of involvement described in the findings are employees helping with improving top-down training by sharing ideas, discussions regarding vision and mission, and by challenging employees to begin or participate in environmental practices or other initiatives.
With the provided information from the cases, it is possible to establish several propositions that highlight the influence of employee training on employee involvement. In order to ensure stronger evidence for generalization of findings, only elements that are discussed in more than one case will be used for the propositions (Karlsson, 2016). In the following paragraphs, the elements of the research will be linked to employee training in order to show how employee training can be used for GSCM practices and how it influences employee involvement.
5.1 Contribution of employee training on employee involvement
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way, employees are heard and are able to share their ideas in order to increase the effectiveness of top-down programs.
Bottom-up training involves employees in such a way that individuals can make a proposition for a training they need in order to develop themselves with necessary skills and knowledge. By involving employees in this way, the cases show that employees feel like they can make an impact in a GSCM practice, leading to intrinsic motivation. The cases discussed that intrinsic motivation led to higher commitment of employees and increases motivation to start or participate in environmental practices. Based on these training forms, the first proposition is developed:
Proposition 1: Employee training in GSCM practices is offered through top-down and
bottom-up training.
The data shows that employee involvement and employee training in GSCM practices complement each other. Employee training influences employee involvement by providing employees the possibility to influence top-down training. Contrastingly, employee involvement influence employee training through bottom-up training, providing employees with the responsibility to suggest training, leading to the following proposition:
Proposition 2: Employee training and involvement complement each other in GSCM practices,
leading to highest performance of employees.
Renwick et al. (2013) discussed in their literature that there was not enough focus on involving employees in environmental practices. However, the gathered data shows that organisations actively involve employees, leading to the assumption that focus on employee involvement is growing. Next to that, the described involvement of employees in combination with training leads to increased performance since work is adjusted to the wishes of employees, increasing motivation.
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choices between initiatives and day-to-day work. Due to the freedom to start initiatives, there is not enough time to both focus on day-to-day work and to start a new initiative. The possibility will arise that employees will be left unknowing the core tasks of their day-to-day function, focussing too much on initiatives. Based on this risk, the following proposition was developed: Proposition 3: A barrier for employee involvement in GSCM practices is time. By giving
employees too much freedom to start initiatives, there is not enough time to complete day-to-day work and to participate in initiatives.
This proposition show the importance of providing clear guidance and structure in the working processes of employees, as discussed by Fenton-O’Creevy (1998). By taking these elements into consideration, organisations can overcome the barrier of time.
5.2 Contribution of employee training in GSCM practices
In line of the findings of Elnaga & Imran (2013), organisations understand the importance of training and development. Organisations show commitment to environmental practices by the variety of training offerings for employees within the organisations and a focus on sustainability. These training offerings help to develop skills and knowledge with employees, leading to competitive advantage (Sarkis et al., 2010). The sustainable focus of the organisation and variety of training offerings in GSCM practices show that the much described barriers regarding lack of knowledge and low top management commitment (Mittal & Sangwan, 2014; Raci & Shankar, 2005; Rogers & Tibben-Lembke, 2001) are overcome. This is in line with the findings of Ho et al. (2012), in which he describes that these barriers can be overcome with the support of a manager and the environmental factor in an organisation. Together with the findings of Hanaysha (2016) and Elnaga & Imran (2013), in which is described that employee training leads to competitive advantage and increased performance, the following proposition could be established regarding employee training:
Proposition 4: Training of employees in GSCM practices contributes to skills and knowledge
of employees within the organisation, leading to higher performance.
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Proposition 5: Training of employees in GSCM practices directly influences performance. Furthermore, the data confirms the findings of Elnaga & Imran (2013) in which they describe that training helps to improve job satisfaction. The findings show that especially bottom-up training helps to improve satisfaction since employees are involved to suggest the training of which they think is necessary to increase their performance. This makes it possible for employees to fill in their work according their wishes, leading to intrinsic motivation. The findings showed that intrinsic motivation in its turn leads to commitment and employee loyalty, which was also discussed by Chang et al. (2010). Intrinsic motivation helps employees to start or participate in environmental practices. Based on these elements, proposition 6 was developed:
Proposition 6a: Employee involvement and training in GSCM practices lead to higher
satisfaction levels and intrinsic motivation with employees.
Proposition 6b: Intrinsic motivation with employees increases commitment and motivation to
start or participate in environmental practices.
The findings also lead to a new layout of the research framework discussed in figure 2.1. As examined, the findings show that employee training and involvement are complementing each other and that employee training directly influences performance. This leads to the framework shown in figure 5.1. The figure shows the interplay between training and employee involvement through the connection to each other. Furthermore, the figure shows that employee training and involvement directly influence the link between GSCM practices and firm performance.
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6. Conclusion
This research provides insights in how employee training can influence employee involvement in GSCM practices since these elements have not been researched broadly yet. By means of a multiple case study is tried to fill the gap that existed regarding the influence of employee training on employee involvement in GSCM practices. This section will discuss how the findings contribute to theory and what managerial implications are that can be implemented in practice. Additionally, this section will conclude with describing the limitations of the research and which elements discussed in this research require further exploration.
6.1 Theoretical contributions
The findings of this research contribute to literature by filling the gap that existed regarding the influence of employees on environmental practices. This research examined how employee training influences employee involvement and shows how employees can make an impact in environmental practices.
This research presented methods of how organisations implemented employee training in order to involve employees. The findings showed that the main methods of training are top-down training in which management initiates training, and bottom-up training, in which employees have the responsibility to suggest the training that is needed. Another contribution of this research is that it strengthens the findings of former research conducted, as similar outcomes are established. The literature suggested that employee satisfaction would increase when employees are provided with training and when they are involved in practices (Elnaga & Imran, 2013; Zaid et al., 2018). This has been confirmed again in this research.
Moreover, based on the findings, a new GSCM practice was developed in the form of transfer of knowledge. The research shows that organisations try to transfer their knowledge to other parties in order to create awareness regarding sustainability, but also that knowledge is gained from other organisations.
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Additionally, a barrier for employee involvement came up in the form of time. This was not found in literature yet and therefore could be seen as a new element in employee involvement, which requires further research.
6.2 Managerial implications
When looking into the managerial implications of this research, several interesting outcomes can be used in GSCM practices. This research observed that the combination of employee training and employee involvement together have a positive effect on employee satisfaction and commitment. In order to profit from this positive effect, organisations should create a clear vision in how to fill in top-down and bottom-up training. By having a clear vision on this matter, maximum profits of employee training and employee involvement can be attained, leading to the highest satisfaction and commitment of employees possible, resulting in higher performance. In order to achieve this, organisations should listen to the ideas of employees regarding training that is needed in order to develop skills and knowledge (bottom-up), and to ideas to improve training initiated by top management (top-down).
Furthermore, it is important to actually use the knowledge and skills that employees gained from training. When it is not used, this research showed that performance and satisfaction of employees will go down. Therefore, managers need to make trade-offs between accepting and declining training suggestions in order to maintain the highest performance possible.
6.3 Limitations and further research
The conducted research is not without its limitations. First, due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was hard to reach organisations. The willingness of organisations to cooperate in this research was rather small and invited organisations had no time or simply did not react to the invitation. This resulted in the fact that most of the four cases only have one interviewee, limiting the provision of an overall overview of the organisations. To create a complete overview, employees that participated in trainings should have been interviewed in order to show how employees experience the effects of training in GSCM practices. This could be interesting for further research.
