5.1. Conclusion
The study contributes to the literature by examining the effectiveness
of environmental management in terms of its effect on
environmental management processes and environmental performance
(i.e. operational performance and management performance).
In particular, the two dimensions of environmental
outcomes make management aware of the different aspects of
environmental performance and the need to focus on different
factors to improve environmental performance. The identified
mediation effect of the effectiveness of environmental management
processes on the relationship between specific organisational
factors (top management support, training and link of performance
to rewards) and environmental performance highlights the need
for more formalized environmental management processes in
Australia manufacturing organisations. Specifically, organisations
need to provide higher levels of top management support, training
and align rewards with environmental performance to achieve the
effectiveness of environmental management processes, and in turn
improve environmental performance.
5.2. Limitations and suggestions for future research
The study is subject to the usual limitations of the mail survey
approach including the inability to establish causal relationships,common method bias, and social desirability bias. In respect to
common method bias, we rely on Harman's (1967) single-factor
test which indicated that the total variance explained by a single
factor (25.7%) was below the 50% threshold indicative of common
method bias problems (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Nonetheless, future
studies may combine the survey method with interviews to alleviate
such concerns.
Prior research in the environmental management literature has
focused primarily on environmental performance and has ignored
the importance of the environmental management processes that
facilitate improvements in environmental performance. The significant
finding regarding the mediating role of environmental
management processes suggests that future studies consider reinforcing
the approach suggested by Hamilton and Chervany (1981),
by examining the effectiveness of environmental management in
respect to environmental management processes. In addition, the
current study provides empirical evidence with respect to the
relationship between five organisational factors and the effectiveness
of environmental management. Future studies may examine
the relationship between other organisational factors such as
strategy, structure, and the type of control, with the effectiveness of
environmental management.