2. Literature review2.1. Environmen

2. Literature review
2.1. Environmental management
Environmental management involves the processes of setting
‘objectives, plans and systems that determine operations’ position and
responsiveness to environmental issues and regulation’ (Klassen and
Whybark, 1999, p. 604). Research in the field of environmental
management falls into two streams. The first stream examines the
antecedents of environmental management practices maintaining
that the adoption of environmental management practices is
contingent upon various factors including regulation and legal requirements
(Zhu and Sarkis, 2007), stakeholder pressures (Sarkis
et al., 2010), industry pressures (Hofer et al., 2012; Berry and
Rondinelli, 1998), resource availability (Aragon-Correa and
Sharma, 2003; Berry and Rondinelli, 1998), and management
commitment (Gattiker and Carter, 2010). The findings of these
studies indicate that organisations are more likely to adopt environmental
management practices when they are experiencing
greater pressure from customers, local communities, regulators, the
government and competitors. In addition, those organisations with
greater resources and more committed managers are more likely to
adopt environmental management practices to a greater extent.
While there is extensive literature on the adoption of environmental
management practices fewer studies have focused on the
second stream of research which examines the effectiveness of
environmental management.
2.2. The effectiveness of environmental management
Environmental management is effective when the intended
objectives are attained. The majority of studies assess the effectiveness
of environmental management in respect to environmental
outcomes (Massoud et al., 2010; Wagner, 2008; Yuksel,
2008; Savely et al., 2007; Prakash and Potoski, 2005; Anton et al.,
2004). However, according to Hamilton and Chervany (1981), the
effectiveness of an initiative can be assessed based on i) the usefulness
of information ii) improvements in organisational processes
and iii) improvements in organisational performance. Following
this framework, the effectiveness of environmental management
could be assessed on the basis of: i) the usefulness of environmental
information ii) improvements in environmental management
processes and iii) improvements in organisational
environmental performance.
Most studies in the field have assessed the effectiveness of
environmental management using the third approach, with the
adoption of environmental management practices found to
contribute to improvements in environmental performance
(Johnstone and Labonne, 2009; Hertin et al., 2008; Schylander and
Martinuzzi, 2007). However, in line with Hamilton and Chervany's
(1981) suggestion, improvements in environmental performance
do not occur directly. Rather they are the result of the effect of
environmental management on organisational processes. Hamilton
and Chervany (1981) argue that irrespective of the type of management
practice, process effectiveness represents an antecedent of
desired performance. This suggests that environmental performance
is contingent upon the effectiveness of environmental
management processes. Consequently, this study contributes to the
literature by examining the effectiveness of environmental management
with respect to both its effect on environmental management
processes and environmental performance.
The study assesses the effectiveness of environmental management
processes in respect to the achievement of eleven desired
objectives of environmental management which are based on
Lawler (2003) and are shown in the Appendix. These objectives
facilitate a favourable operating environment which in turn, assists
an organisation to achieve environmental outcomes (see the
operational and management environmental performance measures
in the Appendix). These outcomes were derived from the
performance management and environmental performance literature
(Henri and Journeault, 2010; Clarkson et al., 2008, 2004;
Lawler, 2003).