Factors relating environmental management strategies and performance on environmental issues

The problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate variables that relate to the development of effective environmental management systems (EMSs) and strategies in organizations.; Method. Seventy-eight surveys were received in response to a mailing to environmental managers in California. The variables measured by the surveys included environmental issue turbulence (turbulence), EMS aggressiveness, EMS responsiveness, EMS strategic posture, and performance on environmental issues (performance). Three gap variables were calculated between turbulence and EMS aggressiveness, EMS responsiveness, and EMS strategic posture, respectively, to measure alignment of these three variables with turbulence. Linear regressions were performed to assess performance versus these three gap variables. The correlation of EMS strategic posture with turbulence was also tested using regression analysis. Performance was also evaluated for reactive and proactive EMS strategic postures at low and high levels of turbulence using a pair of t-tests.; Results. The three correlations of performance on versus EMS aggressiveness gap, EMS responsiveness gap, and EMS strategic posture gap were all negative and statistically significant (p< 0.01), indicating that improved performance relates to the close alignment between turbulence and EMS aggressiveness, EMS responsiveness, and EMS strategic posture. Virtually no correlation was found between EMS strategic posture and turbulence.; The t-tests revealed that proactive EMS strategic postures related to higher performance, regardless of turbulence. This conflicted somewhat with the result that improved performance related to a low EMS strategic posture gap. Additional findings suggested that proactive EMS strategic postures usually relate to improved performance. Reactive EMS strategic postures may relate to improved performance when the EMS strategic posture is closely aligned with turbulence, generally at low levels of turbulence.; Finally, additional analyses indicated that both EMS aggressiveness and EMS responsiveness both correlate strongly with EMS strategic posture. The level of significance was well below 0.1 percent (p< 0.001).