Because it's right: Effective arguments for green supply chains

The effectiveness of environmental advocates inside organizations depends a great deal on their choice of influence tactics, and some of the most promising options are often overlooked, according to Craig R. Carter, associate professor of supply chain management and an expert in sustainability in supply chains. Appealing for support based on the inherent value of aiding the environment is often effective, although many in the business world are wary of using this approach, according to the study.

The effectiveness of environmental advocates inside organizations depends a great deal on their choice of influence tactics, and some of the most promising options are often overlooked, according to Craig R. Carter, associate professor of supply chain management and an expert in sustainability in supply chains.

Carter, who is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Supply Chain Management, researches sustainability in supply chains. “In an often quoted article from the New York Times Magazine, Milton Friedman stated that, ‘there is only one social responsibility of business ... to increase profits’,” Carter said. “While I disagree with the spirit of this comment, I do agree with the verbiage: the only responsibility of business is to make money, and the way that firms must do so, in fact their license to do business in the 21st century, is to engage in the right environmental and social activities.”

But that Friedman mind set can be discouraging to managers interested in implementing environmentally friendly processes, so Carter and Thomas F. Gattiker of Boise State University set out to discover what tactics lead to success. They found that environmental advocates are likely to win allies if they use rational persuasion to make their case and if they involve others in the company in the decision-making process. Appealing for support based on the inherent value of aiding the environment also is effective, although many in the business world are wary of using this approach, the researchers found. The research was reported in their recent article published in the Journal of Operations Management, entitled, "Understanding project champions' ability to gain intra-organizational commitment for environmental projects.”

"One of the most successful tactics is one of the least used," Carter says. "In our interviews we found that the managers were a little afraid of being labeled a tree hugger, and so they were inclined to try other tactics instead."

To determine how individuals can best win support for environmental initiatives within companies, Carter and Gattiker crafted a theoretical model, as well as a series of hypotheses based on prior supply chain management research. Then they conducted a survey of 241 environmental professionals about their experience with gaining buy-in for environmental projects from mid-level supply managers in their companies.

"We wanted to find out what approaches they actually use," Carter says. "We wanted to understand how they gain the commitment of others when they do reach out to other managers."

The research focused on middle managers and not top executives. "What I noticed based on my earlier research was that middle managers often played a key role in environmental projects," Carter says. "Unlike other projects in organizations, environmental projects often are developed at more of a grass-roots level. It's often a very passionate, dedicated middle manager, not top management, who identifies an opportunity and who has the political savvy and the drive to bring that project ultimately to closure."

Appeals to the heart and head

For managers who don't have the authority to order programs to be implemented, the key to success is gaining the support of others in the organization, according to Carter. "These policy entrepreneurs have to find ways beyond using their legitimate authority to gain the commitment of others," he says.

Carter and Gattiker identified a series of tactics these managers might use, and then analyzed the survey data to determine how effective these tactics are.

One of the most effective approaches, the researchers found, was what they label "inspirational appeals," or appeals to values. "Inspirational appeals include such behaviors as appealing to another's environmental values, telling the person that the project is the right thing to do, and how good they will feel when they go home at night," the researchers write.

Carter says that inspirational appeals, while highly effective, were not widely used by managers in the survey, apparently because they feared a backlash from others who do not share these values.

"While it is possible that values-based championing may be risky to the project champion, the results from our study suggest that the approach is very effective," Carter and Gattiker write.

Using rational persuasion - making a business case - was the most frequently used tactic, and it was often successful, although it tended to work best when combined with other approaches, the researchers found. They write that "rational persuasion likely serves as an 'order qualifier' that is best coupled with other tactics such as inspirational appeals and consultation."

Consulting with others and involving them in the decision-making process also proved to be an effective approach, the researchers found. "The positive result for consultation suggests that project advocates should solicit others' input on project goals and project execution, and they should strive to make others feel a sense of ownership toward the initiative," the researchers state.

What doesn't work

Several approaches tended to be ineffective, the researchers found. One was what they call "legitimating," or using rules or policies to justify environmental initiatives. Although environmental advocates used this tactic frequently, they found little success at winning converts with it.

"It is easy for agents to advocate for many environmental projects by appealing to rules and policies since many environmental issues are governed by them. Indeed it may be too easy for environmental champions to rely on legitimating, without carefully considering what other tactics might be effective," Carter and Gattiker write.

Similarly, coalition building -- marshaling support for a project and using that support as leverage -- did not appear to be an effective way of winning converts, the researchers found. Although respondents indicated they used the tactic often, there was no evidence that it was successful.

An approach that clearly did not work was what the researchers call "ingratiation," or trying to attract or charm others in the organization to cultivate a sense of indebtedness or obligation. "Ingratiation is also strongly associated with target commitment, but the effect is negative," the researchers write. "Our results strongly suggest that advocates of environmental projects should avoid ingratiation when dealing with their colleagues."

Carter and Gattiker speculate that one reason ingratiation proved to be so unsuccessful is that most of the environmental agents in their survey were engineers, who are less likely to possess this particular social skill as their colleagues in sales, top management or other areas of the company.

Lessons to be learned

If we want to understand how the environmental practices of organizations change, then knowing how individuals can bring about change is important, according to the researchers. "The adoption of new business practices often begins at the bottom or middle of the organizational hierarchy.... In these cases wholesale 'organization-level' adoption is really the sum of many local level projects or 'small wins,'" they write.

Carter says that this research holds important lessons for environmental advocates working to change their organizations from within. "You have to be careful regarding which tactics you use," he says. "And you also should recognize there are some tactics you might not have used in the past that can be very successful."

Appealing to values is one approach that especially should not be overlooked, he says.

"If you want to be safe, if your culture is one where it's risky to be labeled an environmentalist for whatever reason, then rational persuasion is certainly a safe and effective tactic," he says. "But don't be afraid to use inspirational appeals unless you really fear there will be some backlash. That is actually one of the most effective tactics."

Bottom line:

• Changes in environmental practices in organizations often starts with middle managers. To effect change, these advocates have to win converts to their cause.
• In a survey of environmental professionals, researchers found that advocates who used rational appeals for support and involved others in decision-making tended to succeed in their efforts. Using rules and policies to legitimate environmental practices was not effective, and neither was building coalitions to try to pressure individuals to back an initiative, the study found.
• One of the most effective tactics and also one of the least used was issuing an inspirational appeal based on the inherent value of implementing environmentally friendly practices, according to researchers. Environmental advocates would be wise to consider appealing to values when attempting to enlist others in environmental initiatives.
• Determining how individuals can effect change is important in order to understand more broadly how the environmental practices of organizations change. Initiatives often emerge from the lower or middle part of organizational hierarchies.