Book Reviews. Corporate Environmental Management 2: Culture and Organisations

Citation

Unsworth, A. (1998), "Book Reviews. Corporate Environmental Management 2: Culture and Organisations", European Business Review, Vol. 98 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.1998.05498fab.010

Book Reviews. Corporate Environmental Management 2: Culture and Organisations

Book reviews

Corporate Environmental Management 2: Culture and Organisations

Richard Welford (Editor)Earthscan Publications Ltd (subsidiary of Kogan Page Ltd)London1997168 pp.£15.95

This book follows on from Corporate Environmental Management: Systems and Strategies. Richard Welford and the six other contributors are working on the premise that, environmental management systems and environmental technology aside, sustainable development can only be achieved within an organisation with the co-operation of the people who work there. Everybody has a part to play, from the bottom of the organisation up. Achieving the type of change required for sustainability involves shifting mind sets and changing values.

The book has three parts: The introduction states what the authors see as the current barrier to fundamental change ­ environmental managers have relied on technical fixes and the introduction of environmental management systems while ignoring the importance of the actions and motivation of individuals within organisations. Part two looks at the links between environmental problems and organisational culture and part three examines practical ways of bringing about organisational culture shifts to achieve real change and true movement towards sustainable development.

The book is easy to follow even for someone not versed in the theory of organisations. While reading it, I constantly felt that the authors were exploring the theory behind ideas my "common sense" had told me were true but I had never seen justified anywhere.

The book is to be applauded for the fact that it recognises that management systems are only a small contributor in the shift towards sustainable development. It seeks to offer ways in which more fundamental change can come about.

One frustration I felt with the book, particularly the early chapters, was the fact that there was no attempt made to examine the fundamental contradiction for business between continued growth and sustainable development. Not until Chapter 7 is there an examination of how businesses might be persuaded to give up the belief that continued growth is good and replace that with a striving for sustainability. Even in the later chapters, there seemed to be an underlying assumption that business managers already have, or accept, sustainability as an aim.

Probably one of the most fundamental lessons environmental managers can learn from this book is that adopting the language business people use and understand allows them to present the competitive benefits which environmental management can bring in terms business people accept. Their arguments suddenly become more convincing.

The book provides a useful contribution to those struggling to move towards sustainable development and a timely reminder of the work to be done by environmental managers and others who want to change the way corporations behave. It reminds us that a revolution in thinking is needed, not just by those managing organisations, but by everyone, as we all have to take responsibility for the future of our world.

Annette Unsworth