Environmental management systems and practices

¶ … ISO 14001: A Case of Cultural Myopia" and was published in the Eco-Management and Auditing Journal in June, 2000. This work was written by John Moxen and Peter a. Strachen. Moxen and Strachen state that: "Under pressure from governments, public opinions and customers, organizations are setting more challenging environmental agendas." (2000) Strategies being used to accomplish these agendas by management and their staff is a redesign of "business strategies and production processes." (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) Regulating this redesign of strategies in business and processes of production is ISO 14001 which is reported to be welcomed in its' detailing of the "managerial and work arrangements that will enable corporations to exercise effective control over the implementation of environmental policies." (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) ISO 14001 is not what it is billed out to be in that instead of being an enabler of organizations in seeking new strategies in environmental management systems and principles instead ISO 14001 is stated of Moxen and Strachen to "compound matters" (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) in principles that serve to only encourage avoidance of risk and place primary importance upon "tradition and precedent" (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) while discouraging "originality and creativity." (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) Moxen and Strachen (2000) state that the purpose for the writing of the journal article is to add to the process of evaluation of the efficacy of the ISO 14001 (ISO, 1995a,b; as cited in Moxen and Strachen, 2000) system of environmental management. This system's purpose is for ensuring that environmental policies are translated properly by corporations from the environmental policies into the behaviors of the organization and specifically for combating "organizational barriers to policy implementation." (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) While the belief is widely held that these principles contained within ISO 14001 are useful the assumptions made which lead to this belief are based upon misconceptions of the principles contained in ISO 14001. The key objective of ISO 14001 is stated to be to: "...provide a means of independently verifying that organizations have a reliable and comprehensive system of quality assurance" that will uphold the goals and targets in the organization's environmental policies. Since ISO 14001 is the means by which organizations are able to check for adherence of the organization to the policies and procedures that have been set in place, it is important to note that managers have much discretion in setting these policies, therefore, it is critical to question the policy-setting procedure of the organization prior to initiating a check via ISO 14001. ISO 14001 is intended for allowing creativity and innovation in this area due to the increasing pressure of the public in what is termed 'green consumerism'. (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) the components of ISO 14001 include: (1) Preparatory environmental review; (2) Environmental policy; (3) Environmental Program; (4) Management system; (5) Management audits; and (6) Environmental Review. (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) Stated to be the "most notable feature of the formal group structures delineated in ISO 14001 is the great gulf that separates the few who formulate policies from the many charged with putting them in practice." (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) Since the aim of ISO 14001 is the development of "new and different capacities" it is necessary that all groups at all levels within the organization be "prepared to examine their own interpersonal processes, identify those of their norms and that are antithetical to the new policy goals, and fashion, new, more appropriate ones." (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) This will require that all member of the organization be prepared to have their "judgments and actions" (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) held up to the light of inspection by their peers and then be willing to make the necessary medications of organizational behavior. The criterion required in the decision of the effectiveness of ISO 14001's environmental management system is whether the system "promotes and organization culture that places value on analysis, self-reflection, trust, honesty and change." (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) According to these authors: "Self-evidently, the standard does not fulfill the criterion." (Moxen and Strachen, 2000) the danger presented by ISO 14001 is that it has the capacity to create additional barriers to effective and creative environmental management strategies and solutions. The systems of hierarchy prescribed in ISO 14001 are very likely to effectuate what Moxen and Strachen term a "role culture" which is a culture that vests much value in tradition and precedents and observation of rules of a formal nature and is a culture that effectively places impassable barriers to creative and innovative strategic environmental management. Moxen and Strachen (2000) conclude by stating that "environmental programmes are more likely to be implemented successfully when environmental management systems are organic and support a task-based culture." It is obvious from the review of this journal article that ISO 14001 does not hold great promise for enabling successful and effective environmental management within corporations.