Decoding Human Intervention: Pathways to Successful Environmental Management

Despite progress in integrating sustainability into operations and corporate strategies many companies struggle to see substantial improvements in their environmental practices. The literature offers a preponderance of systems and analytical tools in the field of operations management literature but neglects the soft management factors also believed to be crucial for bringing about change and employee participation. Fundamentally we still lack knowledge about the best ways to engage people and organisations in sustainable practices. To address this gap, we examine both best and poor practices in seven UK ISO 14001 certified manufacturers to explore the intervention mechanisms of soft key success factors (KSF) which enhance environmental practice. This paper has two contributions. First, it clarifies the function of KSFs as antecedent and intervention variables and their role in affecting environmental practice. Second, it develops precise propositions which explain the pathways of four intervention mechanisms as mediators between antecedents and environmental practices.