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CREATING
A CULTURE FOR SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH B-SCHOOL LEARNING MODEL
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An Final Paper
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Submitted To
Rustomjee
School of Business
For
Reflections A National Conference
On
Emerging Issues in Management
Authors:
Mr.
Nishant C. Mehta Mr. Joy Dsouza
[DST, BBA, MBA] [MBA, M.Com]
Asst. Professor, Asst. Professor,
Christ Institute of Management Christ Institute of Management
Email
:nishantcmehta@gmail.com joy_dsouza2010@yahoo.co.in
Cell:
+91 96625 19612 Cell: +91 99254 04510
Address: Address:
“Shree
Siddheshvari”, Christ Institute of Management
Laxmanzula
Street, Rajkot.
Dr.
Yagnic Road, Rajkot. Gujarat
Rajkot.
Gujarat
CREATING A CULTURE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
THROUGH B-SCHOOL LEARNING MODEL
Key
Words: Inspiration, Innovation, Collaboration, Best HR Green Practices
Introduction
The word “Environment sustainability” has become a
buzz in the current scenarios. Research scholars & organisation are started
talking about its importance & its need in modern day business. Those who
ignore it face the catastrophic effect and endanger its survival in long run.
The idea of developing a sustainable B-School was
developed with lot of research & literature reviews. Most of the
researchers talks about creating a sustainable organisation. Nobody has so far
touched upon the concept of creating a sustainable B-school. The benefits
attached to it are less known. We believe that the today’s students are
tomorrow’s manager. B-schools are
becoming a nurturing ground of holistic development of management aspirants.
With this focus in mind we go deeper in imbibing the concept of sustaining
environment & society among students and academicians.
The student should be provided hands on exposure that
helps them to be more sensitive to environmental & societal issues. The
decision they make in near future would involve environmental management.
Institution have always proved a source
of learning, with this objective in mind students should be well equipped to
overcome the problem the world is facing i.e. environmental degradation. The
institute should provide various examples through its processes that motivate
student to develop innovative Green practices & policies.
Organisations are becoming more conservation when it
comes to environmental issues. They are redefining their processes &
strategies to create a better workplace. Why can’t b-school which is a source
of learning be a role model to create sustainable environmentally practices.
Objectives:
-
To highlight
best practices in college that foster sustainability
-
To improve the
quality of students by providing them experience of environment friendly
-
Creating a
change in the perspective of today’s budding managers making it more sensitive
towards societal & environmental issues.
-
sustainable
practices in colleges
-
Employment
branding labelling with best place to work.
-
Creating an
environment friendly culture.
-
Leveraging the
Green Initiatives
Today, economies are changing. World is becoming
flatter. Organisation are undergoing transformation & implementing changes
aimed at cost optimization. Growth of industries has resulted in tremendous
increase in environmental pollutants.
In this era of globalization, society demands
organisations to be more responsible to its stakeholders. They are demanding
more accountable for their actions. With the provision of making CSR
contribution of 2% average annual profit for mandatory CSR activity have
created a breakthrough in reshaping the organisation vision toward the welfare
of the society. This has ignited a spark toward upliftment & development of
the society. Environmental norms are
becoming stricter & any organisations found violating the norms are
punished severely.
Organisations are moving toward renewable source of
energy. This movement has received great recognition and appreciation from
various industrialist, corporate thinker and management gurus. Banking on
renewable source provides organisation an opportunity for long term
sustainability. It is impossible to think of organisation existing without
contributing any benefits towards the society.
With organisation becoming more sensitive to
environmental imbalance, the responsibility lies with the organisation to
create processes that are renewable in nature. In most organisations, the onus
lies with the H.R. Manager to ensure all employees abide with this new vision.
A 2008 review from the University of Sheffield
(Renwick et al, ‘Green HRM: A Review, Process Model and Research Agenda’) as
well as a Green HRM AOM Connect Group established in 2009 suggest that the term
“Green HRM” could become the umbrella term for this research.
The concept of Green HR has evolved in recent times.
H.R. Managers who were termed as business partner are seeing themselves as
pioneers of Green H.R. practices. There is a paradigm shift from economic value
to environmental value. This has led to a quest of developing innovative
processes and methods by leveraging renewable sources strategically termed as
Green Initiatives.
At the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management,
which had as its theme “Green Management Matters”, papers were presented that
linked HR functions such as performance management and recruitment to
environmental management.
Today,
organisations are facing challenge as how Green Initiative should be deployed
that will ensure organisational sustainability in future.
(Integration of HRM with environmental management
practices)
Recruitment = Job-fit environmental initiatives
Most researchers have focused on Processes &
techniques facilitating environmental projects.
Working on these lines Industrialist & government have introduced
processes and/or products that are environmental friendly.
However, this study tries to uncover the role of Human
Resource in promoting the spirit of Green initiative among the organisational
member. It talks about the Employer Branding, Green Organisational citizenship
and various other dimension that help in developing a culture among employees
for innovative green practice.
(INSPIRATION
= INNOVATION = COLLABORATION)
INSPIRATION:
Google growing its own fruits in the office. It also provides hybrid cars working on eco
fuel to its employee.
IKEA promotes Green initiative gifting employees
bicycle on the occasion of Christmas. While another company pays employees
initiatives for walking down to work.
Some MNC’s are recycling their waste generated from
canteen. Employees are asked to bring their useless plastic bottles, empty
cartridges, newspaper, etc to office to
recycle and the amount generated from these products are added to the CSR fund.
The contaminated water is purified through RO plants goes back to circulation
in form of pure water. Some organisations have been successful in generating
office electricity through renewable sources.
Manufacturing companies have also recycling their
scrap material & processing it to make it sellable. Trade union are also encouraging the concept
of green HR practices.
Contribution to the society & environmental are
the key drivers that motivates an institute to adopt processes that benefits
various stakeholders. By adopting this, the perception it gains stronger public
image boosting “Employment Branding” proving an opportunity of best place to work with. The mission &
vision statement depicts coherence of commitment in creating a better future
boosting the stakeholder’s faith year after year.
Branding is as a most preferred choice for employment
along with the most reliable institute to work. As per survey report of SHRM –
Green Workplace, organisations that follow Green practices have found higher
morale & low turnover rates among employees. Apart for attracting talent
such Green practices have also proved as a major reason for retaining existing
employees. Employees are more happier working & ensure a longer tenure with
such organisation compared to those that don’t practice Green initiatives. The
younger generation are further taking initiatives to develop sustainable
environmental practices by participating in formulation of policies safeguarding
the surrounding environment.
Forming a team of enthusiastic Green innovators who
displaying very high level of commitment. Providing them with proper resource
to monitor & maintained such process in the institute.
Rewarding & recognising competent employees that
develop Green process and create success stories and hosting in on the
institute website.
Encouraging employees to host events & seminars
for promoting “Green Initiative Campaigns”. Creating employees/employers Forum
where Best Green practices are discussed and their feasibility for
implementation are evaluated. These groups educated and train co-workers on
reducing, reusing & recycling materials.
INNOVATION
- BEST PRACTICES
- Creating a
paperless system - Students
1.1 Virtual Interview: Online Admission & college
selection process.
1.2 Online exams with multiple choices.
1.3 Assignment submission in softcopy with plagiarism
report.
1.4 Emphasis on e-books.
1.5 Correspondence of information to students only through
mails.
1.6 Educating & training students on process &
practices on application of Environmental management.
- Creating a paperless System – staff
1.1.Maintaining online database of potential & existing staff members.
1.2.Online evaluation & monitoring of faculty performance with
environmental initiatives as their KRA.
1.3.High emphasis of correspondence through mails for issuing circulars
& notices.
1.4.Encouraging staff to use shared service rather than personal vehicle.
- Reducing Carbon/Ecological footprints.
1.1 Installing solar panels on rooftops & parking
area.
1.2 Replacing tube light with CFL bulbs.
1.3 Minimizing the use of AC conditioners.
1.4 Emphasize on using electronic equipment’s that have 5
star energy saving ratings.
1.5 Installing recycling units: waste generating from
canteen can be used as organic manure for fields. Creating handcrafts &
products that can be reused or sold. Ex- carry bags, stylish mementos.
1.6 Encouraging members to bring their waste products such
as used plastic bottles, cartridge , aluminium, glass, newspaper, etc. ; utilizing the money generated from their sale
for social purpose.
1.7 Installing RO plant to circulate pure water in the
whole campus.
1.8 Designing classrooms & staffrooms with provision
to grow plants that purifies air.
- Inspiring best practices.
1.1 Using social media such as Facebook, blogs, tweeters,
etc to promote the concepts of Green
initiatives.
1.2 Banking on Alternative source of electricity – Solar,
wind or bio-fuels.
1.3 Conducting Energy Audit at frequent intervals.
1.4 Reducing commutation by encouraging video
conferencing. This technique can also be applied for paper presentation.
COLLABORATING
Green practices helps in reducing carbon credit which in
turn reduces the overall cost. The success of the entire process depends on the
commitment & continuous support of the top management. Executives & CEO
(Trustees & Principals) would be the leaders who drive such Green
initiatives throughout the organisation. These individuals would help in
streamlining the process & channelizing the follow of efforts towards
creation of sustainable environment.
With Government making it mandatory for corporates to spend 2% of their
annual profit on CSR initiatives, it is golden opportunity for educational
institute to step up and accept this challenge of creating an healthy working
environment.
Today organisations are in the race to accelerate
strategies that brand themselves as ‘Green’. Along with GE, British petroleum
has also joined the hands in creating a brand that fosters environment friendly
practices. Companies like Timberland have engraved this initiative in their
Mission statement. Some organisations go beyond the traditional approach and
are providing employees with hybrid car to commute to work.
With industry experts laying emphasis on Green
initiatives, the search for talent that understand these values & take is
to the next level are given due weightage at the time of recruitment.
Collaborating is a three step continuous process which
is to be started and initiated by Trustees/ Principal of the college , and to
transform the understanding the importance of environmental caring and its
benefits to the employees and students of the college. These things become
possible only when We can arrange continuous training programs or workshops
which helps others understanding the importance of pollution free environment.
Use of energy is an important aspect of the Green HR
initiative. Through the use of alternative energies like Solar and Wind one can
develop a distinct structure considering the total energy requirement of the
organization. The use of wind energy and solar energy which is free
organization can save millions of rupees spent on Electricity Bills over the
years.
Although setup for a 100 MW setup of Solar Energy
provider system costs in Crores , but if we consider the total requirement of
the organization for the long period of time in that case this would be
considered to be a very good investment option considering Cost – Benefit Analysis.
Especially in case of Educational Institutes this option can be a fruitful for
a growth and survival for a long period of time.
References:
(2007). Green Workplace- SHRM
survey Brief. Society for Human Resource Management
(2012). HRM’s Role in Corporate Social and Environmental
Sustainability. SHRM Foundation -Effective Practice Guidelines Series.
Jacob2, J. C. (2012). A Study of Green HR Practices and Its Effective
Implementation in the organisation: A Review. International Journal of Business
and Management; Vol. 7, No. 21; , 9.
Lizz Pellet, F. J. (2009). Creating A Sustainable HR Function for the
Future. 20.
Mandip, G. (2012). Green HRM: People Management Commitment. Research
Journal of Recent Sciences , 9.
Pallavi, M. (2012). Green HRM-Issues and Challenges. Global Research
Analysis , 4.
Sudin, S. (2011). Strategic Green HRM: A proposed model that supports
Corporate Environmental Citizenship. International Conference on Sociality
and Economics Development , 5.
