Corporate Culture and Environmental Practice: Making Change at a High-Technology Manufacturer

by Jennifer Howard-Grenville

Overview

This innovative book explores from an insider's perspective a company's environmental decisions and actions. Based on close observation at a major semiconductor manufacturer, Jennifer Howard-Grenville details how the company's culture - revealed through its internal practices, decisions, and norms - guided action on environmental issues.

While demonstrating gaps between the mainstream work of the company and the demands placed by environmental considerations, the author's analysis demonstrates how differences were negotiated over time, offering important insights into the processes of change that can advance environmental issues within a company. Her unique viewpoint offers an important addition to current research, which often explains companies' environmental actions solely as responses to external pressures.

Scholars of organizational culture and those at the intersection of business and environmental issues will find this study of great value. The challenges and opportunities surrounding the 'greening' of corporations will also interest members of companies at all levels, as well as consultants and members of non-governmental organizations. The book is written to be accessible and engaging to managers interested in making changes around environmental issues and offers a realistic assessment of the challenges and prospects for such change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847201003
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	09/26/2007
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge,UK

Table of Contents

Contents: 1. Why Culture? 2. Getting to Know Chipco 3. Nature and Culture 4. ‘Tech’ Work at Chipco 5. Environmental Work at Chipco 6. Getting Environment ‘In’ 7. Corporate Culture and Environmental Practice Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'Jennifer Howard-Grenville has put together a timely and sparkling narrative of environmental advocacy within a highly successful, well managed and technically sophisticated organization. Corporate Culture and Environmental Practice is rich in ethnographic detail and wonderfully telling of the struggles structurally marginalized environmental specialists take part in when trying to balance immediate cost, schedule and production targets with long-term social and environmental risks. A blend of Mary Douglas, Karl Weick and Charles Perrow, this is a must read for students of organizations as well as the rest of us who worry about the fate of the planet.'

John Van Maanen

'This book breaks new ground in understanding the generally difficult process of selling peripheral, in this case, environmental or sustainability initiatives to the mainstream culture of a firm. To those who seek to be change agents, it offers powerful ideas toward success for such intentions. But this book is not only for those on the "outside" of the mainstream; it offers lessons for anyone seeking change, even at the top.'

John R. Ehrenfeld

'Jennifer Howard-Grenville has hit the nail on the head - technology is not the cause of our environmental problems; culture is. In Corporate Culture and Environmental Practice, she deftly shows us that the norms and practices that guide the way we think about our relationship with the natural environment are the critical point at which to understand the development of the technologies that facilitate that interface. Written from first-hand experiences, this book is a thoughtful and revealing glimpse into the culture of a company that only an accomplished organizational scholar can provide.'

Andrew J. Hoffman

‘Although much has been written about how corporations deal with environmental problems, few books delve into the inner-workings of a company seeking to deal with environmental demands as deeply as Corporate Culture and Environmental Practice. Through first-hand observation, Howard-Grenville provides unique insights into the cultural factors that shape environmental management decisions in a major semiconductor manufacturing firm. By analyzing those decisions through a framework that relates internal and external factors, she provides a new cultural perspective on corporate environmental practices that should be of strong interest to both business leaders and students of corporate environmental management.’

Dennis A. Rondinelli

‘Culture – patterns of meaning and associated actions – speaks volumes about what matters and what doesn’t. Jennifer Howard-Grenville’s study describes how corporate culture enables organizational change in some instances, or blocks it in others. As the need for corporate response to increasingly vital environmental issues looms more important, we need change models to help companies adapt to new realities. This study is vital 0reading for scholars and practitioners who care about the future.’

Jim Post

‘I found the writing style very engaging. The author writes clearly and

with little jargon. She makes the technology come alive and gives a feel forelements that might be v

‘I found the writing style very engaging. The author writes clearly and

with little jargon. She makes the technology come alive and gives a feel for elements that might be

'Corporate Culture and Environmental Practice is an outstanding study that looks inside a firm to understand conditions under which it adopted superior environmental practices. It makes a persuasive case for not modeling firms as unitary actors. This careful and well-written study will be useful to both environmental policy scholars and practitioners.'

Aseem Prakash