"An Analysis of Factors Influencing Environmental Behaviours in Irelands’ Biopharmaceutical Industry Employees" by Ciara Heverin

Objectives:

Three objectives as follows have been implemented to achieve this:

1) Identify factors that have the potential to positively impact environmental behaviours.

2) Identify factors that have the greatest potential to positively impact environmental behaviours of employees within the Irish biopharmaceutical industry.

3) Analyse current efforts to implement these factors within the Irish biopharmaceutical industry.

 
Methodology:

In terms of ontology and epistemology this study lies in the area of relativism, more specifically constructivism. Relativism also known as subjectivist or nominalist poses a reality where truths are subjective and circumstantial. It is recognised that there can be multiple truths with the potential to conflict but this remains the truth of the study. It is accepted that observations can change. Realities are influenced by social factors and experiences. A singular data collection was completed through survey to realise the research objectives.

Findings:

Secondary research undertaken indicates that several factors positively impact environmental behaviours including convenience and belonging to a group with positive environmental intentions i.e. peer influence. Within an industry setting, a combination of factors is evident. This includes individual factors e.g. beliefs and environmental awareness, group factors e.g. feedback and financial incentive, organisational factors e.g. culture and management support and external factors e.g. actions at home and legislation. The primary research carried out with employees of 10 biopharmaceutical companies in Ireland shows that several individual, group, organisational and external factors impact the behaviours of employees, thereby reflecting the secondary research findings.
 
Analysis:

The data shows that to optimise efforts a combination of these factors is required. However, company culture, infrastructure and regulation were found to be the most influential factors. Company culture improvements must move from a profit driven mindset, to improve environmental behaviour through voluntary corporate social responsibility. Research suggests a culture shift is a long-term change. In the short to medium term regulation and infrastructure changes are advised. Introducing requirements to align with positive environmental action through regulation drives companies to ensure compliance, as not doing so can affect release of product and lead to financial cost. Both infrastructure and regulation serve to make the positive environmental choice the most obvious. The presence of environmental infrastructure makes the choice easy resulting in employee cooperation.

Conclusion:

Company culture is the strongest factor that influences employee behaviour but one that requires extensive work in order to bring about results. To do so requires changes to profitability driven frameworks and is seen as a long-term task. For the short to medium term regulations and infrastructure are recommended to propel positive employee environmental behaviours. Current efforts to implement these factors within the Irish biopharmaceutical industry are moderate and must be improved on in order to reduce negative environmental impact. In Ireland’s current situation, following covid-19 government led quarantine a new normal was created with increased working from home to prevent spread of this virus. A positive from this is the opportunity to capitalise on this new way of work reduces commuting to site thus reducing emissions and also reduces paper usage as it forces employees to utilise electronic avenues over paper with lack of printing facilities in the home.