The ‘greening’ of organizational change: A case study

There are many emerging corporate strategies designed to make large, complex business enterprises more responsive to environmental concerns. One major corporate innovation that has a direct environmental impact is the increased use of telework options for employees. These programmes significantly reduce the amount of employee travel, thereby reducing air pollution. However, adoption of telework programmes requires a change in organizational management strategies. The prevailing attitude of “If I can't see them, how do I know they are working” must be changed. This attitudinal change, coupled with the structural move towards the ‘virtual corporation’ can be managed using existing organizational development strategies and tactics. The paper reports the results of several field studies in California which examined the phenomenon of telework. The studies consistently report increases in worker productivity of 16 per cent and a significant reduction of personal automobile travel of between 20–40 per cent while engaged in telework. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for a management strategy for managing this change and highlights areas for future research.