Analysis of the environmental employee engagement: A case of a Russian enterprise

Abstract

The current trend in environmentally oriented business is towards the recognition of the decisive role of personnel in ensuring environmental sustainability, which results in increased attention to the problems of employee engagement in solving the company’s environmental problems. However, there is a significant methodological gap in understanding the phenomenon of environmental engagement and methods of its analysis and assessment. The study theoretically substantiates the concept of environmental employee engagement and analyses it using the case study of a Russian enterprise whose activities are committed with significant impact on the environment. Methodologically, the research rests on the concepts of Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) and environmental behavior. A personnel survey was conducted based on the authors’ model of environmental engagement, which includes three components: normative, voluntary and potential. The sample included 1,430 employees of the oil and gas industry in Perm krai. The statistical analysis was carried out for the enterprise as a whole, as well as for particular branches and divisions. The study yielded estimates of the environmental employee engagement (EEE) and identified key factors and practices contributing to high employee commitment to environmental values and protection. The results and conclusions encourage the development of tools for researching the environmental behavior of personnel, and can be of use for theoretical and empirical research in the field of GHRM, as well as for practitioners in the analysis and development of HRM models for the purposes of environmental development of the organization.