March 5, 2020
Researcher says corporate sustainability helps boost employee pride
During a time of 鈥渦nfair demonizing鈥 of Alberta鈥檚 oilpatch by critics, it is vital for companies to manage and communicate their sustainability practices to their employees, said an expert.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 encourage anybody to do anything I suggest if it鈥檚 not authentic,鈥 said Dr. David Jones, PhD, who is the John L. Beckley Professor of Management at the at the University of Vermont. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 greenwashing, you鈥檙e far more likely to cause harm and damage, than any good.鈥
As someone who has worked with U.S. companies ranging from to , Jones is a leading expert in an emerging area of research on how workers respond to socially and environmentally sustainable business practices.
EMPLOYEES 鈥榃ANT TO FEEL PROUD鈥
He was the featured speaker at the recent Enbridge Research in Action Seminar hosted by the University of 不良研究所鈥檚 . It was moderated by Dr. Terry Ross, PhD, director of Strategic Centre Initiatives at Haskayne.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 profess to be an expert in oil and gas,鈥 Jones told an audience of about 160 people at the Westin Hotel in 不良研究所. He instead described himself as an expert in the psychology behind why job seekers and employees respond positively to companies with strong sustainability practices.
But even for someone such as himself, there is much for Alberta鈥檚 oil and gas industry to be proud of, he said. 鈥淲e know that when energy is produced in most other places in the world, they don鈥檛 even come close to the same kinds of standards of labour, ethics, and sustainability practices,鈥 he said.
One of the things that 鈥渕atter a lot to employees in any context is that they don鈥檛 want to be embarrassed about where they work,鈥 said Jones during an interview.
鈥淢any employees want to feel proud, as where they work is an expression of who they are as people. The challenge is this constant barrage of criticism and bad press about how dirty the oilsands are and so on. That makes it hard to bring your best self to work every day.鈥
After attending high school in Red Deer, Alta., Jones received a PhD in psychology from the University of 不良研究所 in 2004. He was the academic director from 2015 to 2019 of Grossman鈥檚 Sustainable Innovation MBA program, which was named the in the U.S. by the Princeton Review in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
RESEARCHER SEES MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Jones told the audience there is much to be gained for companies who use an understanding of what motivates employees in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability 鈥 and the first step is to fully communicate about the existence of such initiatives to employees.
鈥淧eople can鈥檛 respond positively to what they don鈥檛 know,鈥 he said, adding that 鈥渨hat I see over and over in the data is missed opportunity ... large proportions, and usually the majority, of employees in most companies have no idea that these programs even exist, and that includes employees of companies that are celebrated for being leaders in this space.鈥
Research has shown there are three broad principles about why employees respond positively to CSR and sustainability practices, he said. Taking part in a sustainability initiative can be for what Jones called 鈥渟elf-protective鈥 considerations, or 鈥渨hat鈥檚 in it for me,鈥 such as helping build up a resume or impressing upper management.
For other employees, 鈥渃are-based鈥 considerations are also quite important, he said. These are moral and ethical reasons, with sustainability being seen as the company doing the right thing in a way that reassures workers that their employer鈥檚 values match their own values, said Jones.
A third type includes relational-status considerations that relate to how employees tend to incorporate who they work for as part of how they define themselves as people, he said. 鈥淪ustainability and community-involvement practices are things that some employees can鈥檛 wait to tell people about as a means of basking in reflected glory,鈥 he said.
But just as there is no one reason why employees are attracted to sustainability initiatives, there is no one answer for businesses about what such practices entail, said Jones during the interview. 鈥淭he important questions are about how we can develop our society, and set up the regulatory and legal frameworks to support financially-healthy businesses that contribute to societal well-being through the use of our enormous natural resources without despoiling them and exhausting them in an unsustainable way.鈥