Supply Management's Strategic Role In Environmental Practices
Most companies realize that environmental sustainability performance is a critical issue. Fortunately, the supply management function has the opportunity to engage heavily in these programs, but many professionals are unsure of what their role might be for strategic contribution. This study, based on a series of focus group interviews, provides guidance for those wanting to implement environmental practices and supply management strategies within their organizations. It discusses the business case requirements; top management support requirements; the complexity of defining "success" in this area; the need for standard definitions; barriers such as costs, metrics, and resources; the supply base's role in new technologies; and the overall expanded role of supply management.
The most frequently mentioned drivers of environmental practices across the focus groups in this study included: top management support; regulation and certification; customer demand; environmentally sensitive employees; cost; and socially responsible communities and investors.
Authors Thomas Gattiker, Ph.D.; Wendy Tate, Ph.D. and Craig Carter, Ph.D., provide steps for creating situations that encourage primary contributors to integrate the firm's environmental objectives. These steps include: establishing a clear company-specific definition of the term environmental, integrating the organization's environmental goals into formal supply management strategy, recognizing the barriers that managers encounter, understanding the steps that can be taken to overcome barriers, organizing for cross-functional involvement and preparing for the new roles that supply management will need to play in the future.
Click on the following link to access the Focus Study, "Supply Management's Strategic Role in Environmental Practices:" http://www.capsresearch.org/publications/pdfs-protected/gattiker2008.pdf
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CAPS Research is a nonprofit research organization founded in 1986 to provide leading research to our strategic-minded corporate sponsors and to the public. Our mission is to work in partnership with a global network of executives and academics for the discovery and dissemination of strategic supply management knowledge and best practices. CAPS Research is jointly sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, the Institute for Supply Management™ and over 140 Global 1000/Fortune 500-size organizations.
SOURCE: CAPS Research