Environmental Knowledge Management from the Perspective of Young Employees: An Economic Sector Comparison

Abstract

Currently, degradation of the natural environment led many companies to consider implementation of more sustainable practices. In the academic literature, environmental knowledge required and acquired by employees, moreover, is often considered part of knowledge management, with a growing number of researches focusing on Environmental Knowledge Management (EKM). In practice, however, EKM in firms from different sectors vary and interventions are sometimes lacking. The research objective of the current paper is to examine selected elements of the EKM in enterprises operating in different economic sectors. Three research questions connected with EKM functioning were thus enquired through a structured questionnaire, sent electronically to employees, using non-random, convenience sampling. Therefore, statistical analysis of the 297 collected questionnaires stressed a high relevance of environmental protection without differentiation between economic sectors, while the EKM assessment of employees varies between firms from different sectors. The evaluation of EKM, moreover, does not align with the relevance of environmental protection according to most of the employees, signalling – based on motivation expectancy theory – a moderate dissatisfaction with the functioning of EKM among young employees and the existence of an intensification potential of unused environmental protection policies in companies interested. These findings confirm that there is potential among staff to implement a more effective EKM system, yet in practice companies are not making use of it.