Proactive Environmental Strategies and Employee Inclusion: The Positive Effects of Information Sharing and Promoting Collaboration and the Influence of Uncertainty

Abstract

The organizational literature has often acknowledged that under certain conditions, corporations should limit the information that employees receive and how they interact to improve corporate financial performance. The present article criticizes the logic of such corporate restrictions. Data obtained from 164 pharmaceutical firms operating in 27 different countries support the positive implications of inclusive and collaborative human resources practices. Our results reveal positive and significant relationships between the practices of information sharing with employees and promoting employee collaboration and the development of a proactive natural environmental strategy for a firm. In addition, this research tests the moderating role of general environment uncertainty in these relationships. Contrary to expectations based on contingency theory, uncertainty does not appear to moderate these results for the sampled firms. © 2013 SAGE Publications.