Conditions for Unethical Environmental Behaviour in Organizations

Marek Bugdol

Jagiellonian University, Kraków (Poland)

Daniel Puciato

WSB University in Wrocław, Wrocław (Poland)

Tadeusz Borys

University of Zielona Góra, Zielona Góra (Poland)

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to identify and classify the conditions for unethical environmental behaviour. It has been shown that the primary condition for unethical environmental behaviour is the level of environmental ethics dominant in a community and the observed inconsistency between the declared level of this ethics and the practice of business, institutional (including legal), social, market, etc. behaviour towards the environment. The observed axiological inconsistency generates numerous external and internal phenomena (factors, conditions) that create fertile ground for unethical activities leading to environmental degradation. The external conditions comprise, among others, complicated tax systems, subsidy and subvention systems and prices of emission allowances. The short term perspective of enterprises, the decreasing average working time of managers, a crisis of ethical leadership and a low level of responsibility for the environment have been identified as the most important internal conditions. Unethical environmental behaviour is further intensified in the absence of control and external reaction to its occurrence.

Keywords:

environmental ethics, environmental behaviour, unethical behaviour, conditions, enterprises