The urgency to understand the environment as part of social responsibility in companies, has led to the emergence of multiple conceptual and practical approaches that involve business management as a component that transcends preventive, educational and other initiatives that support the processes of decline of the environmental impacts produced by companies developing their economic activity, but which are not yet sufficient to ensure a culture that promotes the integration of the basic components of business sustainability over time, therefore I would like to present a few brief reflections on BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTAL COMPETENCES, which are born from the concern of offering human management areas a model that, sooner rather than later, we hope to turn into a measurement tool capable of establishing a diagnosis on the level of environmental sensitivity of the people who work in the organization.
We then start from the necessary definition of business environmental competence, which is:
"The set of observable, individual and / or collective behaviors that promote, favor and ensure a sustainable business culture of respect for the environment regardless of the company to which it belongs"
The support and explanation of this definition includes three perspectives for reflection, each of which expresses the different scope of the definition, they are:
The first, the epistemological one, justifies that it is a “knowledge that is methodologically constructed in opposition to individual opinions” (DRAE). In this sense, the evidence shows that the knowledge proposed in the definition arises from the conjunction of the results obtained in the participatory exercises carried out, the opinions expressed by the participants and the conceptual recognition resulting from the synthesis carried out by the author when combining what was expressed in the field work and the different authors consulted in the process.
The second, the anthropological perspective, leads us to consider the model of human being that underlies the proposed definition and that for the effect of this definition will have to be limited, initially, to the interpretation of the author who considers that it is a revisionist proposal. In relation to the Kantian model and that perhaps, without integrating all the components of what environmental anthropology proposes today, in the sense of breaking the barriers that separate the borders between subject and object, I consider that this definition is intended to convert to the people of the company, in defined actors of the responsibility they have to be protagonists in the processes of change in the relationship and performance with the environment that surrounds them.
The third has to do with ethical reflection which allows us to understand the tacit and explicit responsibility that involves adopting this model of competencies in business management. The proposed definition tries to express the reconciliation between human being and nature, in such a way that one can think of an ethic that contains, although it does not express it directly, the foundations of an action capable of generating the possibility of sustainable development
The business environmental competencies model articulates a new knowledge for companies, since it integrates human, business and environmental aspects as a strategic challenge that involves business culture as an argument that guides the actions of people and the company in the search superior performance that harmonizes the economic, social and environmental as the best response to the need to build sustainable and responsible business management in a specific historical, geographical and social context.
The definition presented as a conceptual reference, but open to discussion, expresses that business environmental competence deals with "the set of observable behaviors…" and therefore evaluable, since it refers to behaviors related to the action of people in a context determined, "… individual and / or collective…" is for this reason that competition emerges as a result of the interrelationship of individuals in common spaces where joint action does not invalidate personal. "… that promote, favor and ensure a sustainable business culture…" refers to the evidence that represents the responsibility that accompanies any culture that seeks to ensure the conditions of permanence."… respect for the environment regardless of the company to which it belongs" surely this aspect should be subject to a thorough debate that allows further substantiation of the episteme on which the concept is based; For now, the horizon of intentionality is framed by the possibility that the environment will become a transversal concern of the company, impacting in all areas and in any organization that understands itself as a company. This competition still has a long way to go, but it is already recognized that it contains the potential that will allow it to be a benchmark in the performance of people who are or may become part of aFor now, the horizon of intentionality is framed by the possibility that the environment will become a transversal concern of the company, impacting in all areas and in any organization that understands itself as a company. This competition still has a long way to go, but it is already recognized that it contains the potential that will allow it to be a benchmark in the performance of people who are or may become part of aFor now, the horizon of intentionality is framed by the possibility that the environment will become a transversal concern of the company, impacting in all areas and in any organization that understands itself as a company. This competition still has a long way to go, but it is already recognized that it contains the potential that will allow it to be a benchmark in the performance of people who are or may become part of aenvironmentally friendly business culture.
When establishing the characterization of business environmental competencies, the boundaries in which the concept moves are demarcated, the interpretation and scope of the model are oriented, the components of being, knowledge and doing are differentiated and the scope of what is defined is defined. It could be achieved through development, training and training processes. The characterization of business environmental competencies offers the inputs that allow the construction of a consistent narrative on the scope of environmentally friendly behaviors in a culture willing to incorporate the key factors of outstanding business management.
Evidence of the applicability of business environmental competences is to give them a framework for action, it is to take the concept out of theory and place it in the reality of the company, it is to assign a responsibility and a person in charge, it is intended to materialize the concept in inclusive actions from an area which traditionally focuses on the individual and the culture. It is about offering new alternatives for action and a responsibility that until now had been left in the hands of environmental experts. It is the beginning of a new way of interpreting the company and of building a new work team that takes the environment to a new hermeneutic capable of transforming the cultural models of companies and directing them to paradigms that integrate and do not separate.
The "Business Environmental Competencies", are understood and founded as a unitary term and not as the sum of the meaning of the words that make it up, they are undoubtedly a novel and valuable contribution for all the people who work in the areas of Human Management since it allows them to have a practical alternative to increase the effectiveness in their processes of "attracting, maintaining and developing" talent in the company from an environmental perspective, in such a way that the actions of the people, the business culture and the products It offers to its current and potential clients are the result of decisions whose responsibility is not outsourced but is responsibly assumed by all those who participate in the business action.
The definition, established in this document, of what is a business environmental competence, incorporates the urgency of building cultures capable of valuing the environment as a purpose and not as a fashion, as a need that ensures the permanence of the company and not as a financial year that is limited to compliance with the minimum limits of compliance with the regulations established by current legislation.
Finally, I anticipate that business environmental competences will be, in the very near future, a benchmark for companies of all sizes and sectors because it is urgent, not only to find sensitive and environmentally oriented people, but also that it is necessary begin a program of education, training and development of the same in all those people who today feel that the responsibility for the future is also held by states and companies.
-------
Note: This document is based and supported by the reflections proposed by the author in his text: Business environmental competences: Definition, characterization and application that you can read in full on the author's blog.
