A Resource Redundancy Dependence Perspective on the External Control of Organizations : Examining Local Government Sustainable Procurement and Waste Management Practices

From a blackbox perspective, Resource Dependence (RD) theory examines the organizational implications derived from the organizations’ input side (i.e., resource acquisition). In this dissertation, I examine RD’s ignored output side, that is, the organizational implications derived from organizations’ waste generation management. With the world’s population on the rise, organizations will require more resources to fulfill societal needs entailing more waste generation and environmental pollution. Yet, pollution is not caused by waste but by excess materials exhibiting multiple potential uses I call redundant resources. Redundant resources are nonetheless discarded as pollutant waste due to our society’s inability to adequately reallocate them. In this context, civil society organizations’ rising environmental concerns and government organizations’ increasingly stringent environmental regulations represent conflicting demands that can affect an organization’s competitiveness and legitimacy. These external organizations can thereby exert control over those entities assessed as polluters. Hence, the latter not only become captive but dependent on the former. Such dependence stems from their continuous need to comply with external conflicting demands. As a result, an organization’s operability, that is, the extent to which it can keep its systems functional, can be compromised. I call this condition the Resource Redundancy Dependence (RRD). Besides this conceptual approach, this thesis includes two studies examining Australian councils’ sustainable procurement (SP) and waste management (WM) practices. In study 1, data obtained from 196 surveys reveal that a lack of e-procurement systems, insufficient training programs, and inadequate organizational structures hinder SP practice. In study 2, data collected from 48 semi-structured interviews with WM professionals in Sydney show how diverse societal, government, and market factors have led to a waste crisis. Both studies provide evidence that helps understanding how an organization’s waste generation management can compromise its operability. As such, this dissertation advances RD’s research agenda and offers practitioners a better comprehension of the organizational implications derived from the organizations’ output side.