The Effect of Workplace Autonomy on Environmental Performance: A study on the individual workers’ autonomy in an organization and how it affects a company’s environmental performance

Abstract: This thesis examines the relationship between workplace autonomy and environmental performance. The relationship is measured through Scope 1 CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions and through a quantitative study. Previous research found that autonomy is not a widely researched field for environmental performance purposes. A major psychological theory about autonomy is the self-determination theory, which states that autonomy is one of the basic needs for intrinsic motivation to be able to grow. However, previous studies found that innovation and corporate social responsibility are connected with autonomy in the workplace, mediating the relationship. To further develop this research stream, we developed a research question, which asks “Does the level of autonomy within a company affect the environmental sustainability performance of a company?”, and this led to the development of our hypothesis, stating “The level of workplace autonomy within an organization does have an effect on the firm’s CO2e emissions''. This was tested through a deductive approach with the self-determination theory, and Lartey’s definition of autonomy as the basis. Data was collected through surveys to find out about the level of autonomy that exists within multinational enterprises, and the CO2e-emissions were found through the companies’ sustainability reports. This data was converted into two variables, one averaging each company’s responses for autonomy, and one CO2e-emissions per employee. These were put into a regression analysis, which did not give a statistically significant model, and a correlation analysis was implemented to draw conclusions from our results. What the results showed was that there is a weak correlation between a firm’s level of autonomy and their environmental performance, where companies with higher autonomy had lower CO2e-emissions. However, our sample was small, with only 31 observations, and diverse in terms of industry. It was also homogenous in culture, where most companies were founded and based in Western countries. This led to our results not being statistically significant.