Elements of Organisational Climate and Corporate Culture in the Implementation of MFCA at Hydro Aluminium GmbHBeatrice Bertoncello

17 December 2019

The development of a management system, that combines both financial and environmental objectives, was found to be of crucial importance for modern corporations, and one way of building it is the employment of Environmental Management and Accounting (EMA) tools. Among other methods, Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) has raised considerable attention in the scientific community and has been addressed as an innovation with great potential for reducing costs and pursuing environmental goals. Such an innovative method, however, would not be effective if other organisational aspects were not taken into account. More specifically, corporate culture and organisational climate that encourage innovation and creativity are of critical importance. Hence, this research aimed at investigating what elements of culture and climate can contribute to a successful MFCA implementation, by employing the MFCA method and by conducting semi-structured interviews at Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products GmbH. The results of the quantitative analysis enabled to identify cost reduction potentials, and higher transparency in the process under study was achieved. From a qualitative perspective, it was established that cultural elements such as the job structure, the nature of interpersonal relationships and the focus on supports and rewards would foster a successful MFCA implementation at the company under investigation. On the other hand, aspects including the inhomogeneous employee's involvement in establishing the company's strategy and the perceived low internal competitiveness were found to be possible barriers for good integration of the MFCA tool.