Greening operations management: An online sustainable procurement course for practitioners

• Published in: Journal of management education 2009-06, Vol.33 (3), p.348-371
• Main Authors: Walker, Helen L, Gough, Stephen, Bakker, Elmer F, Knight, Louise A, McBain, Darian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ablauforganisation; Beschaffung; Business Administration; Business Administration Education; Case Studies; College students; Computer Assisted Instruction; Computerunterstützter Unterricht; Corporate purchasing; Education; Education policy; Educational Environment; Electronic Learning; Environmental Education; Foreign Countries; Gesundheitswesen; Green procurement; Großbritannien; Health care industry; Health Personnel; Health Services; Higher education; Instructional Design; Interviews; Learning environment; Lernen; Management Development; Nachhaltigkeit; Online instruction; Operations management; Physical Environment; Program Effectiveness; Program Evaluation; Purchasing; Studies; Sustainability; Sustainable Development; Training; United Kingdom; Web Based Instruction
• ISSN: 1052-5629; 1552-6658
• DOI: 10.1177/1052562908323190

In the Operations Management field, sustainable procurement has emerged as a way to green the purchasing and supply process. This paper explores issues in sustainable procurement training. The authors formed an interdisciplinary team to design, deliver and evaluate a training programme to promote and develop sustainable procurement in the United Kingdom health sector. Particular features of the project were its engagement with evolving and contested understandings of sustainable procurement and of the underlying concept of sustainable development and its recognition that relevant knowledge in the field is both incomplete and widely diffused through the procurement community. Eight practitioner groups worked together on themes to develop their understanding of sustainable procurement using the Blackboard virtual learning environment. Group interviews were conducted upon completion of the course and again three months later to explore qualitatively participants' experience of learning and implementing sustainable procurement. Although the course was delivered to practitioners, it might be modified for undergraduate and graduate students as it comprised the use of online activities in virtual learning environments, case studies and a broad range of literature. The course was also particularly significant in the context of contemporary policy moves in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to promote the role of higher education institutions in delivering workplace-based, high-skills education consistent with strategic policy considerations (see, for example, DIUS, 2008).