The effects of strategic flexibility and environmental workplace behaviors on non-financial performance: The moderating role of organizational task environment

Rapidly changing and developing technologies in global markets, increasing uncertainty, responding to changing customer demands and expectations, and searching for a new business approach to protect the environment force businesses to act flexibly, develop flexible strategies, and adopt flexible and environmentally friendly management techniques. However, neglecting the effects of strategic flexibility and pro-environmental workplace behaviors on non-financial performance at management levels in manufacturing industry enterprises in Turkey and the limited empirical study on this subject in the management literature are the driving factors behind this study. The aim of the research, which focuses on filling the gap in findings in the literature, is to determine the effects of strategic flexibility and pro-environmental workplace behaviors on non-financial performance and to reveal whether the organizational task environment moderates the relationship between these variables. The research sample consists of owner-managers and top, middle, and lower-level managers (technical managers, supervisors, chiefs, and unit managers) of manufacturing industry enterprises operating in Kırıkkale (n = 539). The data used in the research was obtained with the help of a survey consisting of scales that have previously tested reliability and validity in the literature. In the study, Structural Equation Modeling was used to test hypotheses regarding direct relationships, hierarchical regression analysis with moderator variables suggested by Aiken and West (1991) to reveal the moderator variable effect, and simple slope analysis suggested by Dawson (2014) to verify the effects of interaction terms in the model. According to the research findings, it has been determined that both strategic flexibility and pro-environmental workplace behaviors positively and significantly affect non-financial performance. However, it has been revealed that only the preventive maneuvers and opportunistic maneuvers dimensions of strategic flexibility have a positive and significant effect on non-financial performance. On the other hand, it has been determined that organizational task environment moderates the relationship between strategic flexibility and non-financial task performance and between pro-environmental workplace behaviors and non-financial task performance. In addition, it was determined that the organizational task environment had a moderating effect only on the relationship between the protective maneuvers dimension of strategic flexibility and non-financial performance. Finally, some limitations of the research are included, some practical suggestions are developed for the managers of manufacturing industry enterprises by making some inferences from the research findings, and some suggestions are presented for future research on similar subjects.