Attitudes of Managers towards the Potential Effects of ISO 14001 in Saudi Arabia: Factor Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the attitudes of managers in Saudi Arabia towards the effects of ISO 14001 in Saudi Arabia. The study includes 143 firms in three sectors of activities; private manufacturing, private service and public firms. The study reveals that the five most significant benefits are; safer environment, improvement of image of the certified firms with the international environmental organizations, ensure the safety of workers inside the organizations, improvement of firms image with customers and the reduction of pollution. When using Factor Analysis, it produces five factors; employee morale, efficiency and quality, relations with government, safety of products and relations with environmental organizations. Furthermore, the study shows that the five most difficulties are related to the costs and fees; fees of consultants, costs of changing within organizations, costs of maintain the system, fees of the certification agencies and costs of internal auditing. The Factor Analysis suggests two factors for difficulties namely; preparation and documentation and costs and fees. The study also finds that there is an overwhelming satisfaction about ISO 14001 among managers where the private service firms come first followed by public firms then the private manufacturing firms.