Avaliação comparativa: sistema de gestão específico versus sistema integrado, o estudo de caso do beneficiamento da castanha de caju

Abstract

The choice of an environmental strategy by a firm must consider a set of variables, among them, whether a firm approaches its environmental issues through out a specific environmental management system or an integrated one. Therefore, this work aims to study the performance of two management systems – a specific environmental system based on the ISO 14001 and an integrated one based on the Total Loss Control – that are running simultaneously in a processing plant of cashew nuts in the State of Ceará, Brazil. Based on the main models of environmental strategies – Shrivastava, Hart, Heinhardt, Sharma and Stead & Stead – we identify which strategies the industry adopts to solve its environmental problems. Analyzing the principles and elements that constitute each system, we point out structural similarities and differences among them. Finally, by applying a semi-structurated questionnaire to the managers responsible for the systems, we evaluate, using a Likert scale, which system was more appropriated to reach the environmental goals of the firm. We found that the specific system showed the highest avarage ponctuation according to the manager’s opinions. Therefore, we can conclude that the specific environmental system was better than the integrated system for dealing which the environmental issues in the cashew nut industry.