Whether she is encouraging students in her business classes to minimize print documents or carrying plastic bottles home to assure they are properly recycled, Dr. Cristina Ciocirlan is constantly looking for ways to promote sustainability. In the classroom, at home and in her research, she makes it a priority to value the environment, a trait which first led her to study sustainable business practices. Her most recent research project has landed her in Durham, England, where she is collaborating with Dr. Victoria Wells, Reader in Marketing, to study the habits of “green employees” with the help of a Fulbright scholarship.
“Professionally, [getting a Fulbright] is the highlight of my career,” Ciocirlan said. “Personally, I am just really grateful for it, that my kids can join me. I am very happy that I was able to achieve this for [my kids] as well.”
Ciocirlan was one of five Elizabethtown College professors and students who were awarded Fulbright scholarships to conduct research or teach English in a foreign country. Ciocirlan chose to pursue her research in Durham because of a personal connection, as well as her previous online interaction with Dr. Wells.
“I studied in England during [the completion of my] master’s degree, and at the end of the year I took a trip and passed through Durham,” she said. “I saw the city, cathedral and castle. I really liked the area, so I had a lot of personal connection with the city.”
Her collaboration with Wells grew out of their common interest in green business habits. Ciocirlan calls it serendipity that she found an article Wells had written. After interacting online for a time, Wells extended an invitation for Ciocirlan to come to England to continue the research.
“I suffer when I see that people don’t care for nature very much. In some situations, some countries, some places of the world; when people pollute or destroy the environment, I feel pain personally,” Ciocirlan said. “I don’t like that. I feel that I am doing something good for the society, for the nature when I research this topic and raise awareness of good behaviors in organizations.”
With the Fulbright supporting her travels and research, she and her children will spend the semester living and working in Durham while still participating in practices that protect the environment. During that time, Ciocirlan and Wells will be creating and distributing a survey for global companies based in England to assess environmentally-friendly workplaces.
Assessing what makes a “green employee” is one of the purposes of the team’s study. According to Ciocirlan, definitions for green employees do exist, but past researchers have failed to discuss what environmentally-friendly behaviors employees engage in and why they choose to do so. This objective is one that interests Ciocrilan about the study she is conducting.
Their current goal is to produce two manuscripts out of the survey data, which they plan to submit to journals before December. Despite the limited length of her stay in the United Kingdom, Ciocirlan hopes to continue her collaboration with Wells from afar.
“I am sure there will be enough material to write more and continue our collaboration until the end of the academic year in May,” Ciocirlan said.
As the semester begins, the business professor feels confident that the pair will answer questions about green business and employees and return to the College with new knowledge and experiences to share.
“I hope to bring the research back to the classroom, so I hope to increase the sustainability topics and projects that students will do in the class. I want to dedicate more teaching time to these topics and share what I learned here,” Ciocirlan said. “I also want to share with them the international cross-cultural aspects.”