Evaluating the Role of Social Responsibility of Public and Private Organizations Regarding the Simultaneous Reduction of Air Pollution and Traffic with the Use of Carpooling Style (Case Study: Tehran Metropolis)

Extended Abstract

Introduction

Traffic on the street has significantly increased in Iran, especially in densely populated cities like Tehran. Congestion can change driving patterns. In addition to car congestion, the difficulty of traffic and the slowing down traffic increase vehicle degrade ambient air quality. In many areas, vehicle emissions have become the dominant source of air pollutants. In this research, traffic congestion is specifically defined as congestion caused by high traffic volumes during peak "rush hour" periods on weekdays. In other words, congestion is often defined as periods when traffic volume exceeds street capacity.

One of the most important challenges for organizations is how their employees commute to work. Acceptable access to the public transportation system and its favorable quality can lead to persuading different people, including employees of organizations, to use it instead of a personal vehicle. Unfortunately, the state of the public transportation system is not suitable, and a significant number of employees use private cars to commute to their workplaces. Something that will have many bad effects, such as an increase in urban traffic, loss of time (the amount of time spent on various streets due to travel delays), social tensions and mental pressures caused by traffic, air pollution, an increase in gasoline consumption, a lack of parking spaces, a mismatch of road network development with the growth of car ownership, and the increase in the rate of migration from villages to cities or from the suburbs to big cities for work, will lead to disruption of the balance and capacity of urban roads. Apart from their economic and service goals, different organizations must be responsible for the environment and society around them. Protecting the environment and fulfilling its requirements is an important part of it. Therefore, encouraging employees to use carpooling can be an acceptable option for implementing social responsibility and environmental protection.

Methodology

A fishbone diagram is an analysis tool that provides a systematic way of understanding the effects and the causes that create those effects. The design of the diagram looks like the skeleton of a fish; hence, it is referred to as the fishbone diagram. Also, a fishbone is referred to as a cause-and-effect diagram. A fishbone diagram is of great value in assisting teams in categorizing the many potential causes of problems or issues systematically and helps identify root causes. In other words, a fishbone diagram is used when a process is not performed correctly or has not produced the expected results.

This diagram helps researchers during brainstorming by providing a great visual summary of all thoughts about causes. For example, the problem or effect is displayed at the head or mouth of the fish in fishbone Structure and angled vertical lines like fish bones coming away from the spine, it is the main category or causes. These are the cause categories.

Each line (vertical line) includes causes called sub-causes for that category. In this study, with the sentence "Why is this happening?" All possible causes of the problem were investigated. In the next step, information has been evaluated and reviewed using one of the most important tools in strategizing, the SWOT technique. The SWOT analysis technique is a strategic planning tool that encourages group or individual reflection on and assessment of a particular strategy's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and how to implement it best. Strengths and weaknesses describe 'where the project or organization is now. Opportunities and threats describe 'what is going on outside the organization or areas that are not yet affecting the strategy but could. Opportunities include 'ideas on overcoming weaknesses and building on strengths within the program's environment. Threats constrain or threaten the range of opportunities for change in the program environment. These external aspects are often related to sociological, political, demographic, economic, trade-specific, and environmental factors. In this research, the most important influencing factors (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) were identified through brainstorming and completed by the expert team. In the next step, the final checklist was graded by environmental experts based on the Likert scale. The weights of influential factors were calculated by forming the IFE and EFE matrixes.



Results and discussion

Factors causing simultaneous air pollution and traffic in the Tehran metropolis were summarized through the fishbone technique. These factors are classified into six categories, which are, in order from the simplest to the most complex as legal weakness, cultural weakness, technical weakness, budget weakness, road network weakness, organizational weakness, public transportation system weakness, and the sixth case: travel demand management weakness. The analysis and evaluation of all factors affecting organizational carpooling, which included 26 strength factors, 14 weakness factors, 14 opportunity factors, and 12 threat factors. Based on the results, strengths and opportunities have the highest scores with 3.077 and 3.224 points, respectively. After those threats and weaknesses, they got the lowest points with 2.932 and 2.852 points, respectively.

Conclusion

According to these results, adopting an aggressive strategy means maximum use of opportunities with strengths is necessary. Surveys showed that strategy formulation is important and prominent in organizations and department management. Also, the lack of proper response from some organizations, the lack of proper investment, and the lack of training and culture to strengthen the correct formation of social responsibility in organizations can be serious threats in this field. In general, it can be said that if carpooling is done smartly and purposefully, it will not only help urban transportation and prevent environmental pollution, especially air pollution; instead, by increasing the level of public trust and carrying out collaborative actions, we can create an opportunity to build and create a better city.

Keywords

Organizational carpooling, Carpooling, Social Responsibility, Travel Demand Management, Transportation

Authors’ Contribution

The authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.