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Showing 1 - 14 of 14 matches in All Departments
Management and the Sustainability Paradox is about how humans became disconnected from their ecological environment throughout evolutionary history. Begining with the premise that people have competing innate, natural drives linked to survival. Survival can be thought of in the context of long-term genetic propagation of a species, but at the same time, it involves overcoming of immediate adversities. Due to a diverse set of survival challenges facing our ancestors, natural selection often favored short-term solutions, which by consequence, muted the motivations associated with longer-range sustainability values. Managerial decisions and choices mostly adopt a moral calculus of costs versus benefits. Managers invoke economic and corporate growth to justify virtually any action. It is this moral calculus underlying corporate behavior that needs critical examination and reformation. At the heart of it lie deep moral questions that we examine in this book, with the goal of proposing ethical solutions to the paradox. Management and the Sustainability Paradox examines the issue that there appears to be an inherent paradox between what some businesses view as "a need for progress" and " a concern for sustainability". In business, we often see a collision between ideas of progress and sustainability which shapes corporate actions, and managerial decisions. Typical corporate views of progress involve the creation of wealth, jobs, innovative products, and social philanthropic projects. On the basis of these "progressive" actions they justify their inequitable distribution of surpluses by paying low wages and exploiting ecological resources. It is not difficult to see the antagonistic interplay between technological and social innovation with our values for social and environmental well-being and a dualism that needs to be overcome. This book is intended for a broad appeal to an academic and policy maker audience in the sustainability and management fields. The book will be of vital reading for managers seeking to reconnect our human chain with the natural environment in the cause of sustainable business.
Our world is fraught with problems that demand attention: climate change, terrorism, poverty, and injustice to name only a few. Healing the World takes the fundamental teachings of shamansaEURO"the healer of communitiesaEURO"and applies them to the problems of today, using terms and concepts that anybody, from business leaders to activists, can relate to and understand. It helps people identify their own gifts and find the pathways forward to using those gifts in the world, no matter what their occupation, civic activity, or interests.
It is not often that we have the opportunity to hear from the early pioneers of a social movement about how it grew and evolved, but that is exactly what this book sets out to do. The Difference Makers tells the stories of 23 entrepreneurs who have been instrumental in developing corporate responsibility; offers an analysis of how CSR has emerged as a key business issue, why it has evolved so quickly, and the visions of its thought leaders. The book examines 23 of the key players who have been instrumental in developing the corporate responsibility movement. They include John Ruggie and the Global Compact, Allen White and the Global Reporting Initiative, John Elkington and SustainAbility, Simon Zadek and AccountAbility, Alice Tepper Marlin and Social Accountability International, Bob Dunn and Business for Social Responsibility, and Joan Bavaria and Ceres - along with many others. The Difference Makers is a history and detailed analysis of how corporate responsibility has emerged as a key political, social, and business issue, why it has evolved so quickly, and what the visions of its thought leaders are for the future. It is essential reading for academics, business people and all those interested in the future of the corporation.
The UN Global Compact complements other corporate citizenship initiatives by promoting dialogue on the relationship between business and society. At the same time it is the only truly global corporate citizenship initiative. It is not an auditable standard; indeed, it is not a standard or a code in the way that these are normally viewed. It is a set of principles through which business and the United Nations can work in partnership for global social development. For some businesses it is a simplified codification of their existing policies and management practices, but for many engagement represents a challenge and an opportunity to raise their game by aligning profitability with the common good. As the only genuinely global corporate citizenship initiative, the Global Compact draws its moral authority from the UN Secretary-General and its moral and political legitimacy from the UN as the only global political body. It can be viewed as a series of nested networks involving the Secretary-General's Office, the ILO, UNEP, UNHCHR, UNDP and UNIDO, business, NGOs and labour. It can variously be described as an international learning network, as a social network of people and organizations engaged in a global conversation, as a global public policy network, and as a multi-stakeholder dialogue. It is all of these things, but more than anything its greatest success has been in providing a convening platform for a growing global conversation about social development among a variety of actors. However the Global Compact is viewed, it is time to reflect on the first tentative steps of an initiative born in the aftermath of the Cold War, in the "triumph of global economic liberalism" and mass demonstrations against "globalisation". In its first few years, the world has experienced 9/11 and the Iraq War, not forgetting the forty or so civil wars that are ongoing at this time. Whatever is written about the UN Global Compact or its success will be tentative. But there can be some serious reflection on its aims and origins; some telling of stories of engagement; and discussion on how this initiative has quickly become an important reference point in the dialogue on global and corporate governance.
Management and the Sustainability Paradox is about how humans became disconnected from their ecological environment throughout evolutionary history. Begining with the premise that people have competing innate, natural drives linked to survival. Survival can be thought of in the context of long-term genetic propagation of a species, but at the same time, it involves overcoming of immediate adversities. Due to a diverse set of survival challenges facing our ancestors, natural selection often favored short-term solutions, which by consequence, muted the motivations associated with longer-range sustainability values. Managerial decisions and choices mostly adopt a moral calculus of costs versus benefits. Managers invoke economic and corporate growth to justify virtually any action. It is this moral calculus underlying corporate behavior that needs critical examination and reformation. At the heart of it lie deep moral questions that we examine in this book, with the goal of proposing ethical solutions to the paradox. Management and the Sustainability Paradox examines the issue that there appears to be an inherent paradox between what some businesses view as "a need for progress" and " a concern for sustainability". In business, we often see a collision between ideas of progress and sustainability which shapes corporate actions, and managerial decisions. Typical corporate views of progress involve the creation of wealth, jobs, innovative products, and social philanthropic projects. On the basis of these "progressive" actions they justify their inequitable distribution of surpluses by paying low wages and exploiting ecological resources. It is not difficult to see the antagonistic interplay between technological and social innovation with our values for social and environmental well-being and a dualism that needs to be overcome. This book is intended for a broad appeal to an academic and policy maker audience in the sustainability and management fields. The book will be of vital reading for managers seeking to reconnect our human chain with the natural environment in the cause of sustainable business.
"Building the Responsible Enterprise" provides students and
practitioners with a practical, yet academically rooted,
introduction to the state-of-the-art in sustainability and
corporate social responsibility.
Building the Responsible Enterprise provides students and practitioners with a practical, yet academically rooted, introduction to the state-of-the-art in sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The book consists of four parts, highlighting different aspects of corporate responsibility. Part I discusses the context in which corporate responsibility occurs. Part II looks at three critical issues: the development of vision at the individual and organizational levels, the integration of values into the responsible enterprise, and the ways that these building blocks create added value for a firm. Part III highlights the actual management practices that enable enterprises to achieve excellence, focusing on the roles that stakeholder relationships play in improving performance. The book concludes with a conversation about responsible management in the global village, examining the emerging infrastructure in which enterprise finds itself today. Throughout the text, cases exemplify key concepts and highlight companies that are guiding us into tomorrow's business environment.
Transforming towards Life orients change agents, policy makers, activists, business leaders, ecologists, economists, and thoughtful people everywhere to the values and practices needed to build a world where all can flourish, where 'all' includes all humanity and all of life's beings. It provides an in-depth understanding of what it will take, especially in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic and the burgeoning climate emergency, to transform today's growth-and profit-oriented socio-economic systems to life-affirming ways benefit all rather than just an elite few. Transforming towards Life argues that to move towards a world in which all can flourish, we all need to start telling new, yet very ancient, stories about who we are and why we are here in the world-stories built on relationship or connectedness, responsibility for the whole, reciprocity, and equity. We need to incorporate core ideas about what gives life to systems into all businesses, communities, governments, and other types of organizations-that is, what helps them flourish. Business and other institutions need to create collective value, that is, value for all, and change the mindsets of people engaged with them so that they in turn can generate new performance metrics, practices, and power relationships that enable people everywhere to find their voice and their capacity to participate actively in bringing about a flourishing world. The book concludes with thoughts about how each one of us can do our bit to bring about this necessary transformation.
In traditional cultures, the shaman is the healer, the connector, and the spiritual leader or sensemaker. Today in the management academy, some individuals use their intellectual gifts to perform a similar role - mediating between various disciplines, ideas and theories, as well as making sense of ideas, insights, and research for others. This book, based on the work and lives of 28 very well-known management academics, describes what it means - and what it takes - to be an intellectual shaman. It is a fascinating insight into the career paths and the sometimes maverick behaviour that has allowed these individuals to achieve success. Based on extensive interviews, Intellectual Shamans provides both a roadmap to junior scholars and a critique of the current system of academic career progression.
In traditional cultures, the shaman is the healer, the connector, and the spiritual leader or sensemaker. Today in the management academy, some individuals use their intellectual gifts to perform a similar role - mediating between various disciplines, ideas and theories, as well as making sense of ideas, insights, and research for others. This book, based on the work and lives of 28 very well-known management academics, describes what it means - and what it takes - to be an intellectual shaman. It is a fascinating insight into the career paths and the sometimes maverick behaviour that has allowed these individuals to achieve success. Based on extensive interviews, Intellectual Shamans provides both a roadmap to junior scholars and a critique of the current system of academic career progression.
Here's how to make purposeful system change happen!The world faces a multitude of crises that demand transformative changes in how we live and do business. Yet a core question is...how to make purposeful transformation happen? Catalyzing Transformation shows the way through: Innovative organizing processes that anyone can use to catalyze purposeful whole system transformational change for a better world. How transformation catalysts work to organize purposeful, self-aware transformation systems that can tackle complex systemic challenges. Three processes—connecting (seeing, understanding, and making sense of the system), cohering (co-creatively developing shared goals and action plans), and amplifying (implementing, evaluating, and elaborating effective transformative action). Design guidelines for leaders stewarding change efforts in context-appropriate ways. Whether you catalyze social changer, responsible businesses, activists, policymakers, or students of change, Catalyzing Transformation can help!
Our world is fraught with problems that demand attention: climate change, terrorism, poverty, and injustice to name only a few. Healing the World takes the fundamental teachings of shamansaEURO"the healer of communitiesaEURO"and applies them to the problems of today, using terms and concepts that anybody, from business leaders to activists, can relate to and understand. It helps people identify their own gifts and find the pathways forward to using those gifts in the world, no matter what their occupation, civic activity, or interests.
This book is the companion to "Unfolding Stakeholder Thinking: Theory, Responsibility and Engagement", which examined many emerging theoretical and normative issues and was released to acclaim in October 2002. "Unfolding Stakeholder Thinking 2" collects a series of essays by leading researchers worldwide to focus on the practice of stakeholder engagement in terms of relationship management, communication, reporting and performance. As stakeholder relationships and business in society have become increasingly central to the unfolding of stakeholder thinking, important new topics have begun to take centre stage in both the worlds of practice and academia. The first part of the book makes clear that simply engaging with stakeholders is insufficient to build successful stakeholder strategies. Companies, considered as the focal entity in a relationship, also need to actively communicate with stakeholders and manage their relationships. Dialogue is essential but can only be useful if companies listen to the messages that stakeholders are sending them. It is also essential to understand the role of power and influence in stakeholder engagement strategies especially if partnerships or collaborations emerge from the relationships that are engendered. The book examines a wide range of corporate-NGO collaborations to determine what makes them effective - and what makes them fail. Conflict management in stakeholder alliances is also discussed. The second part of the book addresses the critically important element of emerging schemes for the assessment, measurement and reporting of business in society and relationships involving stakeholders. A variety of current approaches to stakeholder assessment and reporting are discussed here including social auditing and sustainability reporting. The evolution of stakeholder thinking has led to a new view of the firm as an organism embedded in a complex web of relationships with other organisms. The role of management becomes immensely more challenging, when stakeholders are no longer seen as simply the objects of managerial action but rather as subjects with their own objectives and purposes. This book captures the complexity of managing relationships with stakeholders and will provide both practitioners and researchers with a wealth of information on the benefits and consequences of this practice.
Much of the writing in "The Journal of Corporate Citizenship" over the last few years has been concerned with stakeholder engagement, social partnership building, accountability, and reporting. To date, however, there has been little discussion of what comes next in potential transformational efforts to build a more secure, peaceful and ecologically sustainable world or the corporate roles in building that world. This issue asks the question: What is the role of business in contributing to global peace and security over the long haul? As can readily be seen by the variety of papers and topics in the issue, the answer to that question is far from easy or simple, and each person who approaches the topic does so from a different perspective. Nonetheless, there are common threads and themes that arise when we begin thinking seriously about how businesses can contribute to peace and security and to what we are calling, after Polanyi, the next great transformation. Clearly, there are significant signs that transformation is needed in the world today."
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