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Book part
Publication date: 27 January 2022

Joost Luyckx, Anselm Schneider and Arno Kourula

The currently dominant version of the corporate form – the profit-maximizing corporation – is one of the most influential organizational forms in contemporary society. It is also…

Abstract

The currently dominant version of the corporate form – the profit-maximizing corporation – is one of the most influential organizational forms in contemporary society. It is also one of the most criticized organizational forms, especially with respect to questions of purpose, participation, and ownership. The corporation’s strong focus on profit maximization and its non-democratic nature, as it excludes non-shareholding stakeholders from participating in how the corporation is run, have all attracted significant criticism. There are, however, several debates over alternative ways of organizing besides the corporation. In this chapter, we review the most influential of these: co-operatives, state-owned enterprises, democratically organized firms, social enterprises, stakeholder firms, and firms based on the sharing economy business model. We first analyze how these alternative ways of organizing do things differently with respect to questions of purpose, participation, and ownership and then we discuss how these different approaches can inspire efforts to reform the corporation.

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The Corporation: Rethinking the Iconic Form of Business Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-377-9

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Article
Publication date: 2 February 2015

Amina Sahel, Abdelali Alaoui Belghiti, Vincent DeBrouwere, Filomena Valente Soares, Guy Kegels, Nejoua Belkaab, Isabelle Godin, Sabine Ablefoni, Anselm Schneider and Bruno Dujardin

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of the first four years of implementation of a quality program called “Quality Contest” (QC). This program was implemented from…

453

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of the first four years of implementation of a quality program called “Quality Contest” (QC). This program was implemented from 2007 onward to improve the quality of hospital services by the Moroccan Ministry of Health. The peculiarity of this intervention, held every 18 months, is that it combines several approaches (self-evaluation, external audits with feedback, hospital ranking, awards and performance disclosure) and focuses on the quality of management.

Design/methodology/approach

The assessment tool used to evaluate the quality of hospital management consists of 80 items. In each contest, a score is attributed to each item based on the score given for self-evaluation and the score given by external auditors. The sum of these scores allows the global performance score of the hospital to be obtained. To compare the performances over time and among hospitals, Wilcoxon signed-rank, Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis statistical tests were used.

Findings

The results of the QC organized between 2007 and 2010 revealed that the hospitals participating in all the three contests had significantly improved their performance levels in terms of the quality of management. There was also a significant association between the number of times hospitals participated in the QC and the performance scores attained.

Originality/value

The paper reports an original quality improvement approach in a developing country that succeeded in triggering sustainable improvement dynamics by combining support (feedback) with reward (prizes) and pressure measures (ranking, performance disclosure).

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Leadership in Health Services, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1879

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Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2024

Marco Simões-Coelho, Ariane Roder Figueira and Eduardo Russo

Motivated by the advancements in the discussions of environmental, social, and governance globally, this study aims to improve the knowledge of corporate sustainability…

Abstract

Motivated by the advancements in the discussions of environmental, social, and governance globally, this study aims to improve the knowledge of corporate sustainability motivations and engagement through a qualitative cross-company case study analysis of two consumer goods multinationals, Natura & Co. headquartered in Brazil, and The Coca-Cola Company, headquartered in the USA. The cases were chosen to compare the two companies’ corporate sustainable development (SD) motivations, one headquartered in an emerging and the other in a developed country. This study also assesses the balance between these corporations’ global and local sustainability agendas, comparing their worldwide engagement promises to their actual deliveries vis-à-vis national-institutional arrangements. As contributions to the field, comparing the cases surfaced valuable insights and additional theoretical abstractions on corporate sustainability, including proposing a new SD-engagement typology.

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Responsible Firms: CSR, ESG, and Global Sustainability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-963-5

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Book part
Publication date: 27 January 2022

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The Corporation: Rethinking the Iconic Form of Business Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-377-9

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Book part
Publication date: 27 January 2022

Renate E. Meyer, Stephan Leixnering and Jeroen Veldman

For more than a century, the corporation has shaped our thinking of organizations. This deeply institutionalized form is still regarded as both the iconic business organization…

Abstract

For more than a century, the corporation has shaped our thinking of organizations. This deeply institutionalized form is still regarded as both the iconic business organization and the core structural unit of our economic order. Today, however, it stands at a crossroads. Economic, social, and environmental failures of the recent past as well as misconduct and scandals are widely linked to inadequacies in this corporate form and its governance. The aim of this volume is to spark a debate within the field. In this introduction, we provide an outline of the current crisis and an overview of the interdisciplinary set of articles presented in this volume. We conclude with a view ahead and a plea for the acknowledgement of “alternatives.”

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The Corporation: Rethinking the Iconic Form of Business Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-377-9

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Book part
Publication date: 25 July 2008

Joseph Schneider

In 1985, I was moving along a more or less definable disciplinary path, writing qualitative sociology guided by my understanding of leading symbolic interactionist texts…

Abstract

In 1985, I was moving along a more or less definable disciplinary path, writing qualitative sociology guided by my understanding of leading symbolic interactionist texts, productively disturbed by affection for Harold Garfinkel's ethnomethodology. Although there were prior lines of influence, my writing then was focused especially on various “social constructionist” projects, first with Peter Conrad (Conrad & Schneider, 1992 [1980]; Schneider & Conrad, 1983) and then with Malcolm Spector and John Kitsuse (Kitsuse & Schneider, 1984, 1989). I also read closely and had many conversations with Anselm Strauss about how to do what he and Barney Glaser called “grounded theory” and with Howard Becker about “doing sociology.” Not only did I feel that I was getting better at doing ethnography or field work and “writing it up,” as we put it in Sociology, I felt I was engaged in an epistemologically superior practice relative to the more quantitative and structurally oriented work that was then and still is defined as “mainstream” (a land from which I had emigrated, gradually, after the Ph.D.).

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Studies in Symbolic Interaction
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84663-931-9

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Article
Publication date: 10 July 2019

Brita Backlund Rambaree

The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) content in the context of four differing national institutional arrangements for welfare. An analysis…

417

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) content in the context of four differing national institutional arrangements for welfare. An analysis is presented on how self-reported CSR differs in content across two western welfare states (the UK and Sweden) and two emerging economies in southern Africa (South Africa and Mauritius).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on a qualitative content analysis of the CSR self-reporting of 40 companies. This involved 10 of the largest companies incorporated in four countries, namely, Sweden, the UK, South Africa and Mauritius. The content is categorised into community involvement, socially responsible production and socially responsible employee relations. For each category, an analysis is provided of the reported issues (the question of what), the geographic focus of reported issues (the question of where) and ways of working with these issues (the question of how), as well as the extent of reporting and level of reporting (the question of how much).

Findings

The study shows that companies place focus on aspects, issues and localities in ways that differ between countries and can be understood in relation to current institutional arrangements for welfare. The content of self-reported CSR can be both complementing and mirroring the welfare arrangements. Differences in self-reported CSR agendas are particularly evident between the two western welfare states on the one hand and the two emerging economies on the other, as these represent two distinct contexts in terms of welfare arrangements.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to research on the institutional embeddedness of CSR in three ways: first, by going beyond measures of country differences in terms of extent of CSR to consider differences in CSR content; second, by focusing on the social aspects of CSR and placing these differences in relation to welfare configurations; and third, by contributing with empirical findings on how CSR content differs across national settings and across the established/emerging economy divide.

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Book part
Publication date: 28 October 2024

Sandra Cereola, Karen Green and Edward Lynch

Organizations are considering the influence of workplace attention breadth (mindfulness and absorption) on professional development. Although corporate accountants typically focus…

Abstract

Organizations are considering the influence of workplace attention breadth (mindfulness and absorption) on professional development. Although corporate accountants typically focus on technical skills, soft skills such as mindfulness may also improve performance. In this study, we examine the influence of attention breadth on task performance by demonstrating how mindfulness and absorption vary with respect to improvement to entry, mid, and upper-level accounting tasks. We survey over 700 corporate accounting professionals and find that upper-level manager task performance is related to mindfulness, and mid-level manager task performance is associated with mindfulness and absorption. We also find that mid-level professionals who are unable to transition between mindfulness and absorption states serve a relatively longer tenure before advancing to an upper-level position. This study has important implications for management to assist in improving office productivity and morale.

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Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research Volume 28
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83608-285-9

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Article
Publication date: 17 April 2009

Barbara F.H. Allen

The purpose of this paper is to introduce librarians, faculty, and other interested individuals to contemporary German literature in English translation.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce librarians, faculty, and other interested individuals to contemporary German literature in English translation.

Design/methodology/approach

German‐language authors born in 1950 or later and listed on the Contemporary Living Authors Comprehensive List developed by the German vendor Otto Harrassowitz are searched in OCLC's WorldCat database to determine the existence of English translations. A bio‐bibliographical list is then developed featuring all contemporary German‐language authors who have achieved an English language translation of at least one of their literary works.

Findings

Of the approximately 1,400 writers on Harrassowitz's comprehensive list, a surprisingly large number of almost 80 authors of the younger generation (born in 1950 or later) have been translated into English.

Originality/value

This bio‐bibliography of contemporary German belles lettres (of the younger generation) in English translation is the first of its kind. It can be used by librarians to check their current library holdings and to expand their collections of German literature in English translation.

Details

Collection Building, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0160-4953

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Book part
Publication date: 30 October 2009

Lonnie Athens

I am pleased to introduce the second issue in Studies in Symbolic Interaction's “Blue Ribbon Paper” series. In contrast to the chapters in the first issue that focused exclusively…

Abstract

I am pleased to introduce the second issue in Studies in Symbolic Interaction's “Blue Ribbon Paper” series. In contrast to the chapters in the first issue that focused exclusively on theoretical matters, the chapters in this one are focused on empirical problems. In John Johnson's and Andrew Melnikov's provocative article, “The Wisdom of Distrust: Reflections on Ukrainian Society and Sociology,” they examine the results of a nation-wide poll that shows among other things that Ukrainian citizenry paradoxically displays little faith in any of the branches of their democratically elected government. On the one hand, this finding is paradoxical because democracy is a relatively new experience for present day Ukrainians. Since their country had been for years a puppet state of the former Soviet Union, one would think that they now would be elated by the opportunity to elect their leaders. On the other hand, the founding fathers of our nation also displayed considerable distrust in government, including democratically elected ones, such as our own. In fact, their distrust was so great that it led them to build into our constitution an intricate system of checks and balances of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our government. Although conventional psychological wisdom is that distrust of others is a sign of paranoia, Johnson and Melinkov conclude that being wary of governmental institutions and politicians may be a healthy state of affairs for a country's citizens.

Details

Studies in Symbolic Interaction
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-785-7

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