Sarah Leidner, Denise Baden and Melanie J. Ashleigh
The purpose of this paper is to explore how Green (environmental) Human Resource Management (GHRM) policies can elicit green employee behaviours. This study explores the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how Green (environmental) Human Resource Management (GHRM) policies can elicit green employee behaviours. This study explores the role of sustainability advocates, who are leaders and managers in pursuit of their firm’s environmental agenda, in the design and delivery of GHRM policies, communication, recruitment and selection, environmental training, rewards and incentives.
Design/methodology/approach
In this qualitative study, eighteen semi-structured interviews with sustainability advocates in European firms were conducted and analysed.
Findings
GHRM practices are not in themselves peripheral, intermediate or embedded, but shaped by contextual situations. Sustainability advocates’ intentions do not seem to match GHRM policy design, i.e. they try to elicit value-based behaviours by using self-interest-based approaches, leading to misalignments between the attitudes and behaviours policies attempt to elicit, and the type of behaviours they elicit in practice.
Research limitations/implications
This study explores GHRM practice implementation experienced by leaders and managers. Further research on the role of the HR function and recipients of GHRM is needed.
Practical implications
Practitioners need to be aware that organisational incentives (GHRM policies) that reflect self-interest can lead to self-interest-based behaviour and may be short-lived. A careful consideration of contextual factors will inform the selection of suitable GHRM policies. Environmental training completion rates seem an unsuitable metric for senior management bonuses.
Originality/value
This paper investigates the design and implementation stage of GHRM, leading to an identification of GHRM policies as peripheral, intermediate or embedded. This creates an in-depth knowledge on the efficacy of GHRM policies and their relation to the environment.
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Denise Baden and Lynda Whitehorn
This chapter outlines a unique collaboration between industry, academia and education to embed sustainability across the hairdressing sector. The chapter is in two parts with the…
Abstract
This chapter outlines a unique collaboration between industry, academia and education to embed sustainability across the hairdressing sector. The chapter is in two parts with the first part written by Dr Denise Baden from the academic perspective. Dr Baden begins by outlining why the hairdressing sector is especially important to engage with respect to sustainability. Three projects run by the Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, and funded by the Economics and Social Research Council (ESRC) are then described. Lynda Whitehorn then expands upon the context of hairdressing practice, training and education from the perspective of Vocational Training Charitable Trust (VTCT) – a specialist awarding organisation which offers vocational and technical qualifications in a variety of service sectors, including hairdressing and barbering. In the process, we show how the collaboration between academia, industry and education enabled sustainable practice to become embedded across the sector.
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Many believe we are suffering from an ethics crisis (Perry & Nixon, 2005). The increased incidence of irresponsible behaviour by business, recent examples being the global…
Abstract
Many believe we are suffering from an ethics crisis (Perry & Nixon, 2005). The increased incidence of irresponsible behaviour by business, recent examples being the global financial crisis and the BP oil spill, and the devastating consequences on society have focused attention on the role business schools play in educating future business (and other) leaders. There have also been criticisms of business schools failing to take into account the ‘factually impossible notion of unlimited growth in a world of limited resources’ (Giacalone & Thompson, 2006), and continuing to encourage business strategies which are at odds with the growing challenge of sustainable development, which include issues of climate change, inequity and resource depletion (Giacalone & Thompson, 2006; Shrivastava, 1995; Waddock, 2007). Indeed, business schools have been criticised for encouraging a self-interested, profit-oriented focus that ignores the wider responsibilities of business to society (Gioia, 1992; Kochan, 2002; Mitroff, 2004). Starkey, Hatchuel, and Tempest (2004), for example, claim that the business school has become “ethically compromised because the values it espouses have been implicated in recent corporate scandals.” McPhail (2001) suggests the inclusion of business ethics into accounting and business education as a possible remedy. Cant and Kulik went further and claimed that “business schools would be remiss, if not unethical themselves, if their ethics education efforts were not increased in light of recent events.” (2009).
Denise Baden and Carole Parkes
The complex challenges of sustainable development and the need to embed these issues effectively into the education of future business leaders has never been more urgent. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The complex challenges of sustainable development and the need to embed these issues effectively into the education of future business leaders has never been more urgent. The purpose of this paper is to discuss different approaches taken by two UK signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).
Design/methodology/approach
The two approaches examined are: MSc Entrepreneurship students opting for placements with social enterprises; and MBA students undertaking workshops using “live” case studies. A content analysis of the experiences of students from their written reflective narratives is presented. This is supplemented by reflections of the facilitators and tutors.
Findings
The analysis reveals that the opportunity to work with social entrepreneurs and/or “responsible” business professionals provides the business students with inspirational role models and positive social learning opportunities.
Research limitations/implications
This paper suggests that experiential learning is an effective way of integrating ethics, responsibility and sustainability into the curriculum but the research draws on the experience of two schools. Further research is important to explore these findings in other contexts.
Practical implications
The authors argue that direct exposure to a business culture (and/or behaviour) that is predicated upon ethical/social responsibility and sustainability is an effective means to embed these values in the curriculum.
Originality/value
This paper contributes by drawing on social psychological research related to behaviour change to examine how experiential learning on traditional Business Masters programmes can provide students with the knowledge, motivation and skills to contribute positively to society, in a way that more traditional pedagogies cannot.
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Ruby Melody Agbola is a lecturer at Department of Management Studies, Central Business School, Ghana.
The purpose of this paper is to hypothesise that business theory and education suffer from having been systematically de-philosophised over the last 200 years. Viewed through this…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to hypothesise that business theory and education suffer from having been systematically de-philosophised over the last 200 years. Viewed through this lens the economistic narrative can be understood and new and integrated solutions to theoretical and pedagogical problems can be debated.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a theoretical exploration based on a literature review and philosophical analysis.
Findings
Going back to a social science philosophy would fundamentally affect how management is conceptualised, done and taught. The paper focuses on outlining the impact a re-philosophisation would have on management education.
Practical implications
If one agrees that philosophy plays a too small role in management, it would change how scholarship is currently defined and how management education functions. Business schools would have to fundamentally change in every respect.
Originality/value
Current criticism of the management mainstream focuses on either the political/ethical or the epistemic level. The paper argues that the epistemic and the ethical are connected and by making an integrated argument the debate can be re-energised and solution strategies become obvious. I am not aware of any other contribution making this argument. Ghoshal (unwittingly) used the same reasoning but without using the clear frame of reference (philosophy) that this paper proposes.
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Malva Daniel Reid, Jyldyz Bekbalaeva, Denise Bedford, Alexeis Garcia-Perez and Dwane Jones
The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online…
Abstract
The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories: