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Article
Publication date: 18 March 2022

Nancy Kurland

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role a full range of activities can play to combat mission drift in a social enterprise. In doing so, it expands understanding of…

1769

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role a full range of activities can play to combat mission drift in a social enterprise. In doing so, it expands understanding of integrated activities to recognize the role of indirect support activities and an activity ecosystem to sustain mission. This paper also provides practical implications about the process for creating such an ecosystem.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper relies on an in-depth qualitative study of a for-profit company that later in life became an employee-owned benefit corporation. Data include interviews, informal and formal company documents and a site visit.

Findings

This paper expands the definition of activity integration to recognize indirect mission support, highlights the role an activity ecosystem plays to ensure the viability of these activities, and identifies a set of rules and a three-step process to create the reinforcing ecosystem.

Originality/value

Commonly, activities are integrated if the company earns revenues through pursuit of its social mission and differentiated if the company earns revenues not related to its social mission. By comparison, this paper argues for a more nuanced definition of activities to recognize indirect mission support and its role in reinforcing a dual mission.

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Publication date: 4 September 2019

Barry M. Mitnick and Martin Lewison

Despite the existence of a variety of approaches to the understanding of behavioral and managerial ethics in organizations and business relationships generally, knowledge of…

Abstract

Despite the existence of a variety of approaches to the understanding of behavioral and managerial ethics in organizations and business relationships generally, knowledge of organizing systems for fidelity remains in its infancy. We use halakha, or Jewish law, as a model, together with the literature in sociology, economic anthropology, and economics on what it termed “middleman minorities,” and on what we have termed the Landa Problem, the problem of identifying a trustworthy economic exchange partner, to explore this issue.

The article contrasts the differing explanations for trustworthy behavior in these literatures, focusing on the widely referenced work of Avner Greif on the Jewish Maghribi merchants of the eleventh century. We challenge Greif’s argument that cheating among the Magribi was managed chiefly via a rational, self-interested reputational sanctioning system in the closed group of traders. Greif largely ignores a more compelling if potentially complementary argument, which we believe also finds support among the documentary evidence of the Cairo Geniza as reported by Goitein: that the behavior of the Maghribi reflected their deep beliefs and commitment to Jewish law, halakha.

Applying insights from this analysis, we present an explicit theory of heroic marginality, the production of extreme precautionary behaviors to ensure service to the principal.

Generalizing from the case of halakha, the article proposes the construct of a deep code, identifying five defining characteristics of such a code, and suggests that deep codes may act as facilitators of compliance. We also offer speculation on design features employing deep codes that may increase the likelihood of production of behaviors consistent with terminal values of the community.

Details

The Next Phase of Business Ethics: Celebrating 20 Years of REIO
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-005-4

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 20 September 2011

Nancy B. Kurland

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of a sustainability network at a large California public university, as an example of organizational change.

4243

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of a sustainability network at a large California public university, as an example of organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper combines participant observation and case study techniques over a three‐year period. From 2007 to 2010, the author helped found the university's Institute for Sustainability and sat on both the Institute's first Advisory Board and the university's first Core Green Team. The author also interviewed 19 key informants to the sustainability network, including upper administrators, physical plant management (PPM) staff, faculty, and students.

Findings

This campus sustainability initiative evolved over three decades in three phases. Phase I evolved from the 1980s in facilities management and student recycling because of changing environmental demands, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and strong leadership who believed in developing human resources. In Phase II, faculty and Academic Affairs established the Institute for Sustainability. Phase III examines the current state at May 2010. Forces driving change include leaders' core values, incentives, communication, and community outreach. Forces inhibiting change relate to funding, information, policies, shared values, time, and training. Key informants defined success in campus sustainability as actions which: increase efficiency (and reduce waste); educate and prepare graduates for a fundamentally different world; achieve broad‐based support; and improve the university's sustainability image.

Research limitations/implications

This study points to at least four avenues of future research. One, scholars interested in more completely revealing their organization's sustainability network can map it using social network analysis techniques. Two, scholars could seek to answer the extent to which a campus institute becomes a center of gravity or an excuse for others to step away. Three, scholars can directly measure the four parameters of success respondents in this study identified (increase efficiency/reduce waste, educate/prepare graduates, achieve broad‐based support, improve image). And four, scholars can examine how an organization's commitment to recycling affects its image.

Originality/value

This paper provides a longitudinal look at the evolution of a campus sustainability network. It highlights how sustainability efforts evolve in different parts of the university at different rates, and in the present case how PPM and facilities planning influenced Academic Affairs to embrace sustainability.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 12 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2014

Nancy B. Kurland

This project aims to examine interpersonal interactions at the committee level that lead to shared governance of a college's environmental responsibilities. It demonstrates the…

1113

Abstract

Purpose

This project aims to examine interpersonal interactions at the committee level that lead to shared governance of a college's environmental responsibilities. It demonstrates the important role shared governance plays in integrating sustainability into a liberal arts college.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper combines participant observation and case study techniques. From September 2010 to October 2012, the author participated in 46 meetings and conducted 14 interviews with key informants.

Findings

Key challenges to efficiency and effectiveness of the shared governance process differ depending on whether the committee was involved in visioning or validation work. Key drivers included mid-level leadership, a commitment to the mandate, and a willingness to engage in an ongoing process of shared understanding.

Research limitations/implications

This study's findings are limited insofar as inaccuracies may arise due to respondents' poor recall, the interviewer's questions, if the interviewee gives the interviewer what she wants to hear, and if events observed may have proceeded differently because it was being observed.

Practical implications

This study provides insight into the process of change leading up to implementation of sustainability practices. It highlights strategic and value convergence, provides a clear example of mid-level leadership driving change through an emergent process, and which required commitment to the original mandate, the ongoing ability to create shared understanding, and the ability of faculty and administrators to move from independent to consultative action.

Originality/value

Sustainability in higher education often begins with shared governance in a committee. However, little research on shared governance exists at the committee level, and none focuses on the unique challenge of systemic change for sustainability. This project begins to fill that gap.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 4 January 2013

92

Abstract

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 6 March 2017

Nancy E. Landrum and Brian Ohsowski

This study aims to identify the content in introductory business sustainability courses in the USA to determine the most frequently assigned reading material and its…

2243

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to identify the content in introductory business sustainability courses in the USA to determine the most frequently assigned reading material and its sustainability orientation.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 81 introductory sustainable business course syllabi reading lists were analyzed from 51 US colleges and universities. The study utilized frequency counts for authors and readings and R analysis of key words to classify readings along the sustainability spectrum.

Findings

The study reveals the most frequently assigned authors and readings in US sustainable business courses (by program type) and places them along the sustainability spectrum from weak to strong. In total, 55 per cent of the top readings assigned in the sample advocate a weak sustainability paradigm, and 29 per cent of the top readings advocate a strong sustainability paradigm.

Research limitations/implications

This study focused on reading lists of introductory courses in the USA; cases, videos and supplemental materials were excluded, and the study does not analyze non-US courses.

Practical implications

The findings of this study can inform instructors of the most commonly assigned authors and readings and identify readings that align with weak sustainability and strong sustainability. Instructors are now able to select sustainable business readings consistent with peers and which advance a weak or strong sustainability orientation.

Originality/value

This is the first research to identify the most commonly assigned authors and readings to aid in course planning. This is also the first research to guide instructors in identifying which readings represent weak versus strong sustainability.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 9 September 2019

Anders Örtenblad

199

Abstract

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 26 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 8 January 2018

162

Abstract

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

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Article
Publication date: 21 February 2024

Katia Lobre-Lebraty and Marco Heimann

We explore how sustainable management education (SME) can help prepare future leaders to manage crises effectively. Precisely, the intricacies of articulating moral and economic…

168

Abstract

Purpose

We explore how sustainable management education (SME) can help prepare future leaders to manage crises effectively. Precisely, the intricacies of articulating moral and economic imperatives for businesses in a manner that engages students in sustainable behavior are a serious challenge for SME. We study how to integrate reminders of moral and economic imperatives in a socially responsible investment (SRI) stock-picking simulation created for SME.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting an experimental design, we analyzed how the reminders affected the average environment social governance (ESG) integration in the portfolios of 127 graduate students in finance over a twelve-week period.

Findings

Our results show how essential it is to balance the two imperatives. The highest level of sustainable investment is attained when utilizing both reminders.

Practical implications

Our findings have practical implications for implementing and organizing SME in business schools to educate responsible leaders who are able to effectively manage crises. Learning responsible management is most effective when students are exposed to the inherent tension between moral and economic imperatives. Hence, our findings corroborate the win-win conception of SME.

Originality/value

No management decision study has experimentally measured the effects of SME practices on students' actual behavior. Our research fills this gap by complementing previous studies on the effectiveness of teaching practices, first by drawing on behavioral sciences and measuring changes in students' actual sustainability behavior and second by introducing moral and economic imperatives into an innovative teaching resource (TR) dedicated to SME.

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1999

Doris Gordon

Outlines the Libertarian framework of rights and obligations in abortion. Argues that abortion is homicide based upon the scientific and philosophic evidence available and…

1112

Abstract

Outlines the Libertarian framework of rights and obligations in abortion. Argues that abortion is homicide based upon the scientific and philosophic evidence available and disputes further points believed by abortion proponents.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 19 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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