'Organizations and the Sustainability Mosaic is an inspired collection of papers by a distinguished group of scholars who have been thinking about these issues for many years. The editors have done an outstanding job of framing and focusing the discussion on a group of issues that will matter most as all businesses engage their sustainability challenges. Your thinking will be challenged, and rewarded, by the chapters of this book.' - James E. Post, Boston University, US The contributors to this book present research on crafting long-term ecological and societal solutions in order to achieve sustainability. The in-depth analyses explore the interactions among social, environmental, and development impacts of organizations at community, regional, national and global levels. In doing so they shed light on the way forward amidst the complexity of issues involved, referred to here as the sustainability mosaic.
The chapters in this volume cover a wide range of theoretical perspectives grounded in strategy, economics and sociology, employ various methodological approaches, and offer new arguments on the connections that exist between firms’ decisions relating to sustainability, CSR, and the governance of their stakeholder relations.
Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting deals with organizations’ assessment, articulation and disclosure of their social and environmental impact on various groups in society. There is increasingly an understanding that financial information does not sufficiently discharge organizational accountability to members of society who are demanding an account of the social and environmental impacts of companies’ and other organizations’ activities. As a result, organizations report ever more social and environmental information, and there are simultaneous movements towards providing the information in an integrated fashion, showing how social and environmental activities influence each other, members of society and the financial aims of the organization. The book Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting provides a broad and comprehensive review of the field, focusing on the interconnection between different elements of these topics, often dealt with in isolation. The book examines the accounting involved in the collection and analysis of data, control processes over the data, how information is reported to external parties, and the assurance of the information being reported. The book thereby provides an overview useful to practitioners (including sustainability managers, consultants, members of the accounting profession, and other assurance providers), academics, and students.
Business Strategies for Sustainability brings together important research contributions that demonstrate different approaches to business strategies for sustainability. Many corporate initiatives toward what firms perceive to be sustainability are simply efficiency drives or competitive moves – falling far short of actual strategies for ecological sustainability. To suggest true ecological sustainability strategies, this new research anthology adopts an interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary, approach to discern what business strategies might look like if they were underpinned by environmental and ecological science. The 23 chapters in this anthology reflect five main topic sections: (a) delineating sustainability challenges and visions; (b) contradiction, integration and transformation of business and sustainability logics; (c) innovating and developing strategic capabilities for sustainability; (d) assessing and valuing sustainability; and (e) toward multi-level engagement and collaboration.
`The Sage Handbook of Organizational Behaviour is a fine addition to past works of reference in the field, edited by two prominent scholars who are internationally known. Its approach is both critical and original in many incisive ways, aspiring to a cutting-edge coverage of the core and periphery of OB. Many of the chapter authors stick their necks out and avoid the more obvious, conventional expositions of their topic. It covers a wide range of topics of potential use to both undergraduate and postgraduate students of the subject, as well as academics, researchers and practitioners. It will be of particular interest to those on MBA and DBA courses. It can be strongly recommended as an essential faculty library purchase, as well as a useful tool for individuals interested in having such a guide to the subject at hand′ - Professor Malcolm Warner, Emeritus Fellow, Wolfson College and Judge Business School, University of Cambridge `This important new Handbook brings together for the first time a collection of major contributions on macro-organizational behaviour. This area of study is concerned with the ways in which the people who inhabit organizations make sense of their situations, contributing to the distinctive character of those organizations through their actions and struggles. The conventional literature, artificially divided between micro organizational behaviour and organization theory, has under-explored this obvious conjunction between people and organizations. Stewart Clegg and Cary Cooper perform a great service in helping to make good the deficiency′ - John Child, Professor of Commerce, Birmingham Business School `Thorough and comprehensive. Thoughtful critique and new insights′ - Chris Argyris, James B. Conant Professor, Emeritus, Harvard University In this second volume of The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Behavior, the focus is on macro-organizational behavior, revealing ways in which the person and group affect the organization. Chapters are written by eminent and upcoming scholars in the field, each presenting on the major issues in organizational behavior as seen with a macro-lens. The Handbook is divided into three parts, the first introducing and framing the field; the second part considering the various organizational processes involved, including learning, teamwork, identity and power, among others, while finally Part Three introduces organizing on a macro-scale, covering topics such as organizational change, design governance and globalization. The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Behavior: Macro Approaches is an essential resource for researchers and students across management and organization studies.
When I received the review copy I was rather excited. . . the book as a collection of research papers that, in themselves, are very interesting, and provide a fast-track into the literature of the subject in question. . . it is a worthwhile purchase to support thinking on entrepreneurship and innovation in a world where the sustainability agenda is increasingly becoming the agenda for inventors, entrepreneurs and those who fund them or invest in their companies. . . All the papers are well written and scholarly. . . A particularly strong feature of the chapters is the range of sources quoted at the end of each chapter. These references provide pathways into many different literatures that might save much time for subsequent researchers. Lorraine Warren, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research In recent years our understanding of corporate sustainability has moved from exploitation to exploration, from corporate environmental management to sustainable entrepreneurship, and from efficiency to innovation. Yet current trends indicate the need for radical innovation via entrepreneurial start-ups or new ventures within existing corporations despite difficulties with the financing and marketing of such efforts. Presenting both conceptual and empirical research, this fascinating book addresses how we can combine environmental and social sustainability with economic sustainability in order to produce innovative new business models. The international cast of contributors addresses the wide range of issues in the balance between growth and environmental concerns. The first five chapters discuss various aspects of sustainable entrepreneurship. This is followed by two chapters that look at innovation within existing firms. Innovation is not successful until it finds a customer, so the two chapters that follow delve into the marketing aspects of business-to-consumer and business-to-business settings. The book closes with a broad discussion of the evolution and future of the research agenda into the intersection of sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship. Academics, students, business professionals, and NGOs will find this volume enlightening and useful.
This contributed volume combines conceptual and strategic research articles dealing with the "why" and "to what end" of sustainable operations in humanitarian logistics, as well as operational research contributions regarding the "how" from the United Nations as well as from researchers and organizations from different countries (Germany, Australia, Singapore, Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Jordan). The target audience primarily comprises research experts, decision makers and practitioners in the field, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.
To what extent can competition between companies encourage innovations in sustainability that have the potential to solve some of the world's major challenges? Using a series of case studies, this book pits closely related competitors against each other to examine the progress in and obstacles to the evolution of sustainable innovations in energy efficiency, solar power, electric vehicles and hybrids, wind energy, healthy eating, and agricultural productivity. It delves into the efforts of Tesla Motors to bring about a revolution in personal transportation, and the challenges Toyota and General Motors (GM) confront in commercializing hybrids. It explores the movement to healthy food by cereal companies General Mills and Kellogg's, and depicts the battles between Whole Foods and Walmart for the world's palate. By examining the experiences that particular businesses have had with sustainable innovation, this insightful book reflects upon lessons learned and encourages readers to think carefully about the challenges that lie ahead.
We live in an increasingly global economy in which the effects of shrunken economies, broadened communication, and widespread meteorological incidents associated with climate change are leaving virtually no one untouched. As a result, a working knowledge of concepts such as the triple bottom line and sustainability, have become mandatory. Systems-thinking is foundational for grasping these concepts and is based on trans-disciplinary theories deriving in part from biology, physics, economics, philosophy, computer science, engineering, geography, and other sciences. Specifically it is the study of systems, including all life forms, climate phenomena, and even in human learning and organizational processes, that regulate themselves through feedback. The media and the public have become savvy to corporate green-washing, and government regulation, already pervasive in Europe, is imminent in the United States. Business practices are a subsystem of human activity, which is itself a subsystem of the biosphere we all depend upon for services, such as clean air and water, sufficient soils to produce food, and moderate weather. Corporate sustainability practices are in the midst of becoming a required aspect of the social license to conduct business, and the use of a systems framework provides a coherent and eminently sensible way to comprehend the structure and logic that underlies this transition. Green business efforts and stakeholder initiatives undertaken by those without the requisite understanding of sustainability and the trends related to it in the world of commerce risk adverse press, activist pressure, regulatory constraint, added expense, reduced revenue, and lowered valuation. This book offers a practical, relevant, and easily grasped overview of sustainability issues and the systems logic that informs them, supported by empirical research and applied to corporate rationales, decision-making, and business processes. Intended for business professionals seeking concise, reliable, and current knowledge and trends, it will support them in leading their organizations' corporate sustainability, social responsibility, and citizenship efforts so they can remain competitive and successful.
