Assessing sustainability support to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)

The aim of this paper is to evaluate qualitatively the impact of sustainability support to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) where quantitative results are often difficult to appraise. Many of these organisations require sustainable business support to enable them to start or build their business concepts on sound sustainable platforms. Many SMEs are unable to quantitatively evaluate the benefit which they have received from support programmes because they are in the project planning stage or have limited financial data. Without a form of evaluation, support networks often cannot retain funding support. This paper is based on the grounded theory approach to analyse qualitative data received from participants in a sustainability support programme. Research on such programmes to SMEs is scant. This paper proposes the use of qualitative data collection and its evaluation to be considered when making the case for funding such programmes, along with quantitative data when availabl

Spiritual quotient and ethical values towards organizational sustainability

During the last decade, many organizations were collapsed and had damage their organizational sustainability reason being severe ethical crisis. One of the main reasons affecting organizational sustainability is unethical behavior in the organization. Therefore, the question arises, how this grave issue of unethical behavior of employees can be solved? This paper seeks to assess if spiritual quotient (Here after SQ) is a solution to the unethical behavior of employees and how this SQ along with ethical values can contribute towards organizational sustainability. The paper concludes that SQ is the ultimate intelligence with which people address and solve the problems associated with meaning and value. It is the intelligence that has the force to help people use their actions and lives in a wider, richer and meaning-giving context. Moreover, promoting the ethical values, most of the organizations focus on ethics training programs aimed at increasing employee’s ethical behavior in organization. Thus, the paper finally suggests that employee unethical behavior in an organization can be solved through SQ and ethical values in organization

Examining the Indian Farmer Suicides through the Social and Environmental Justice Lens

Approximately 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in India over the last decade. A majority of them are the ones who have been failed by the non- yield of genetically modified cotton per hectare and are dependent on these crops for their daily livelihood. The GM cottonseeds represent the hegemony and oppression of the farmers propelled by the globalization movement. This paper provides an understanding that the social movements against the GM seeds are in fact movements pointing towards the social and environmental injustices and seeks to understand the role adult education can play in addressing the social and environmental injustice

Can Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Ensure the Sustainable Growth of Ready Made Garments (RMG) Sector in Bangladesh

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the proceeding with duty by business work to continue the morally and keep on the enhancement of economy while increasing the personal satisfaction of the workforce and their families and also of the nearby group and society on the loose This study has been directed to investigate the considerable significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To accomplish result, research technique has relied based on information from secondary sources. This study finds the CSR practices and the practice is not well appropriately. Health problems, injured scenario increasing along with low payment of wages in RMG of Bangladesh. Also environment is polluting in the absence of proper CSR practice. Some of association attempting their best, however in the vast majority of cases association don’t know about that. Without implementation of CSR, sustainable growth is not possible in RMG sector. This study suggested that CSR practice is one and only approach to unravel the all boundaries and ensure the sustainable growth of RMG sector in Bangladesh

Corporate Goverance and Corporate Social Responsibility of Listed Companies in Nigeria

This study examined corporate governance and corporate social responsibility of companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the period 2010 - 2013. To achieve this objective, agency theory and resource dependency theory is adopted to understand the extent to which corporate governance characteristics such as board independence, board size, public ownership, foreign ownership and CEO duality impacts on corporate social responsibility disclosures of employee welfare and training, donation and community development and environmental and government policies. The data for this study were obtained from the annual reports of sampled companies and econometric tools of diagnostic test and regression analysis were used for the analysis of data. Our results suggest that there is a significant relationship between board independence, public ownership and foreign ownership on corporate social responsibility disclosures in the annual reports. However, the results also suggest no significant relationship between board size and CEO duality on corporate social responsibility disclosures in annual reports of Nigerian companies. Hence, the study concludes that corporate governance plays a major role in the disclosure of organizations social responsibility. The study also made useful recommendations on improving corporate social responsibility disclosure in annual reports. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Agency Theor

Conceptualizing of Learning Organization toward Sustaining Learning Organization Performance

Abstract A learning organization is a place where people in the organization are powerfully learning collectively and by their own to expand their knowledge and skills so that they can enhance and optimize their organizational performance at the maximum. This paper reviews the literature that leads to developing a conceptual framework of a study on the factors of learning organization towards sustaining an organization's performance in one organization in Malaysia. Based on the literature review, three main independent variables are identified, namely, learning culture, leadership and dialogue; while the dependent variable is sustainability of learning organization's performance. The study is significant to the leader in improving their organization's services and learning activities among staff toward sustaining their organization as a learning organization

DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR SCRUTINIZING STRATEGIC GREEN ORIENTATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE WITH RELEVANCE TO THE SUSTAINABILITY OF TOURISM INDUSTRY

The purpose of this paper is to review the concept of sustainability, theoretical background and strategic green orientation (SGO) to develop an in-depth understands for the benefit of organizational performance (OP). Theoretical background outlines how triple bottom line and ecological modernization viewpoints relate with SGO and OP towards the sustainability to develop a research framework. The paper discloses a series of gaps in sustainability related theories and empirical research at business organizations and recommends a quantitative research approach and method for an empirical study on SGO of business organizations in tourism industry of Sri Lanka. Proposed study expects that new relationships could be discovered and theorized. This may address identified research gaps and would contribute to the body of knowledge. The findings of proposed research could be useful to future research initiatives on green business modeling for the sustainability in terms of triple bottom line: economic, environmental, and social performance.  Article visualizations

Insertion of sustainability concepts in the maintenance strategies to achieve sustainable manufacturing

Companies adopt sustainable practices in order to improve the economic, environmental and social performance of their operations. This fact does not occur with the same intensity in maintenance operations. By adopting sustainable practices during the implementation of maintenance strategies, there will be mitigation of industrial maintenance impacts on sustainability. However, there are few studies on the integration of sustainability in maintenance activities and few companies adopt sustainable maintenance due to lack of knowledge of the subject and its benefits. This paper aims to show how the concepts of sustainability are being inserted in the maintenance strategies. For this purpose, a literature review and a systematic literature review were performed. It was verified that the concepts of sustainability are integrated into maintenance strategies by means of sustainable criteria, with emphasis on lost production cost, spare parts cost and expenditures associated with energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (economic dimension), on pollutant emission due to energy consumption during machining/manufacturing (environmental dimension) and on health and safety at work (social dimension). This paper contributes to the dissemination of the theme and motivates the companies to implement sustainable maintenance

Factors in the acquisition of an ethical training

Society in general demands an ethical behavior in business world. The research problem of the paper is to analyze whether higher education institutions of business contribute to ethical decisions making in students through a specific training approach based on practical methodologies that take into account students’ personal characteristics, which may affect the ethical decisions making. The acquisition of knowledge should be more effective whether is based on personal characteristics