Building sustainability on deep values through mindfulness nurturing

To effectively pursue sustainability, companies need to develop an awareness of the importance of social and environmental objectives in addition to economic. To achieve this, they need to promote a set of shared values in their strategy and cultural change which align global sustainability with organisational performance. To assist organisations with this process and thus identify and nurture their members’ underpinning values, we present the Organisational Presence Model including a Real Dialogue Methodology. We draw on Lewin’s participative approach to change and the deep concept of Mindfulness related to Buddhist precepts, while contributing with a way to initiate Mindfulness nurturing in business context, facilitating its acceptance and practice by organizational members. In our study case we find signs of positive effects of the model in sustainability pursuing. The new strategy has been built aligned with resulting values, that are also perceived by organizational members as inspirational, generating motivation and helping the effective communication that integrates the strategic objectives in the economic, social and environmental aspects

After Paris: Changing Corporate Behaviour to Achieve Sustainability

Purpose  The 2015 UN Paris Agreement on Climate Change set challenging sustainable development targets. The aim of this article is to examine how key organisational barriers to implementing these targets can be overcome. In particular, it draws attention to the necessity of changing corporate behaviour so that it supports rather than undermines sustainability and enables organisations to abandon profitability as their paramount goal in favour of a Triple Bottom Line approach of People, Planet and Profit.  Design/Methodology/Approach  The article uses the organisational change literature to examine key barriers faced by organisations in pursuing the UN’s sustainability goals. It draws attention to the current low level of success of most change initiatives, the need for greater stakeholder involvement in identifying how sustainability should be achieved, the development of increased change competency in organisations, and the need for more long-term, stable and consistent leadership.   Findings  The article concludes that most organisations will encounter severe difficulties in aligning their corporate behaviour with the need to achieve sustainability. In order to change successfully, they will have to create a virtuous circle of change that comprises Readiness for Change, Leadership, Participation, Goals and Tenacity. Though it is the role of their leaders to ensure that the available options and choices are identified, organisations will not be able to do this without the full participation of all the stakeholders who represent People, Planet and Profit.  Limitations  The article is based on a review of the literature on organisational change, most of which has little to say about sustainability. Therefore, though what it says about change in general is based on a great deal of theoretical and empirical evidence amassed over many decades, its applicability to sustainability has still to be empirically tested.   Implications  Regardless of its limitations, this article does indicate that unless current corporate behaviour changes, it is likely to impose severe restrictions on organisations’ ability to achieve sustainability. The article also identifies the main barriers to changing corporate behaviour and how these might be overcome.   Contribution  The article represents an attempt to examine key obstacles that most organisations will face in pursuing sustainability and how, by drawing on a wide range of stakeholders, these might be overcome

The Origins of Lewin's Three-Step Model of Change

At the time of his death in 1947, Kurt Lewin was seen as one of the foremost psychologists of his day. He is now best known for his Three Step Model of Change. However, this has been criticised for its ‘simplicity’ and it has even been suggested that Lewin ‘never developed such a model’, yet this ignores its links to the rest of Lewin’s work. Surprisingly, there appears to have been no rigorous attempt to understand the connection between Lewin’s early work on field theory and his later work on social and organisational change. In addressing this gap in the Lewin literature, this article will show not only that the Three Step Model of Change is far from being simplistic, but also that it was a well-thought-out approach to change based on his development of field theory. The main difference between the two is one of nomenclature rather than substance

The Role of Alfred J. Marrow and the Harwood Manufacturing Corporation in the Advancement of OD

The Harwood Manufacturing Corporation began its life in the garment-trade sweatshops of New York at the end of the 19th century, and ended its independent existence in the sweatshops of Honduras and Costa Rica at the end of the 20th century. Inbetween, under the influence of Kurt Lewin and Alfred Marrow, it became seen as a beacon of progressive management: the place where the values, tools and philosophy of the Organization Development (OD) movement were trialled, extended and established. Harwood laid the foundations of the group-orientated OD which emerged in the 1950s and shaped the more system-wide and integrated approach to OD that came to the fore in the 1970s. As such it left a lasting legacy which has been institutionalised in current OD practices and values

Kurt Lewin: 70 Years On

First paragraph: In introducing this Special Issue devoted to evaluating the continuing influence of Kurt Lewin, we begin by briefly examining his life. This is followed by a more detailed examination of the conceptual roots of field theory, which is the foundation for his approach to change. We then discuss Lewin’s commitment to creating a better world, which provided the underpinning motivation for all his work. The editorial concludes by discussing how the four articles in this Special Issue build on, develop and demonstrate the continuing relevance of Lewin’s work

Bonding and Spreading: Co-Creative Relationships and Interaction with Consumers in South Korea's Indie Music Industry

Purpose: Although social media proficiency and use are key business and marketing practices in today's digital environment, research has failed to offer sufficient insights into what drives small firms to use social media and how they vitalise co-creative social media environments with consumers. In response, we conducted a qualitative research study to examine how small firms utilise social media to interact and build bonds with consumers. These bonds become an important tool in the development of successful, profitable businesses and marketing practices in the digital age.  Design/methodology/approach: To examine how small firms use social media to engage with consumers and vice versa, we utilised a case-study approach and collected qualitative data by conducting semi-structured interviews.  Findings: Our results showed that the small firms in this research seek to establish relationships and facilitate interactions with their core consumers in order to co-create value. In particular, our data demonstrate that producers engage in two distinctive practices: bonding (i.e. cultivating emotional ties with music fans) and spreading (i.e. encouraging expressive circulation by fans). Altogether, our findings indicate that the representative firms in this research use social media to develop synergistic relationships with consumers and to tap into the collective energy of consumers in their business environments.  Originality/value: We show that small companies use social media to establish relationships and interact with fans in order to co-create value and vitalise collective consumption, engagement and participation. The case blurs the traditional distinction between production and consumption and suggests that the value of goods is a social creation, not merely a manufactured product

Reimagining Organisational Change Leadership

Reimagining organisational change leadership orthodoxy requires revisiting theseminal work of Kurt Lewin and James M. Burns. Being the 20thcentury mostinfluential organisational change and leadership scholars, both radicallyreimagined their respective fields. However, often misinterpreted, misunderstoodand even misrepresented, their true recommendations were largely ignored. In thisarticle we discuss why this is so. Despite three decades of transformation andorganisational change leadership discourse, leadership is still in crisis. Workingtowards an alternative to the current orthodoxy, we reimagine organisationalchange leadership as a utilitarian consequentialist process

Mobilising and organising for large scale change in healthcare: 'The Right Prescription: A Call to Action on the use of antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia'

This study sought to explore the use of a mobilising and organising methodology as an approach to large scale change. We have chosen as an example of a mobilising and organising approach to change in action, the work of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement to support the Department of Health Quality Improvement Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme, through acting as an enabler for a work stream which focuses on the prescribing of antipsychotic medication in people with dementia - part of the medicines management QIPP work stream. The aim of this study is to identify key components, and areas of achievement, within the call to action, to tell the story of how this approach has evolved to respond to the challenges inherent within the English NHS, to identify how this approach might be utilised by others and to identify lessons for the future implementation of such an approach within the public secto

Market Legitimation in Countercultural Market Change

Drawing on concepts of institutional work, legitimacy, and institutional logics, we investigate why countercultural markets experience institutional change and the actions institutional work market actors perform to inform institutional logics and ensure the legitimacy of countercultural markets. Although previous research suggests market changes and disruption, little attention has been paid to markets that originate from different institutional backgrounds, changes in the market experience in relation to its legitimization, and institutional work to attain legitimacy. The case of indie music in South Korea illustrates the evolution of a cultural market from the introduction of its ethos, the crisis caused by legitimacy pressures, and the transformation of the market. Using data gathered through in-depth interviews with indie labels and music consumers in South Korea, and archival sources, our research illuminates the source of market struggle and theorizes approaches that market actors perform to overcome the struggle