Exploring pro-environmental behaviors of consumers: An analysis of contextual factors, attitude, and behaviors

By including the context within which consumers' pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors are formed, this research provides a comprehensive delineation of the process that leads from context to behavior. This is the first study to examine context factors as subjective perceptions made by consumers about aspects of their own situation, specifically the extent to which they perceive having more or less time, money, and power available. In contrast to previous research considering one type of behavior (such as recycling), this study recognizes pro-environmental behavior as a heterogeneous, multi-dimensional construct, and includes both public and private sphere behaviors. Pro-environmental business managers and policy-makers may not be in a position to impact objective contextual factors that consumers face, however, they may influence perceptions and attitudes. This study identifies specifically which variables may be of more interest to modulate, so as to increase pro-environmental behavior

The role of leadership in creating virtuous and compassionate organizations:Narratives of Benevolent leadership in an Anatolian tiger

This study explores the role and potential of benevolent leadership in creating virtuous and compassionate organizations. A number of small and medium enterprises in Turkey, also called “The Anatolian Tigers”, have been experimenting with new ways of incorporating care and compassion at work. The study uses narrative inquiry to explore how benevolent leadership enhances collective performance and wellbeing in Anatolian Tigers. The paper reviews and integrates four streams of research associated with creating common good in organizations: Spirituality, morality, positivity, and community, and links each of these elements to creating virtuous and compassionate organizations through narrative inquiry. The paper proposes that benevolent leadership can contribute to the long-term health and sustainability of organizations through its four elements: spiritual depth, ethical sensitivity, positive engagement, and community responsiveness

The supply and demand sides of corruption:Canadian extractive companies in Africa

With the rapid expansion of Canadian investment in extractives around the world, it is perhaps not surprising that Canada’s reputation as a low-corruption country has faltered: Canada currently ranks ninth internationally in Transparency International (TI)’s corruption perception index, down from sixth in 2010, and sixth, down from first (i.e. best), in 2009 in TI’s Bribe Payers index. This article presents the preliminary findings of our ongoing research regarding both the demand side (that is, the request for bribes, principally by foreign officials) and the supply side (that is, the giving of bribes, principally by corporations) of corruption. We have examined Canadian mining companies operating in Ghana and Burkina Faso and have identified 10 “tensions” which need to be acknowledged in public policy formulation. We note that Canada is implementing policies to reduce supply-side corruption (e.g. by adopting anti-bribery legislation and guidelines for corporate social responsibility) but recommend that more be done, especially oversight of anti-corruption laws by Parliament. We also recommend that mining companies undertake ex-ante corruption risk assessment and develop proactive corporate anti-corruption policies. And, finally, while host countries have anti-corruption laws, implementation is weak. Global affairs could usefully support stronger parliamentary oversight in these countries

Management learning at the speed of life:Designing reflective, creative, and collaborative spaces for millenials

This paper introduces the concept of "management learning at the speed of life" as a metaphor to inspire millenials. Millenials may face three major problems in relation to management learning: lack of concentration, lack of engagement, and lack of socialization. Management learning at the speed of life addresses these potential problems through three dimensions: reflective, creative, and collaborative learning. This paper illustrates the benefits of reflective, creative, and collaborative spaces for millenials using practices from leadership and personal development courses that were offered over seven years in Canada, Turkey, and the UK. These courses incorporated the latest technology that brought the course activities up to the speed of life

Spirals of Spirituality: A Qualitative Study Exploring Dynamic Patterns of Spirituality in Turkish Organizations

This paper explores organizational spirituality, uncovers it as spiralling dynamics of both positive and negative potentialities, and proposes how leaders can shape these dynamics to improve the human conditions at the workplace. Based on case study of five Turkish organizations and drawing on the emerging discourse on spirituality in organizations literature, this study provides a deeper understanding of how dynamic patterns of spirituality operate in organizations. Insights from participant observation, organizational data, and semi-structured interviews yield three key themes of organizational spirituality: reflexivity, connectivity, and responsibility. Each of these themes has been found to be connected to upward spirals (inspiration, engagement, and calling) and downward spirals (incivility, silence, and fatigue). The study provides a detailed and holistic account of the individual and organizational processes through which spirituality is enacted both positively and negatively, exploring its dynamic and dualistic nature, as embodied in the fabric of everyday life and culture

Discourses of Collective Spirituality and Turkish Islamic Ethics:An Inquiry into Transcendence, Connectedness, and Virtuousness in Anatolian Tigers

Based on case studies and qualitative interviews conducted with 40 stakeholders in five SMEs, or so called Anatolian tigers, in Turkey, this article has explored what collective spirituality and Turkish Islamic business ethics entail and how they shape organizational values using diverse stakeholder perspectives. The study has revealed six emergent discourses around collective spirituality and Islamic business ethics: Flying with both wings; striving to transcend egos; being devoted to each other; treating people as whole persons; upholding an ethics of compassion; and leaving a legacy for future generations. These discourses are organized around three themes of collective spirituality, respectively: Transcendence, connectedness, and virtuousness

Patterns of brand choice when consumers follow a dynamic satiation process: When does switching indicate satiation?

Our objective is to contribute to the variety seeking behavior research by: (1) providing managerial implications for optimal product positioning; (2) proposing a method to estimate the well known Dynamic Attribute Satiation (DAS) model (McAlister 1982) on purchase data; and (3) investigating(via simulation) the relative performance (i.e., predictive effectiveness) of the DAS against the well known stochastic brand choice models. In investigating the optimal positioning implications of variety seeking behavior, we develop a new attribute-based stochastic model which is consistent with much past research. Based on intuition, one might expect increased variety seeking to imply that firms should increase the distance between their products in an attribute space. In fact, we show here via a simple scenario that this effect does occur for relatively low-share brands. But just the opposite effect holds for relatively high-share brands. That is, we show that variety seeking behavior generates a desire for more differentiation among low-share brands, and a desire for less differentiation among high share brands. A two stage aggregate level procedure is proposed to estimate the DAS on purchase data. First, preference rankings, derived from purchase data, are fed into LINMAP (Srinivasan and Shocker 1973), which provides estimates for attribute ideal and importance levels. Given those estimates, we search for that value of the retention level which maximizes the likelihood of the observed purchase data. Various statistics confirm the effectiveness of our procedure. We assess the predictive effectiveness of the DAS against six stochastic choice models by the Bayesian Cross Validated Likelihood method (Rust and Schmittlein 1985). Various SAS GLM runs confirm the following results. For the various samples employed in this research, the DAS is outperformed by the simple stochastic models on data generated by the DAS process! This finding is due not only to the stochastic models\u27, particularly the Beta Binomial\u27s, success in estimation but also to their superior ability in representing the various DAS processes. We conclude: from stochastic point of view, variety seeking behavior amounts to a zero order process at the aggregate level

Spirals of Spirituality:A Qualitative Study Exploring Patterns of Spiritual Organizing

Based on case studies of five organizations and 40 qualitative interviews, we identify three key themes of organizational spirituality that capture positive patterns of spiritual organizing. The first is organizational spiritual reflexivity, which captures a shared sense of reflection across organizational members to find deeper meaning. The second is organizational spiritual connectivity, which denotes an organizational climate characterized by high quality connections and interpersonal sensitivity. The third is organizational spiritual responsibility, which represents assumed collective responsibility for the impact of the organization’s actions on the spiritual well-being of employees, customers, and other stakeholders. These three themes trigger upward spirals of inspiration, engagement, and calling respectively. However, the study also reports on negative dynamics of organizational spirituality; namely downward spirals of incivility, silence, and fatigue. When taken together, these spirals provide dynamic pictures and narratives of collective spiritual organizing; contributing to a non-linear and dynamic perspective on workplace spirituality

Drawing a canvas of career dreams and passions in life context:A visual study on self-making

Drawing on a wide range of examples of drawings, from adventurous cartoons to depictions of ‘ideal lives’, from linear mountain-climbing routes to chaotic labyrinths, we develop an understanding of career passions and dreams as ‘slices of self- making’ through imagined futures. In doing so, we explore how ideas about the human subject, and its capacities for self-making and career construction, form a basis for re-conceptualizing the role and significance of dreams and passions in understanding careers in a life context. We show how visual data can be used as a catalyst for understanding the diversity and multiplicity of passions, desires, and dreams as a means for dealing with the uncertainty of imagined futures. We argue for a visual turn in career studies based on the utility of participant drawings for a deeper understanding of the range of career dreams, passions, and desires in the overall life context