Enabling political legitimacy and conceptual integration for climate change adaptation research within an agricultural bureaucracy: a systemic inquiry

The value of using systems approaches, for situations framed as ‘super wicked’, is examined from the perspective of research managers and stakeholders in a state-based climate change adaptation (CCA) program (CliChAP). Polycentric drivers influencing the development of CCA research pre-2010 in Victoria, Australia are reflected on, using Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to generate a boundary critique of CCA research as a human activity system. We experienced the complexity of purpose with research practices pulling in different directions, reflected on the appropriateness of agricultural bureaucracies’ historical new public management (NPM) practices, and focused on realigning management theory with emerging demands for adaptation research skills and capability. Our analysis conceptualised CliChAP as a subsystem, generating novelty in a wider system, concerned with socio-ecological co-evolution. Constraining/enabling conditions at the time dealing with political legitimacy and conceptual integration were observed as potential catalysts for innovation in research management towards better handling of uncertainty as a social process using systemic thinking in practice (StiP)

Understanding Communication of Sustainability Reporting: Application of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies that are implicit in the standalone sustainability reporting of the top 24 companies of the Fortune 500 Global. We adopt Bormann’s (Q J Speech 58(4):396–407, 1972) SCT framework to study the rhetorical situation and how corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) messages can be communicated to the audience (public). The SCT concepts in the sustainability reporting’s communication are subject to different types of legitimacy strategies that are used by corporations as a validity and legitimacy claim in the reports. A content analysis has been conducted and structural coding schemes have been developed based on the literature. The schemes are applied to the SCT model which recognizes the symbolic convergent processes of fantasy among communicators in a Society. The study reveals that most of the sample companies communicate fantasy type and rhetorical vision in their corporate sustainability reporting. However, the disclosure or messages are different across locations and other taxonomies of the SCT framework. This study contributes to the current CSR literature about how symbolic or fantasy understandings can be interpreted by the users. It also discusses the persuasion styles that are adopted by the companies for communication purposes. This study is the theoretical extension of the SCT. Researchers may be interested in further investigating other online communication paths, such as human rights reports and director’s reports

An Enigma Set to Remain a Fizzer? On the Absence of Social and Environmental Reporting in New Zealand

The uptake of sustainability reporting in New Zealand has been pretty dismal. While a few companies produced social and/or environmental reports in the early 1990s, and the practice diffused a little during the 2000s, New Zealand remains an outlier with the vast bulk of New Zealand’s largest organisations still not producing such reports. Early commentators noted that the practice was “desperately seeking volunteers” (Gilkison, 1998) and with reporting rates languishing the practice was still considered to be “starting behind” by the KPMG international surveys in 2011, 2013 and 2015. This study aims to gain insights into why reporting has not flourished in New Zealand, despite its early start, and despite considerable efforts on the part of not only those few organisations that have reported, but also other business intermediaries dedicated to promoting sustainable business practices including reporting. We map the sustainable business field and identify influential players. We undertake semi-structured interviews with two Chief Executives of New Zealand sustainable business intermediaries (SBIs) and with senior managers of eleven of their reporting and non-reporting members. We use neo-institutional theory (NIT) to frame and analyse our findings. We find that reporting rationales identified in the literature and promoted by the business intermediaries both motivate and cause resistance to reporting. Reporting seems far from an inevitable outcome for organisations engaging with sustainability in New Zealand, and while the SBIs appear to facilitate weak isomorphic pressure, the absence of any coercive pressure from either them or other external forces such as the Government suggests social and environmental reporting seems set to remain a practice undertaken by few

Ramping Up Resistance: Corporate Sustainable Development and Academic Research

We argue the need for academics to resist and challenge the hegemonic discourse of sustainable development within the corporate context. Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory provides a useful framework for recognizing the complex nature of sustainable development and a way of conceptualizing counter-hegemonies. Published empirical research which analyzes sustainable development discourse within corporate reports is examined to consider how the hegemonic discourse is constructed. Embedded assumptions within the hegemonic construction are identified including sustainable development as primarily about economic development, progress, growth, profitability, and ‘responsibly’ managed levels of resource depletion. We call for multiple voices in the discursive field to debate and to resist closure, and highlight the possibilities for academic researchers to actively resist the hegemonic construction. Specifically we advocate: vigilance and awareness; critical and reflective analyses; challenge and resistance based on other frames of reference; and strategies for communicating both within and outside the academy

Organisations with a Buddhist Ethos – A path to sustainability?

This paper investigates how organisations with a Buddhist ethos make sense of different institutional logics in pursuing sustainability. Interviews and documentary evidence from two not-for-profit and two forprofit organisations in Sri Lanka are analysed. The founders and current leaders of all organisations are found to play a key role in promoting a Buddhist ethos. A more spiritual, systemic, and holistic approach to sustainability was seen in the not-for-profit organisations. The for-profits tended towards a stronger entity focus, evidencing a more managerially-oriented approach with both substantive and symbolic actions. Core practices of the not-for-profit organisations were more aligned with sustainability and were predominantly influenced by a Buddhist logic, in tandem with a community logic. The for-profits manifested a combination of Buddhist, community, and business logics in their sustainability practices. Buddhist logic primarily linked with strategic decisions and community relations, whereas usiness logic influenced ethical business conforming to standards and regulations.Keywords: Buddhist ethos, for-profit organisations, not-for-profit organisations, Sri Lanka, sustainabilit

Cinderella in Babylon: the discourse of housekeeping in Hotel Babylon

This paper looks at the representations of housekeeping and housekeepers in the popular television series Hotel Babylon. The paper discusses some possible effects of the impression constructed of this area of hotel employment and suggests that the image of a hospitality career in housekeeping is undermined and undervalued by this construction. The paper takes a reflective approach and looks at how language and image in the ‘Hotel Babylon’ series are constructed regarding the housekeeping department and workers. The paper posits that image of housekeeping work and those employees is one of mainly migrant workers, sexualized victims and denigrated employees. The paper goes to suggest that housekeeping is in fact often the largest and most important department in hotels as the majority of their income is derived from the sale of rooms. The paper argues that it is ironic that the employees responsible for the largest revenue generating area of the hotel are so strongly denigrated, when in fact they should be recognised as key employees. In terms of hotel and hospitality generally, this study suggests more fundamental concerns about sustaining service quality and employment relationships in a tight labour market

Cinderella in Babylon: the discourse of housekeeping in Hotel Babylon

This paper looks at the representations of housekeeping and housekeepers in the popular television series Hotel Babylon. The paper discusses some possible effects of the impression constructed of this area of hotel employment and suggests that the image of a hospitality career in housekeeping is undermined and undervalued by this construction. The paper takes a reflective approach and looks at how language and image in the ‘Hotel Babylon’ series are constructed regarding the housekeeping department and workers. The paper posits that image of housekeeping work and those employees is one of mainly migrant workers, sexualized victims and denigrated employees. The paper goes to suggest that housekeeping is in fact often the largest and most important department in hotels as the majority of their income is derived from the sale of rooms. The paper argues that it is ironic that the employees responsible for the largest revenue generating area of the hotel are so strongly denigrated, when in fact they should be recognised as key employees. In terms of hotel and hospitality generally, this study suggests more fundamental concerns about sustaining service quality and employment relationships in a tight labour market