The strategic implications of sustainability in strategy textbooks

Underlying every strategic management textbook are numerous assumptions about the nature of the economic system, society and the environment. One assumption that seems saliently absent from management textbooks is sustainability. In view of the detailed critique of the design of the MBA set out in Bubna-Litic and Benn (2003) it is likely that a systematic study of strategy textbooks will reveal other similar omissions. This study analyses a number of strategy textbooks exploring how they engage with questions of sustainability. The findings show that although the increase in the ethical self-consciousness of environmental economics is visible, so too is a narrow view of sustainability

A commentary on decision-making and organisational legitimacy in the Risk Society

Key concepts of Risk Society as elaborated by Ulrich Beck and others (Beck, U., 1992 (trans. Mark Ritter). The Risk Society. Sage Publications, London. Beck, U., 1995, Ecological Politics in the Age of Risk. Polity Press, Cambridge. Beck, U., 1999, World Risk Society. Polity Press, Cambridge. Giddens, A., 1994, Beyond Left and Right. Polity Press, Oxford. Beck, U., Giddens, A. and Lash, S., 1994, Reflexive Modernisation: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Stanford University Press, Stanford. Beck, U., Bonss, W. and Lau, C., 2003, Theory, Culture & Society 2003, Sage, London, 20(2), pp. 1-33.) are illuminated though a case study of managed environmental risk, namely the hexachlorobenzene (HCB) controversy at Botany, a southeast suburb of Sydney. We observe the way multiple stakeholder decision-making plays out a number of Risk Society themes, including the emergence of 'unbounded risk' and of highly 'individualised' and 'reflexive' risk communities. Across several decades, the events of the HCB story support Risk Society predictions of legitimacy problems faced by corporations as they harness technoscientific support for innovation in their products and industrial processes without due recognition of social and environmental risk. Tensions involving identity, trust and access to expert knowledge advance our understanding of democratic 'sub-political' decision-making and ways of distributing environmental risk. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Organisational learning as an emerging process: the generative role of digital tools in informal learning practices

 Increasing attention is paid to organisational learning, with the success of contemporary organisations strongly contingent on their ability to learn and grow. Importantly, informal learning is argued to be even more significant than formal learning initiatives. Given the widespread use of digital technologies in the workplace, what requires further attention is how digital technologies (eg, massive open online courses—MOOC) enable informal learning processes. Drawing from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory, in this paper we advance a conceptual model for examining this important topic. The two dimensional matrix and the micro-level description of informal learning activities presented provide a framework for both further research on technology-mediated practices for informal learning, as well as the design of formative contexts for learning to occur

Charismatic leadership: Beyond love and hate and toward a sense of belonging?

Developing previous work on charismatic leadership by Boas Shamir and Ken, we investigate the contention that followers of charismatic leaders have an emotional connection with that leader in the form of a “sense of belonging” and links to community. We therefore investigate whether there is any evidence of a sense of belonging when people describe those they judge to be charismatic. Using a mixed-methods aesthetic narrative approach we are able to supply empirical support for the existence of such a relationship, and to extend the findings of previous studies by incorporating the connection that the leader has with the community in general as an important factor in the leader-follower relationship