The need for new types of organisation for the new century

Commercial organisations are at the heart of our economic, political and social systems and define almost every aspect of our lives. Most organisations today operate on the modernist principles of rational bureaucracy, which diminishes the complexities of human life, and because of the perpetual quest for growth, is destroying the natural resources of the planet on which we depend for life. This essay critiques the universal, one size fits all approach of the modern organisation, suggesting it is time for a change. There are other types of organisation, such as voluntary organisations or social enterprises, offering new ways of organising society that are fairer, accepting of difference and diversity and have the potential to unleash creativity and develop relationships both within communities and with the natural environment

Can postmodernism contribute to saving the world?

As human beings, our future sustainability could be under threat if we continue to ‘trash the planet’. Sustainable development, suggested as a way of addressing the environmental, economic and social problems ahead, has fundamental implications for the governance of modern society. In a complex system, such as the Earth, linear analysis and rational planning are no longer considered appropriate, and new ways of understanding change are needed. Post modernism offers an alternative approach and a different way of perceiving the world and its problems. It is however, criticised as almost useless because its plurality of competing dialogues is said to undermine the basis for meaningful change. Revisionary post modernism may provide a way forward. This paper examines a theoretical approach to exploring discourses around sustainable development in non environmental, voluntary organisations using revisionary post modernism, based on a belief that in complex systems small changes can bring about major change and that voluntary organisations, working at a local level, can bring about change in their communities. It highlights how a post modern approach could contribute to securing a more sustainable future, by helping us understand the importance of local narratives in co-creating the future

Sensemaking for sustainable development : complexity thinking as a behaviour change approach

Sustainable development, intended as a concept for social modernisation on a global scale, focussing on the triple bottom line of social equity, environmental quality and economic prosperity can be seen as vague and lacking relevance. The UK Government, aware that the achievement of sustainable development required behaviour change by all sectors of society, saw the voluntary sector, good at changing hearts and minds, as having the potential to encourage behaviour change at a local level. Linear approaches to behaviour change based on control and predictability, are challenged by complex problems like sustainable development, and furthermore, their hierarchal approach may be unattractive to the voluntary sector. Behaviour change for sustainable development may require a new approach to change and complexity thinking, enacted through Communities of Practice, offers a new way of thinking or sense making that overcomes the barriers, builds trust, and encourages shared learning to support behaviour change and innovation. Complexity thinking is a non-hierarchical approach that encourages learning from each other by bringing different stakeholders together to share knowledge. As well as encouraging the distribution of power and authority, it provides the flexibility for agents to develop their own locally appropriate interventions and as such may appeal to the voluntary sector. This research explored the potential of complexity thinking to encourage cognitive restructuring and increase voluntary sector support for behaviour change and utilise the capacity of the sector to think differently about the choices facing us

Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME): SIP Report SIP Report for Sheffield Business School

In 2014, Sheffield Business School (SBS) established a PRME Group to advance our PRME agenda. It undertook a 3-year project (2014 to 2017) to embed PRME values and principles in working practices and academic development. Our first SIP report occurred one year into this project. This, our second SIP report, is a timely review of both our approach to PRME, and the progress we have made over the last two years. • In Part 1 of this report, we start by providing an executive summary of our progress in this reporting period against the six PRME principles together with our recommendations for the next reporting period. We then introduce readers to Sheffield Business School, its three departments, the approach it took to embedding PRME and the way we are reporting on our progress. • In Part 2, we present the high-level review of how successful we have been in securing recognition of PRME amongst our staff. In 2017 we conducted a survey amongst our staff, the SBS 2017 PRME Survey, to collect information on levels of engagement with PRME principles in research, knowledge transfer and teaching activities. • In Part 3, we report in more detail against each of the goals we set in our previous SIP report. • In Part 4, we provide further information on how individual staff have developed their academic courses and research activities. • In Part 5, we highlight the FUSE project that brings together professional services staff to support charity projects. • In Part 6, we conclude the report with recommendations for the next PRME reporting period (Dec 2017 - Nov 2019)

Principles for Responsible Management Education, 2015 SIP Report by Sheffield Business School

In this first report, we demonstrate (through examples of practice) Sheffield Business School's current situation in relation to the six PRME principles. The report also sets out how we established a PRME Group and strategy to initiate and embed the principles in our learning and teaching, research activities, professional services and community engagement work. Finally, we outline our goals and recommendations for the next reporting period (2016/17)

Developing a critical appreciative process to review frameworks for social enterprise education

The object of this paper is to design a process for the development of curricula to advance social enterprise education using the lens of critical management studies (CMS). It is motivated by ongoing work to develop a new award in Cooperative Business and Responsible Management as well as ongoing work to develop the use of Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice (Ridley-Duff & Bull, 2011; 2016)

Understanding sustainable development in the voluntary sector: a complex problem

Sustainable development, a concept that emerged as we began to understand the negative impacts of environmental challenges, such as pollution and climate change, on human prosperity and social equality, was seen as offering a way of preserving the natural systems that sustain human life on Earth whilst continuing to support economic and social development. As a concept, however, it presents many challenges, both in its interpretation and in its application and one of the challenges is the requirement for behaviour change from all sectors of society, including the voluntary sector. There is an assumption by the UK government that voluntary organisations, as trusted agents of change, are well placed to help the poorest cope with the disproportionate impacts of economic and environmental unsustainability and that the voluntary sector should be working with local stakeholders to promote behaviour change at a local level. This research identified that limited understanding of the concept of sustainable development and inappropriate communication and interaction with the UK government, both nationally and locally, acted to inhibit voluntary sector engagement in change. Part of the problem could be that traditional linear approaches to behaviour change, based on clear cause and effect relationships and pre-determined outcomes, are not appropriate when addressing complex problems like sustainable development, which involve multiple stakeholders, both human and non human. The encouragement of behaviour change for sustainable development may require a new and different approach. This thesis concludes that Communities of Practice, a change approach that is sympathetic to the principles of complexity thinking, offers an alternative approach to behaviour change that could accommodate the complexity of sustainable development and additionally, has many features that would overcome the barriers to voluntary sector engagement. This type of non-hierarchical approach has the potential to encourage not only the voluntary sector but all stakeholders in a local community to work together to develop sustainability initiatives that are appropriate to the local circumstances

Redesigning the curriculum to incorporate PRME: Working together

This presentation focuses on a School-wide approach to incorporating the Principles of Responsible Management within a large Business School curriculum. It will highlight the collaborative process involved in the redesigning in the curriculum across all the subject areas as well as offer some specific examples

Developing a critical appreciative process to review frameworks for social enterprise education

The object of this paper is to design a process for the development of curricula to advance social enterprise education using the lens of critical management studies (CMS). It is motivated by ongoing work to develop a new award in Cooperative Business and Responsible Management at [University] as well as ongoing work to develop the use of Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice (Ridley-Duff & Bull, 2011; 2016). Five projects have influenced the authors’ conceptualisations of social enterprise and responsible management. In this paper, we set out the rationale for taking a critical approach to curriculum development based on critiquing a framework developed by the ARIADNE project (Moreau and Mertens, 2013). We develop an argument for comparing it to four other frameworks that have competed to shape our thinking. Whilst acknowledging the potential danger of ‘closure’ through the development of curricula that converge on normative values and principles, our goal is the development and application of a critical appreciative process that ensures any normative consensus is destabilised to ensure that new curricula acknowledge where a dissensus exists. Guided by new research on ‘critical appreciation’ that explores the interaction between social systems and personal lifeworlds, we frame ‘competencies’ as system imperatives in social enterprise education, and ‘knowledge’, ‘skills’ and ‘attitudes’ as proxies for the lifeworlds that it aims to create. The paper sets out how critical appreciation provides a process for comparing and contrasting selected frameworks to deconstruct the discourse that underpins the values and principles in each implied curriculum. This process is designed to encourage the authors to re-examine their assumptions as they co-construct a new curriculum. By designing a process for deconstructing and comparing multiple frameworks for social enterprise education, we advance CMS by enabling institutions, academics and students to: 1) reclaim choice in how they shape and develop social enterprise courses; 2) develop a theory of social enterprise education that is reflexive regarding its impact on curriculum development and which encourages andragogy over pedagogy. The value of this paper lies is the process developed for the active construction of new courses on social enterprise that embed the perspective of critical management studies in their development. The paper also offers a new application of ‘critical appreciative processes (CAPs) in the field of management education