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Book part
Publication date: 25 July 2024

Jonathon Mackay

This paper explores sustainability within supply chain management and its link towards resilience through the lens of ethics. The wicked problem of sustainability impacts supply…

Abstract

This paper explores sustainability within supply chain management and its link towards resilience through the lens of ethics. The wicked problem of sustainability impacts supply chains and society at large, and the ability of supply chains to remain viable in the future is based on the sustainability of business practices. The paper argues that a substantive proportion of sustainability mechanisms (such as the Triple Bottom Line approach and codes of conducts) can be viewed within the ethical paradigm of deontology, whereby the morality of an action is based on adherence to rules. However, there are numerous critiques of such approaches and their success in creating more sustainable practices. Therefore, the paper proposes there is a need for systems thinking approaches to be incorporated into the exploration of the link between ethics, sustainability and supply chain resilience. Using two examples of social sustainability issues in Australia – modern slavery legislation and horticultural 1 worker exploitation – the paper demonstrates the utility of various systems thinking methodologies to explore the complexity of these issues. The paper sets out a conceptual call to arms for researchers and practitioners to apply a holistic lens towards how the morality of actions is shaped and influences supply chain sustainability practices.

Details

Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chain
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83608-033-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 September 2024

Narciso Antunes, Ana Simaens and Patrícia Costa

This research aims to investigate post-forest fire perceptions of businesses towards the environment as a stakeholder. Through interviews with affected businesses, the authors aim…

Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to investigate post-forest fire perceptions of businesses towards the environment as a stakeholder. Through interviews with affected businesses, the authors aim to understand whether disasters prompt sustainability prioritisation beyond legal or market demands, shedding light on potential shifts in environmental attitudes and decision-making processes.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used qualitative methods to investigate post-disaster shifts in environmental perceptions. Using site visits, preparatory meetings and semi-structured interviews between October 2017 and April 2021, the authors gained insights into destruction, recovery efforts and stakeholder perspectives. Content analysis provided valuable decision-making insights, particularly in understanding the landscape dominated by SMEs reliant on short-term strategies.

Findings

Interviews revealed varied perspectives on stakeholder recognition, especially concerning the natural environment. Although some managers promptly acknowledged stakeholder groups, the recognition of the natural environment as one varied. Concerning the natural environment as a stakeholder, responses ranged from ecological acknowledgment to denying its stakeholder status. Despite differing views, many agreed on the forest's importance, especially for resource-reliant industries. The findings suggest that although many decision makers verbally acknowledge the natural environment as a stakeholder, their actions reveal the opposite.

Research limitations/implications

The limitations are the COVID-19 pandemic in the data research phase. The methodology applied (qualitative) can be a limitation in itself and the authors recommend further research, applying mixed or quantitative methods. The research covers one event in one country. It is relevant to test our questions and conclusions in other countries/after other natural disasters. Incorporating other stakeholders' views and exploring alternative theories could enhance understanding and challenge existing results.

Practical implications

This study holds practical implications for understanding the relationship between organisations and the natural environment, particularly in recognising it as a stakeholder. By acknowledging the environment as a stakeholder, organisations can mitigate the effects of future natural disasters, as well as reducing their environmental footprints. Implementing these insights can lead to more informed decision-making processes and contribute to more effective resources and stakeholder management.

Social implications

Recognizing the environment as a stakeholder fosters environmental consciousness and community engagement. Addressing the natural environment as such enhances the ownership and responsibility of the surrounding natural environment.

Originality/value

The study's originality lies in its exploration of organisational responses to natural disasters, particularly in recognizing the environment as a stakeholder. It offers unique insights into decision-making processes and attitudes towards environmental responsibility, contributing to advancing understanding and informing strategies for sustainable disaster management on a global scale.

Details

Social Responsibility Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-1117

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 October 2023

Hamid H. Kazeroony

This chapter reviews postcolonialism praxis. Based on the examination of postcolonialism practices, this chapter details why postcolonialism offers nothing different than…

Abstract

This chapter reviews postcolonialism praxis. Based on the examination of postcolonialism practices, this chapter details why postcolonialism offers nothing different than colonialism despite administrative and bureaucratic changes when colonizers left the colonized territories physically.

Details

Decoloniality Praxis: The Logic and Ontology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-951-4

Keywords

Abstract

Details

The Sociological Inheritance of the 1960s: Historical Reflections on a Decade of Changing Thought
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-805-3

Book part
Publication date: 11 December 2023

Piero Dominici

The ongoing anthropological transformation urges the rethinking of education, underlining the inadequacy of our schools and universities in dealing with hypercomplexity, that is…

Abstract

The ongoing anthropological transformation urges the rethinking of education, underlining the inadequacy of our schools and universities in dealing with hypercomplexity, that is, with the global extension of all political, social, and cultural processes and with their indeterminacy, interdependence, and interconnection. The idea that educational processes are questions of a purely technical/technological nature, solely a problem of skills and know-how, is the “great mistake” of the hypertechnological society, based on the illusion of being able to measure and quantify everything, to eliminate error and unpredictability, and to achieve total control and rationality. It is necessary to rethink education radically because the extraordinary scientific discoveries and the dynamics of the new technologies have completely overturned the complex interaction between biological and cultural evolution, doing away with the borders between the natural and the artificial. Emergence and emergency themselves are structural features of complex systems (living, social, and human systems), rendered hypercomplex through today’s acceleration and virality, regarding not only education and socialization but also the representations and perceptions of all systemic processes. The merging of fields of knowledge and an epistemology of error become essential for the analysis and interpretation of this hypercomplexity and the unpredictability that distinguishes it.

Details

Higher Education in Emergencies: Best Practices and Benchmarking
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-379-7

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Article
Publication date: 10 February 2023

Soo Il Shin, Dianne Hall, Kyung Young Lee and Sumin Han

The purpose of the current study is to examine a social network site (SNS) users' overall satisfaction with SNS use in conjunction with their fan page visiting activities. We…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the current study is to examine a social network site (SNS) users' overall satisfaction with SNS use in conjunction with their fan page visiting activities. We examined overall satisfaction with SNS usage from the lens of people's perceptions acquired from the use of sub-components of SNS.

Design/methodology/approach

The current study employed uncertainty reduction theory (URT) and general systems theory (GST) to examine antecedents affecting overall satisfaction with SNS use. Five constructs were adopted: interactive and passive uncertainty reduction strategies, perceived usefulness and continuance visiting behavior, satisfaction, and perceived functional benefits. Using a web-based survey, we analyzed 200 SNS users who follow at least one company's fan page, utilizing seemingly unrelated regression models to test hypotheses empirically.

Findings

Research findings reveal that uncertainty reduction strategies supported by URT are significantly associated with the perceived usefulness of a company's fan page. In turn, we found that perceived usefulness becomes a strong motivator to continuance visits to the fan page. The frequency of return visiting behaviors eventually accounts for overall satisfaction with SNS. Perceived functional benefits moderates the relationship between perceived usefulness and visiting behaviors significantly.

Originality/value

The current study contributes to information systems (IS), electronic communication, and their adjacent academic disciplines in providing evidence, including (1) the impact of uncertainty reduction strategies on continuance visiting behaviors in the SNS context, (2) SNS functionalities influencing the relationship between people's belief and behavior, and (3) theoretical significant perceptional link between a sub-component and a whole.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 June 2024

Arantzazu Saratxaga Arregi

Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an…

Abstract

Purpose

Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an orientation model for the epistemological problem of complexity. I have chosen this study to demonstrate complexity as an epistemological problem. This is because the question of how order arises - the core problem of complexity - is an epistemological question for which Heinz von Foerster developed an epistemology of self-organization. I do not present new research because HvF already had the complex organization of systems in mind. Rather, I build a critical approach to complexity on the research and work on operational epistemology in HvF.

Design/methodology/approach

This article aims to provide an orientation for a philosophical and epistemological understanding of complexity through a reading of Heinz von Foerster's operational theory. The article attempts to establish complexity as an epistemological phenomenon through the following method: (1) a conceptual description of the science of complexity based on the turn to thermodynamic time, (2) a genealogy of complexity going back to the systemic method, and (3) Heinz von Foerster's cybernetic approach to self-organization.

Findings

Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, the conclusion is drawn that complexity as a description is based on language games.

Research limitations/implications

The results present complexity not as an object of science, but as a description that stands for the understanding of complex description.

Social implications

The hypothesis that complexity is a question of description or observation, i.e. of description for what language serves, has enormous social implications, in that the description of complexes and the recognition of their orders (patterns) cannot be left to algorithmic governmentality, but must be carried out by a social agency.

Originality/value

HvF's operational epistemology can serve as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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Article
Publication date: 16 April 2024

Luna Leoni

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework that jointly considers Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors and organisational resilience (OR) components to…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework that jointly considers Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors and organisational resilience (OR) components to ameliorate organisations' understanding of sustainability’s overall requirements and related decision-making processes.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper combines ESG and OR through a 3x3 conceptual matrix, where ESG factors are listed along the vertical axis and OR components along the horizontal axis. This results in nine quadrants, which have been read according to two arrangements: (1) static, looking at the specific characteristics of each single quadrant, and (2) dynamic, investigating the relationships between the different quadrants according to the system theory (ST) lens.

Findings

The integration between ESG and OR results in nine organisational typologies, each characterised by a specific focus: (1) green visioning, (2) eco ethos, (3) climate guard, (4) inclusive strategy, (5) empathy ethos, (6) community shield, (7) ethical blueprint, (8) integrity ethos and (9) compliance guard. These typologies and related focuses determine the different strategic options of organisations, the decision-making emphasis concerning ESG factors and OR components and the organisation’s behaviour concerning its internal and external environment. According to ST, the nine typologies interact with each other, emphasising the existence of interconnectedness, interdependence and cascading effects between ESG and OR.

Originality/value

The paper represents a unique attempt to interrelate ESG factors and OR components according to a ST lens, emphasising the dynamic nature of their interactions and organisations’ need for continuous adaptation and learning to make decisions that create sustainable long-term value.

Details

Management Decision, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2024

Daryl Ace V. Cornell, Ethelbert P. Dapiton and Liwliwa B. Lagman

Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines has undergone the “new normal” transition, creating a strategic recovery effort to reinvigorate the industry. In tourism…

Abstract

Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines has undergone the “new normal” transition, creating a strategic recovery effort to reinvigorate the industry. In tourism, these transitions aim to safeguard employees' and guests' health and safety, ensure continuity of business operations, boost tourism confidence leading to satisfaction, and establish a resilient and sustainable tourism industry in the postpandemic era. Hence, this chapter employs a system thinking leveraging a causal loop diagram (CLD) to construct a comprehensive roadmap for Philippine tourism's postpandemic resurgence through the system thinking lens. The CLD visually illustrates the inter-related factors influencing the recovery process, encompassing collaborative engagements, innovations, economic revitalization, and health and safety protocols. By analyzing the causal relationships among these variables, this chapter explicates the dynamic and interconnected nature of the postpandemic recovery leading to the recovery of the Philippine tourism industry, especially in the context of thinking small. Through this chapter, thinking small could involve a shift toward localized solutions and community-focused initiatives that allow them to foster local economies, build resilience, and create a more inclusive and sustainable postpandemic recovery.

Details

Revisiting Sustainable Tourism in the Philippines
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-679-5

Keywords

Abstract

Details

New Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-762-8

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