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Article
Publication date: 15 April 2022

Mairi N. McKinnon and Brad S. Long

The motivation for this paper comes from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation’s (TRC) Calls to Action, and in particular, the call for more meaningful consultation and respectful…

Abstract

Purpose

The motivation for this paper comes from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation’s (TRC) Calls to Action, and in particular, the call for more meaningful consultation and respectful, consent-based relationships between businesses and Indigenous communities in Canada. To this end, this study empirically examines leadership in the context of a wicked problem faced by a pulp and paper mill and suggest an Indigenous epistemology as helpful to inform the leadership behaviours employed in this company.

Design/methodology/approach

Firstly, this study established that the problem faced by the company aligns with the characteristics of wicked problems, hence necessitating a collective leadership approach. This study then compiled a database from publicly available documents and inductively coded this data to identify themes that told us something about the leadership behaviours employed by the company as it attempted to resolve the problem at hand.

Findings

This study provides evidence that the company did not employ collective leadership when attempting to tame its wicked problem. It then shows that the context in which the firm operates lends itself well to the Mi’kmaw concept of Two-Eyed Seeing as a guiding principle that could have informed the company’s leadership and contributed to a long-overdue process of reconciliation. This study proposes several specific actions that plausibly could have helped produce such an outcome.

Originality/value

This paper helps fill a void in applications of the wicked problem construct to businesses. Further, this study suggests that the problem faced by this firm remained difficult to tame precisely because it failed to employ a collective leadership approach. The contribution to the leadership literature comes from introducing Two-Eyed Seeing and showing how it may help produce leadership that is inherently more collective in nature. Beyond its instrumental value, this approach may nurture more consent-based relationships between businesses and Indigenous communities in Canada, as called for by the TRC, hence contributing to reconciliation with a long-suffering neighbouring Indigenous community.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 November 2019

Brad S. Long

This paper aims to highlight blind spots in the discourse of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and stretch the boundaries of existent CSR frameworks within the particular…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to highlight blind spots in the discourse of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and stretch the boundaries of existent CSR frameworks within the particular context of resource extraction and with regard to the particular stakeholder group of Indigenous peoples in Canada. This context is important in light of the recommendations from the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), as they relate to initiatives that businesses may take towards reconciliation with Indigenous people.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper brings together a disparate body of literature on CSR, Indigenous spiritual values and experiences of extractive practices on Indigenous ancestral lands. Suggestions are offered for empirical research and projects that may advance the project of reconciliation.

Findings

CSR may not be an appropriate framework for reconciliation without alteration to its managerial biases and ideological assumptions. The CSR discourse needs to accommodate the “free prior and informed consent” of Indigenous peoples and their spiritual values and knowledge vis-à-vis the land for resource extractive practices to edge towards being socially responsible when they occur on Canadian ancestral territories.

Originality/value

Canadian society exists in a post-TRC world, which demands that we reconcile with our past of denying Indigenous values and suppressing the cultures of Indigenous peoples from flourishing. This paper aspires to respond to the TRC’s recommendation for how businesses in the resource extractive industries may engage meaningfully and authentically with Indigenous people in Canada as a step towards reconciliation.

Details

critical perspectives on international business, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

Brad S. Long and Cathy Driscoll

Based on themes the authors observed in workplace spirituality texts, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the historicity of these texts and induce a model to help them…

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Abstract

Purpose

Based on themes the authors observed in workplace spirituality texts, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the historicity of these texts and induce a model to help them understand how this discourse of workplace spirituality came into being.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors perform intertextual analysis to show how authors draw upon concepts available in the broader discursive context, from which the authors produced a textscape of the workplace spirituality discourse to depict these layers of discursive interconnections.

Findings

The expressed novelty and recency of workplace spirituality as a form of management knowledge, the authors argue, is made ambiguous by its heavy borrowing from other discourses. The authors show how existent spiritual, organizational and societal-level discourses create the conditions of possibility for the discourse of workplace spirituality to emerge. Most of the authors within the corpus engaged the same theories in organizational studies that created the kind of workplaces they now seek to change.

Practical implications

The power of the workplace spirituality discourse to improve the state of workers and work and achieve the expressed desire for change may be diminished through the discursive practices of its authors.

Originality/value

The authors offer a visual “textscape” in which the findings are framed and hence operationalize this idea in a novel manner that contributes to the methods of discourse analysis. The findings also call for more critical reflection into whether workplace spirituality represents a solution to organizational problems when neither the workers nor work it constructs are particularly new.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2012

Brad S. Long

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to recast downsizing as an act of corporate social irresponsibility by showing it to be contrary to ethical principles available to defend…

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to recast downsizing as an act of corporate social irresponsibility by showing it to be contrary to ethical principles available to defend any course of action against the alternatives.

Methodology – Ethics theory is used to analyse the prevalent business practice of downsizing, drawing upon literature that examines downsizing and/or explains and demonstrates the application of ethical principles.

Findings – Downsizing, as defined in this chapter, is an unethical and irresponsible business practice because it reduces utility, ignores rights, creates injustice, breaks social contracts, creates agency relationships where none exist and fails to respond to the legitimate claims that employees, as a stakeholder, make upon corporations.

Practical implications – Change becomes necessary to the business practice of downsizing when it is carried out by profitable companies without proper appeal to ethics principles for justification. Ethical principles may, instead, suggest alternative courses of action or techniques.

Social implications – Downsizing (and other forms of mass layoffs) is not a morally neutral activity, as it engenders significant social implications (i.e. harm) that necessitate ethical consideration. Moreover, when business actions have social consequences, the interests of other stakeholders may become legitimate.

Value of the chapter – This chapter illustrates the formulation and application of principles that help guide business people to take morally right courses of action. It also serves as a template for analysing other aspects of the employment relationship for a more critical approach to corporate responsibility. As shown in this chapter, ethics can have more than a peripheral role in business decision making.

Details

Corporate Social Irresponsibility: A Challenging Concept
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-999-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2011

Murray Gibson, Petra Hauf, Brad S. Long and Gina Sampson

The paper seeks to promote the integration of reflective learning within a broader service learning pedagogy at the undergraduate university level. Furthermore, it aims to…

3760

Abstract

Purpose

The paper seeks to promote the integration of reflective learning within a broader service learning pedagogy at the undergraduate university level. Furthermore, it aims to illustrate various models for service learning that span multiple academic disciplines.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper illustrates three ways in which reflective learning can be used to enhance the learning potential of service learning pedagogy. The subjective experiences inform its own stories that it presents as examples, supported as they are by the findings of prior empirical studies.

Findings

The paper believes that multi‐dimensional learning has been achieved in each of the three examples presented. Service learning extends the academic learning of students and allows for personal and societal learning to occur, not simply as a result of having a service experience, but of spending time reflecting on it.

Practical implications

Practical implications are particular to the students themselves, as the service experiences it describes have, in some instances, helped to clarify individual students' values and vocational interests.

Social implications

Given the range of service learning models contained in these examples, the social implications likewise range, yet share common dimensions of increasing students' social consciousness, appreciation of diversity, and their own capacities to contribute.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper lies in the linking of reflective learning to service learning best practices to highlight the particular role of reflection in the production of multi‐dimensional learning.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 53 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 May 2010

Brad S. Long and Jean Helms Mills

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to existing critiques of workplace spirituality and organizational culture. The paper links the two by problematising definitions of…

5575

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to existing critiques of workplace spirituality and organizational culture. The paper links the two by problematising definitions of workplace spirituality that employ a “culture approach” to change, in which the construct is limited to a set of values that gives particular meaning to the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

Properties of Weick's sensemaking model combined with a critical sensemaking approach are used to analyze texts in order to show how a spiritual culture may shape the actions of its members by serving as an implicit form of managerial control.

Findings

The paper reveals how some texts, Mitroff and Denton's, in particular, advocate workplace spirituality as necessary for organizations and the individuals who work in them to prosper. Simultaneously, such texts may imply a form of pastoral power, the purpose of which is to re‐affirm a positive self‐image, due to the cueing effects of language that is voiced in specific contexts.

Practical implications

The paper suggests that a cultural approach to understanding workplace spirituality influences how people can make sense of the organization in which they are members. The potential inordinate reverence of work and one's contribution toward enhanced organizational performance is of interest to all members of organizations because it highlights how control is achieved.

Originality/value

The paper offers some insights into the conditions that promulgate the linkage between work and spiritual fulfilment, and it promotes the continuing development of critical spirituality in organizations in order to overcome the potential managerial instrumentality that is highlighted in this paper.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 23 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 October 2008

Brad S. Long and Albert J. Mills

The purpose of this paper is three‐fold: to extend the scope of postcolonial theory to organizational analysis; to extend the scope of organizational analysis to the study of…

4706

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is three‐fold: to extend the scope of postcolonial theory to organizational analysis; to extend the scope of organizational analysis to the study of supranational organizations; and to examine the impact of postcolonial organizational thought on the conception and treatment of the Rwandan people.

Design/methodology/approach

Organizational (in)action, both prior to and during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, is subjected to postcolonial organizational analysis.

Findings

It is shown that so‐called global organizational relations are mediated by supranational organizations, such as the United Nations, whose organizational structuring and practices are rooted in imperialist and postcolonial thinking.

Research limitations/implications

It is recognised that the account of events presents an alternative but partial history of events in Rwanda.

Practical implications

The response to genocide in Rwanda by the global community represents a challenge to the promise of globalization, which posits that multinational organizational integration based on mutual interest is achievable.

Originality/value

The paper destablizes the notion of globalization and global cooperation by raising questions about the asymmetrical contexts in which supranational organizations operate.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 4 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2012

Ralph Tench, William Sun and Brian Jones

Purpose – This chapter introduces this volume's topics, purpose and key themes.Methodology/approach – This chapter reviews literature and chapters and offers conceptual…

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter introduces this volume's topics, purpose and key themes.

Methodology/approach – This chapter reviews literature and chapters and offers conceptual development.

Findings – The difficulties of CSR in theory and practice are mainly due to its incomplete conceptualisation because its inseparable counterpart CSI has been eventually neglected or ignored in the CSR theorising process. The CSI concept is as equally important as CSR. CSI offers a theoretical platform to avoid the vagueness, ambiguity, arbitrariness and mysticism of CSR. CSI deserves to be a serious subject of inquiry and demands more scholarly attention.

Practical/social implications – With the aid of the CSI concept, CSR becomes more realistic and effective, as it is now more focused, practical and operational. While CSI is clear-cut, CSR is clearly meant, at the very least, to do well by undoing CSI. It is easier to promote CSR by addressing CSI first. The concept of CSI may allow everyone, including business practitioners, to concentrate on resolving the most important and urgent issues of public concern. It also encourages people to address the root causes of CSI problems in a systematic way. Doing so undoubtedly expands and enriches the understanding of CSR.

Originality/value of chapter – The concept of CSI has been less developed in academic circles. While the contributors of this volume have made significant contributions to the understanding of CSI, this chapter adds fresh reasoning and explanations to the development of the CSI subject.

Details

Corporate Social Irresponsibility: A Challenging Concept
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-999-8

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2012

Victoria Olufunmilayo Ajala (PhD) is Reader at Department of Human Communications, Bowen University, Nigeria, holds a BSc (1st Class honours), two MScs in Advertising and PR and…

Abstract

Victoria Olufunmilayo Ajala (PhD) is Reader at Department of Human Communications, Bowen University, Nigeria, holds a BSc (1st Class honours), two MScs in Advertising and PR and PhD in Communication. She has published books and several research articles in local and international journals, and is Fellow of the NIPR, a member of the ACCE and the APRA.

Details

Corporate Social Irresponsibility: A Challenging Concept
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-999-8

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2012

Abstract

Details

Corporate Social Irresponsibility: A Challenging Concept
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-999-8

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