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This case was developed via primary data collected from personal (one to one) interview with the CEO and founder of Dialogue in the Dark Malaysia (Dialogue Malaysia), Stevens Chan. With Stevens’ contact, the authors also conducted personal interviews with Kaye Chan (co-founder and wife of Stevens Chan), Lynn Foo (project manager since inception until early 2022) and Dr Foo Yin Fah (academic researcher in social entrepreneurship and advisor for Dialogue Malaysia). Secondary data included reports on visually impaired context in Malaysia, Dialogue Malaysia’s annual reports and online articles. Prior to the primary data collection, the authors obtained ethics approval from the University Human Ethics Committee (Project ID: 35461).

This case narrative focuses on Stevens Chan, a blind social entrepreneur who champions the empowerment of the disabled and marginalised community. Through a social franchising model, Stevens founded Dialogue in the Dark Malaysia in 2012. As a social start-up, Stevens showcases the strengths of blind and visually impaired individuals through transformative experiential encounters and reimagining future possibilities. Although there are constant challenges in securing financial and human capital, Stevens never lacks psychological capital, characterised by hope, self-efficacy, optimism and resilience. His vision is to educate society on the power of empathy (and not sympathy) and to create a holistic experience of celebrating diversity and inclusion through an innovative discovery centre, where the elderly and the disabled community (including the deaf, mute and those with mobility issues) share their lives with the public through fun activities. However, the future of this social enterprise is uncertain, and this case invites participants to embark on this journey with Stevens to uncover future pathways for growth and social impact.

The case is tailored for higher level undergraduates and entry-level and mid-level managers of executive education programs.

Taking the dialogic organizational development perspective, this study aims to investigate the framing processes when engaging in dialogue for strategy implementation and how these enable the evolution of implementation opportunities.

Through a qualitative exploratory study conducted in a large multinational, the authors analyse the dialogue and interactions among 25 dyads when identifying opportunities to contribute to strategy implementation. The data analysis relies on a process-coding approach and linkography, a valuable protocol analysis for identifying recursive interaction schemas in conversations.

The authors identify four main framing processes – shaping, unveiling, scattering and shifting – and provide a framework of how these processes affect individuals’ mental models through increasing the tangibility of opportunities or elevating them to new value hierarchies.

From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the strategy implementation and organizational development literature, providing a micro-perspective of how dialogue allows early knowledge structures to emerge and shape the development of opportunities for strategy implementation.

From a managerial perspective, the authors offer insights to trigger action and change in individuals to contribute to strategy when moving from formulation to implementation.

Rather than focusing on the structural control view of strategy implementation and the role of the top management team, this study considers strategy implementation as a practice and what it takes for organizational actors who do not take part in strategy formulation to enact and shape opportunities for strategy implementation through constructive dialogue.

Annual performance evaluations of faculty are a routine, yet essential, task in higher education. Creating (or revising) performance criteria presents an opportunity for leaders to work with their teams to co-create evaluation metrics that broaden participation and minimise inequity. The purpose of this study was to support organisational leaders in developing equitable performance criteria.

We adopted the “dual-agenda” dialogues training that draws on concepts of collective self-efficacy and intersectionality for department leaders to co-create annual review criteria with their faculty members at one university. We used qualitative and quantitative data to assess the training and conducted an equity audit of the resulting annual review criteria.

Survey results from faculty members and departmental leaders (n = 166) demonstrated general satisfaction with the process used to create new criteria, perceptions that their criteria were inclusive and optimism about future reviews. Those with greater familiarity with the dialogues process had more positive perceptions of the inclusivity of their department’s criteria and more positive expectations of future reviews. The examination of eight indicators of equity illustrated that the resultant criteria were transparent and holistic.

This study builds on the relatively little research on faculty members’ annual performance evaluations, focussing on inclusive dialogues that centre equity and diversity. Results highlight the value of providing department leaders with evidence-based tools to foster system-level change through equitable evaluation policies. A toolkit is available for adaptation of the “dual-agenda” leadership training to both co-create annual review criteria and improve equity and inclusion.

This study aims to examine the impact of stakeholder engagement on accountability, within nonprofit organizations (NPOs). Given the pivotal role NPOs play in disaster management and community welfare, it is crucial to gain an understanding of the obligations of NPOs, in terms of their disaster responses and accountability.

Using a case-study approach, the investigation features a content analysis of social media comments regarding the Australian Red Cross’ (ARC) funds’ allocation during the 2019/2020 bushfires, followed by a similar analysis of ARC's reports. Inspired by Carnegie et al.'s (2021) definition of accounting as a social science, this study uses dialogic theory and a transformative participatory framework, to evaluate how interactive stakeholder engagement influenced accountability strategies used by the NPO, to ensure its sustainable development.

The findings reveal that there was a significant increase in stakeholder engagement on social media, following negative media coverage, with participants voicing concerns over ARC’s method of funds’ allocation, delays in funds distribution and seemingly excessive administrative costs. ARC addressed these concerns by issuing Bushfire Reports, and conducting online Q&A sessions, in a bid to establish transparency. This study emphasizes how dialogic accounting can challenge accounting's limited scope – one that often overlooks ecological concerns and social justice.

This study uses the perspective of dialogic accounting theory to explore the relationship between stakeholder engagement on social media, and NPO accountability. It demonstrates how robust stakeholder engagement can challenge NPOs to establish accountability, thereby bridging the information gap between themselves and the public. The use of dialogic accounting theory allows the study to shift from the traditional focus of accounting research, which is the financial objectives of powerful entities, to the voices of the marginalized, the stakeholders, who are impacted by NPO decisions, and, in doing so, it highlights the potential for NPOs to foster accountability, and so advance sustainable development initiatives.

The explanatory study aimed to understand the global perspective of quality education and describe transformative strategies that empower teacher educators and equip the education system and future teachers to act as change agents by fostering learning processes that support students towards a sustainable future.

The explanatory study used a descriptive qualitative design. The researchers conducted four semi-structured group interviews of the 23 participants including pre- and in-service teachers, teacher educators, and policymakers from Austria, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States, and South Africa during the Teach4Reach 1.0 project on SDG4. The inductive thematic analysis of the data was guided by Kuckartz’s six-phase approach for constructing data-driven categories.

The study identified SDG4 as pivotal in supporting the overall UN Agenda 2030. Furthermore, three distinct themes unequivocally emerged and were developed concerning the imperative nature of envisioning transformation for sustainability: (1) collaboration, (2) well-being and context of individuals, and (3) strategies for skill development.

Due to the qualitative nature of the study, the participants’ comprehensive understanding of the SDGs and their perceptions remained conditional to methodological subjectivity.

The study enabled a dialogue between educational stakeholders (pre- and in-service teachers, teacher educators, and policymakers), whereby an awareness and encouragement of SDG4 regarding quality education and training of quality future teachers occurred. A further implication includes increased collaboration and dialogue regarding the well-being of individuals (educational stakeholders), the context of individuals, and strategies for skill development.

The study elaborates on reaching the SDGs and identifies themes essential for sustainability transformation in teacher education. It also highlights further research and clarity about the responsibilities of educational stakeholders for quality education, for instance, (1) how to increase the supply of quality teachers by focusing on collaboration, well-being, and the contexts of individuals and (2) how value-embedded skills can support quality education for sustainability.

In this chapter, we examine the negative impact of excessive teacher entitlement on school life. We argue that teacher entitlement goes beyond individual traits, intricately linked to sociocultural processes and power dynamics within and outside educational institutions. The focus is on theoretical foundations to understand pedagogical practices in science education, highlighting two key components contributing to excessive teacher entitlement. First, we discuss the relationship between teachers and scientific knowledge, emphasising that a narrow view of science may create a strong hierarchical dynamic in classrooms, with teachers positioned as knowledgeable authorities and neglecting students' needs. Second, the organisation of interaction between teachers and students is explored, emphasising how teachers perceive and wield authority. We recognise the limitations of common critiques of authority in science education, as they may lead to excessive indulgence or indifference. We propose a teaching framework based on cultural-historical activity theory to address or prevent excessive teacher entitlement in science classrooms. While acknowledging the phenomenon's complexity, the framework is presented as a pedagogical reorientation addressing identified underpinnings. The study concludes by suggesting that the proposed framework, grounded in science education experiences, could serve as a foundation for understanding and addressing excessive teacher entitlement across various academic fields. We suggest that the authoritative teacher style aims to balance extremes, providing an alternative to authoritarianism while avoiding carelessness. Additionally, the scientific-cultural inquiry promotes a pluralist approach to knowledge, challenging the notion of absolute truth in science education.

Political Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), based on ideas about deliberative democracy, have been criticised for increasing corporate power and democratic deficits. Yet, deliberative ideals are flourishing in the corporate world in the form of dialogues with a broad set of stakeholders and engagement in wider societal issues. Extractive industry areas, with extensive corporate interventions in weak regulatory environments, are particularly vulnerable to asymmetrical power relations when businesses engage with society. This paper aims to illustrate in what way deliberative CSR practices in such contexts risk enhancing corporate power at the expense of community interests.

This paper is based on a retrospective qualitative study of a Canadian oil company, operating in an Albanian oilfield between 2009 and 2016. Through a study of three different deliberative CSR practices – market-based land acquisition, a grievance redress mechanism and dialogue groups – it highlights how these practices in various ways enforced corporate interests and prevented further community mobilisation.

By applying Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of hegemony, the analysis highlights how deliberative CSR activities isolated and silenced community demands, moved some community members into the corporate alliance and prevented alternative visions of the area to be articulated. In particular, the close connection between deliberative practices and monetary compensation flows is underlined in this dynamic.

The paper contributes to critical scholarship on political CSR by highlighting in what way deliberative practices, linked to monetary compensation schemes, enforce corporate hegemony by moving community members over to the corporate alliance.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to bring together teachers from different academic disciplines to engage them in lesson study (LS) cycles with a focus on literacy.

This research employed a qualitative case study and occurred in one secondary school along the Texas (USA) and Mexico border. Ten teachers representing six academic disciplines participated in eight LS cycles to reflect on their knowledge of literacy, including when, if at all, they integrated literacy when planning and teaching lessons. About 20 students shared their impressions, feelings and thoughts about the lessons.

Teachers learned that literacy standards exist in each academic discipline and that integrating reading and writing during lessons allowed for more increased dialogue between/among teachers and students. The principal learned that teachers from all academic disciplines need differentiated, sustained professional learning opportunities on how to teach literacy skills.

Teachers often work alone or within their respective academic departments, whereas this project focused on secondary teachers from six academic disciplines taking part in LS cycles with a common focus on literacy. Sustained opportunities for teachers to study their standards and curriculum materials, plan and teach lessons and share perspectives from classroom observations resulted in new knowledge about ways to include literacy in any academic discipline. A schoolwide professional learning community focused on literacy could act as a catalyst for instructional change.

This research analyses how dialogical communication on social media enhances the effectiveness of sustainability messages in terms of brand engagement and purchase intention. Dialogical messages generate social media engagement, which helps improve consumer responses.

Two experimental studies (2 × 2) were conducted, in which two factors were manipulated: the dialogical potential of the message (dialogical versus monological) and message orientation (sustainability versus commercial).

The dialogical potential of the message moderates the effect of sustainability messages on brand engagement and purchase intention. Results indicate that sustainability messages featuring dialogical elements generate greater brand engagement and purchase intention than commercial messages. Furthermore, social media engagement mediates these effects.

This study offers valuable insights into applying dialogical principles to sustainability communication on social media. Marketers should design dialogical messages to foster dialogue with customers and enhance engagement.

Few studies have focused on analysing the effects of applying dialogical strategies on social media to communicate sustainability. Thus, this study highlights the importance of dialogical communication beyond the inclusion of interactive elements when communicating sustainability on social media. The inclusion of dialogical features specifically benefits sustainability messages, given the transparency and honesty they demand.