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Book part
Publication date: 6 June 2019

David M. Boje and Mabel Sanchez

In this chapter we develop sustainability implications of the Savall, Zardet, Bonett, and colleagues’ approach, known worldwide as socioeconomic approach to management (SEAM). SEAM

Abstract

In this chapter we develop sustainability implications of the Savall, Zardet, Bonett, and colleagues’ approach, known worldwide as socioeconomic approach to management (SEAM). SEAM can be used as a way of doing management and organizational inquiry into the ecological sustainability of practices with planetary boundaries. We conclude that a socially responsible approach to management needs to consider the hidden costs to an enterprise if it is not being sustainable to planetary resource limits.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Management and Organization Inquiry
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-552-8

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 June 2019

Robert P. Gephart and Henri Savall

This chapter addresses the “Taylorism–Fayolism–Weberism (TFW) virus,” a metaphor developed to highlight how organizational features recommended by each of these three management

Abstract

This chapter addresses the “Taylorism–Fayolism–Weberism (TFW) virus,” a metaphor developed to highlight how organizational features recommended by each of these three management theorists produce dysfunctions that create unintended hidden costs that adversely impact organizations and their employees. The virus leads to an ideology where cost cutting is seen as the best means to improve an organization’s performance. We explore the problematic features of the TFW virus: hyperspecialization, separation of work design from work execution, and depersonalized job descriptions designed for workers who are falsely assumed to be lazy. We then address how these organizational features are related to micro dysfunctions and hidden costs (e.g., poor work organization) that accumulate into macro-level dysfunctions and costs that form the features of the risk society envisioned by Ullrich Beck (1992). These dysfunctions collectively threaten human and planetary existence. Next, we describe how the socioeconomic approach to management (SEAM) can address the TFW virus in ways that manage and remediate micro, macro, and planetary risks that emerge from a globalized enterprise. We conclude by offering a hopeful agenda for research on how to use SEAM to more effectively manage the emerging micro and macro dysfunctions and impacts of the world risk society.

Book part
Publication date: 6 June 2019

Yue Cai Hillon and David M. Boje

The evolution of capitalism has gone through four major epochs, from the first tangible exchanges of goods and resources, to the generation of wealth by entrepreneurs held…

Abstract

The evolution of capitalism has gone through four major epochs, from the first tangible exchanges of goods and resources, to the generation of wealth by entrepreneurs held personally accountable for their actions, to cost-cutting measures for increasing efficiencies and maximizing wealth for the few, and finally to a socially irresponsible form. The fourth epoch dispatched the last remaining shards of capitalist responsibility to anyone but investors, as the basis of wealth appropriation shifted to manipulating the speculative future worth of intangible or fictitious capital. This evolution through four epochs has sadly been a process of diminishing value creation (Boje et al., 2017).

We are trapped in an era of socially irresponsible capitalism with little respect for humankind. But, it was not always this way. The earliest references to entrepreneurial behavior emerged in the east during the Han Dynasty and in the west in the eighteenth century. Somewhat like the fourth epoch of the twenty-first century, these global beginnings of early capitalism were also directed by opportunistic desires to pursue wealth generation by taking advantage of people’s needs and wants. Although capitalists have consistently been the prime directors of resources and the distributors of wealth, in the early epochs of capitalism they were different. The early epoch entrepreneurs bore personal risks of business failure, consequences that might impact them for a lifetime.

The antenarrative generative mechanisms, or spirals, help us understand the interconnectivities of “real” and “actual” domains of reality (Bhaskar, 1975; Boje, 2016). Socially irresponsible capitalism is pulling global societies into a downward spiral toward an addiction of speculative destruction and dehumanization, transforming “real” into “actual” realities. We need a force to pull us back up toward a revitalized form of socially responsible capitalism. This force is called the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM), and in the responsible entrepreneurial spirit of earlier epochs, the path to recovery can be accomplished by accountably working with one organization or entity at a time.

This chapter first investigates the historical double-spiral-helix footsteps of socially irresponsible capitalism in the making. Then through a SEAM project example, we discuss how the micro-societal perspective of an organization places it at a deeper level of reality, deeper within the double-spiral-helix meta-reality of macro-societal capitalism. Finally, we demonstrate how the socioeconomic approach can help diagnose the deeper realities with an organization, beyond the evident narratives, to reveal the third spiral of deficiencies. This third spiral disenables the organization’s ability to activate the micro forces of socially responsible capitalism.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Management and Organization Inquiry
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-552-8

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 6 June 2019

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Management and Organization Inquiry
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-552-8

Book part
Publication date: 15 July 2019

Olivier Voyant, Frantz Datry, Amandine Savall, Véronique Zardet and Marc Bonnet

This chapter presents a case study involving a socio-economic Organizational Development (OD) project carried out in a European subsidiary of a large multinational corporation…

Abstract

This chapter presents a case study involving a socio-economic Organizational Development (OD) project carried out in a European subsidiary of a large multinational corporation traded on the New York Stock Exchange. This research case study, one of the 1,854 socio-economic interventions undertaken by the ISEOR research center, was chosen for its good illustration of the OD engineering process. It connects the dots between OD and financial performance, between immediate results and the creation of potential. We look at some of the tools and methods, such as overhauling loss and profit accounts and balance sheets with an eye on socio-economic balance, to illustrate socioeconomic tools at work and how they help enhance compatibility between the objectives of all stakeholders, including shareholders. With this case study, we also set out to provide food for thought on the contribution of socio-economic OD to the construction of socially responsible capitalism (Savall et al., 2015).

Article
Publication date: 7 October 2014

Henri Savall and Véronique Zardet

This paper aims to present a concise history of the main action research (AR) contribution in France. The authors discuss the role of AR in the organizational research field in…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a concise history of the main action research (AR) contribution in France. The authors discuss the role of AR in the organizational research field in general and compare it with intervention research (IR) and presented Institute of Socio-Economy of Enterprises and Organizations’s specific contributions and its presence on the international stage through review publications and wider works.

Design/methodology/approach

A narrative approach was used to analyze this history.

Findings

AR is considered as a research family. The authors define and compare AR with other qualitative methods. They analyze AR and IR principles, which include interaction with practitioners, negotiation with them, focusing in the third part on the case of ISEOR research team.

Social implications

AR and IR permit to bridge the gap between researchers and practitioners, to develop useful research. At the same time, they permit to develop new researchers' competencies and to fund research, in a context of reduced public research funds.

Originality/value

This article permits to understand the reality of what is and how to develop an IR, and the difficulties for researchers to insert them in the academic community, although France seems to be more permissive than others’ contexts. It permits also to better know the French IR and AR research in management.

Details

International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1934-8835

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 6 June 2019

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Management and Organization Inquiry
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-552-8

Article
Publication date: 18 January 2019

Obadia Kyetuza Bishoge, Lingling Zhang, Witness Gerald Mushi and Nametso Matomela

This paper aims to analyze the context of community opinions and participation in the natural gas sector in developing countries, a case study of Tanzania. To achieve this…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the context of community opinions and participation in the natural gas sector in developing countries, a case study of Tanzania. To achieve this purpose, the study pointed out six facts, namely, information on the natural gas sector; awareness of the natural gas-related policies; laws and regulations and the creation of employment opportunities; local experts in the natural gas sector; the use of natural gas revenues; and natural gas for poverty reduction and improvement of social well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a systematic review of the literature on community participation based on the relevant studies published between 2010 and 2018. A comprehensive literature review was carried out following the seven-step model whereby relevant themes from different potential bibliographic databases such as Google Scholar were systematically selected, compiled and analyzed using descriptive methods.

Findings

The study revealed that despite the various efforts made by the governments and other stakeholders to promote community participation, there is an inadequate level of community participation in the natural gas sector in developing countries. There are limited local experts for natural gas operations and low transparency on natural gas contracts, agreements and revenues. Therefore, there is the need to raise awareness for a highly informed society with a clear sense of ownership of the natural gas wealth among the local communities. Moreover, transparency and accountability are recommended for the sustainable natural gas sector development.

Originality/value

This paper offers new and current cross-sectoral inclusion, opinions, hopes and concerns of the community on the natural gas sector management in developing countries.

Details

International Journal of Energy Sector Management, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6220

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2011

Petros Kostagiolas, Anastasia Margiola and Anastasia Avramidou

Libraries in Greece are mostly financed by public sources, with private funding covering only a very small proportion of their budget. The deteriorating, slowly growing economic…

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Abstract

Purpose

Libraries in Greece are mostly financed by public sources, with private funding covering only a very small proportion of their budget. The deteriorating, slowly growing economic environment in Greece places additional pressure on the already understaffed and underfinanced public libraries. This paper aims at demonstrating that the tough economic conditions may provide a setting for innovation and quality enhancement which may lead in turn to a corresponding growth in the library sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative analysis is conducted in order to identify the potential of a novel management response model as a pathway for library survival within the fierce economic crisis.

Findings

Specific suggestions are made for the management of public libraries, future policies and trends in the lines of learning/education/training services; social/economic development services; electronic government and citizen participation in public affairs services; cultural identity and social cohesion services; and social inclusion services.

Practical/implications

It is ascertained that public libraries in Greece may have an opportunity for change and innovation as a result of the current economic situation. Furthermore, it is believed that active involvement, quality, innovation and self‐finance can serve as important tools for the development of public libraries and their positive contribution and productive role into the Greek socioeconomic environment.

Originality/value

This is the only available work providing an overall management approach for public libraries within a current economic crisis such as the one in Greece.

Details

Library Review, vol. 60 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2023

Manoj Kumar Paras, Lichuan Wang, Rudrajeet Pal and Daniel Ekwall

This study proposes a garment modularization model based on an interactive genetic algorithm. The suggested model consists of extraction and identification of parts and the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study proposes a garment modularization model based on an interactive genetic algorithm. The suggested model consists of extraction and identification of parts and the determination and implementation of connections. Rules and corresponding mathematical equations have been formulated for the part's extractions from the discarded products and connections for the redesigned products.

Design/methodology/approach

Sustainability entices scholars and practitioners while referring to reducing waste to control environmental degradation. One of the ways to safeguard natural resources is to increase the reuse of old or discarded products. The current study focuses on the redesign process to improve the reuse of products.

Findings

The intelligent system proposed based on the modularization techniques is expected to simplify and quantify the redesign process. The model can further help in the minimization of wastage and environmental degradation.

Originality/value

Presently, manual decisions are taken by the designers based on their memory, experience and intuition to extract and join the parts.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 27 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

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