Suchergebnisse

PurposeThis paper aims to present a case study of how a global consumer company, with over 300 brands sold in 180 countries, and 138,000 employees, is building sustainability into the rhythm of its business. This goes beyond social investment programs, addressing sustainability in product design, manufacturing operations, employee engagement and stakeholder partnerships.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the process Procter & Gamble has gone through to define its sustainability strategy and goals, gain global alignment, build sustainability strategies and accountability into its business units, and regional and functional organizations, and then raise the bar by increasing its goals for 2012.FindingsExperience in implementing sustainability shows the importance of the following factors: being explicit about sustainability and its importance: keeping a broad definition of sustainability; ensuring that sustainability is not added work; eliminating trade‐offs between performance, value and sustainability; having a clear strategy and knowing "where to play", and getting sustainability incorporated into the DNA of a company.Originality/valueThis paper provides a new and broad overview of how sustainability has been implemented in a global consumer goods company. It introduces the unifying concept of "no trade offs" for both consumer acceptance of sustainable products and sustainability investments for companies. The paper also highlights the challenges of engaging employees around the world to deliver a single coherent sustainability strategy.

PurposeA company may ignore its non‐obligatory responsibilities to employees during a major change such as a merger, leading to their disaffection and feeling of insecurity. The purpose of this paper is to explore how employee views of the merged organization differ by their pre‐merger background, and to explain the impact of the poorly perceived organizational virtue on employees' emotional response to the merged organization including satisfaction, emotional attachment, job security and loyalty.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology involved a questionnaire survey of employees from an organization in crisis following a merger due to poor employee morale and high labor turnover.FindingsThe two major findings were: first perceptions of organizational empathy, warmth and conscientiousness were strongly correlated with employee loyalty, perceived job security, satisfaction and emotional attachment. Second, company background prior to the merger had a contrary effect to that expected from existing literature; employees from the acquiring companies had more negative feeling towards the merged organization.Practical implicationsThe research findings highlight the importance of promoting the virtues of empathy and warmth as keys to ensuring the emotional attachment and loyalty of key employees to ensure the long‐term success of the merger.Originality/valueDespite growing interest in applying virtue ethics into business, empirical studies assessing organizational level virtue are rare. This empirical study of the organizational virtue advances, complements, and distinguishes itself from existing studies on merger, by demonstrating the importance of non‐obligatory virtues (those beyond legal and economic responsibilities) perceived by employees.

PurposeThis paper seeks to explore patterns of integrating corporate responsibility issues into corporate governance mechanisms and their development over time.Design/methodology/approachData from the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index is explored to reveal dominant governance patterns of corporate responsibility issues for the 51 organizations continuously participating in the index since its launch in 2002.FindingsThis research reports three major findings: First, there is increasing CEO leadership for the corporate responsibility agenda of the firm. Second, governance structures developed over time are now increasingly making use of corporate responsibility committees. In 2002 about 15 percent of the firms were using a CR committee, the number had increased by 2008 to more than 60 percent. Third, firms with a CR committee in place outperform others in the Corporate Responsibility Index.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this paper gives a good insight into which structures companies set up to deal with the corporate responsibility agenda, interviews with practitioners would help to understand why this is the case and in which direction the governance of corporate responsibility is expected to evolve.Practical implicationsTo understand how companies are governing their corporate responsibility activities is useful for managers seeking to learn from best practices.Originality/valueThis paper is the first empirical research looking at the development of governance structures for corporate responsibility beyond a single case study design.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to understand the connection between the motivations that drive firms to adopt green commitments and the impact of these engagements on firm performance.Design/methodology/approachTheoretical underpinnings for the hypotheses are drawn from the existent literature on corporate environmental responsibility and the constructivist framework. These hypotheses are then tested through a SEM with data from a mail survey with 195 Spanish manufacturing firms that have adopted the international environmental management system ISO 14001.FindingsThe results suggest that in the process of implementing green commitments, not only instrumental and ecological motivations play a key role, but also the internal organizational activities, in addition to the outcomes of the implementation itself.Research limitations/implicationsThis research study uses perceptual measures of a single informant from each Spanish firm. Research studies that add objective data and extrapolate the analysis to firms in other countries would be worthwhile to support this model.Practical implicationsAccording to this paper, firms can enhance the outcomes of their green engagements through involving diverse functional units, and by continuously assessing these results and scanning the drivers of change.Originality/valueThis paper suggests the greening of the manufacturing process as a multidimensional procedure and helps shed light on how to successfully manage it.

PurposeThe literature on corporate responsibility (CR) increasingly recognizes the importance of leadership in support of organizational change. This is particularly the case when CR provides the basis for the business contribution to sustainable development, which is understood to involve organizational and social innovation leading to change. The paper draws on theoretical and empirical studies to examine leadership for CR as a particular example of management innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper develops a model of leadership for CR as the business contribution to sustainable development by confronting and integrating the literatures on management innovation and leadership for CR. The proposed model is consistent with the direction, alignment, commitment (DAC) framework that fosters a culture of organizational leadership relevant to the specific case of business and sustainable development.FindingsThe process model described in the paper connects leadership in organizational change with literature on management innovation. The paper draws on theoretical and empirically grounded literature on management, corporate responsibility and organizational psychology. It puts forward a sequence of mechanisms that contribute to successful change and discusses how they are linked. This sequence provides a process model of leadership practices for CR as the business contribution to sustainable development viewed as a particular form of management innovation, which involves the advancement of leadership practices for CR as organizational and social change.Research limitations/implicationsThe model is useful as a reference to practice and as a basis for leadership development. In terms of theory the model needs to be more thoroughly tested in empirical settings to understand better the interdependencies between leadership practices for CR and management innovation.Originality/valueThis process model is the first attempt to develop a comprehensive understanding of CR in a management innovation framework. In doing this it moves beyond the recent focus on leadership skills and competences of individuals.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand whether firms evolve towards more comprehensive postures of CSR and what strategic factors drive the change.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is deductive‐inductive research based on six critical case studies and supported by extensive review of related literature. The paper provides historical analysis of six firms leaders in their industry (Nike, Shell, General Electric, 3M, CEMEX and IBM) combining primary and secondary data.FindingsFirms evolve over time towards more complex CSR postures. This evolution is driven by some key strategic factors. The article sets out a three‐stage framework connecting CSR evolution and the strategic change factors.Practical implicationsThe paper provides managers with a framework to promote strategic CSR change in their organizations.Originality/valueThe paper is a joint research study on the evolution of CSR and strategic drivers of change.

PurposeThis paper seeks to question the corporate responsibility (CR) department alignment with the business model of the company to provide some insights concerning the strategic focus of the CR department, the necessity or not to align the CR department to the business model of the company, and the ability to incorporate CR into the organization as competitive advantage from a specific business model.Design/methodology/approachThe capacity to discern some key success factors between the alignment of the CR department with the rest of the organization is done in three stages. The methodology sets the emphasis first, on the cognitive process approach of CEOs as strategists and second, on the cognitive process approach of the CR department using in both cases the Kase et al. framework. The third stage consists in crossing the results of the two first stages in a matrix where the alignment and misalignment cases are studied.FindingsThe findings show that embedding CR into the organizations is one of the most challenging issues CR faces today. The question of aligning the CR Department with the business model of the organization can be an option to elapse current obstacles in the deepening of CR.Originality/valueThis paper provides a new framework to analyze the cognitive process of the CR managers and a new matrix to study the alignment of the CR Department strategy with the rest of the organization.

PurposeThis paper aims to deal with the significance of leadership as driver of corporate responsibility and complementary, dynamic organizational change. It seeks to focus on the continuous attention required by competitiveness, and the cultural complexity of renewing business processes in a global environment.Design/methodology/approachThe paper opens by adopting the insecurity context that is clearly reflected in a range of contemporary management and non‐management discourses. Among the negative attributes of advanced globalization the authors trace the erosion of trust between society and institutions to perceptions of impropriety by managers in large firms. Reflecting on their extensive joint experience of the corporate responsibility vanguard from the early 1990s, they suggest some interesting themes that will be familiar to governance and CSR academics and practitioners alike. Strands of social, political, economic, cultural and environmental complexity are evident in the narratives.FindingsPerhaps reflecting this decline in trust, the chorus of stakeholders calling for CSR two decades ago has now segued into a demand for sustainable enterprise. But are the dimensions of sustainability any more distinct and measurable than its conceptual antecedent: what is it for a firm to be responsible, accountable, sustainable and transparent? While aspiration can be seen to be running well ahead of capability on such a score in many businesses there are some showing clear leadership in the challenge to be more sustainable.Originality/valueThe paper offers an insight on the responses to this challenge at telecoms multinational BT. It articulates a comprehensive approach to what is a highly socialized (human‐focused) approach to managing the multiplicity of risks inherent in the opening context.

PurposeThis paper sets out to reveal the extent to which the experience of senior managers as organizational change leaders in a time of contemporary crisis may be discerned to reflect strands of earlier globalization theories; to consider any implications for leadership and management learning.Design/methodology/approachThe authors proceed from the colloquium model for knowledge exchange outlined in the editorial introduction to this special issue. In the spirit of reflexive management research the authors bring an epistemological subjectivism – the context of indicative globalization literature ("research") – to bear upon and interpret ontological realism as revealed by the experiences of senior managers through a contemporary survey of global firms ("practice"). This methodology enlists an ontology informed by critical theory; it proceeds through process denaturalization to potentially transformational knowledge development.FindingsThe authors interpret globalization literature to reveal one strand as historically predictive of the insecurity and complexity we have recently experienced in the global economies. An informal and experimental survey along with a range of interviews with senior managers in global firms is undertaken in the wake of a market meltdown (September 2008). Interpreting the experience of these managers in the light of selected globalization literature, we find economic reasoning is more implicit in managers' experiences of globalization, while sociological experience or feeling is more explicit in the same discourses. This epistemological distinction – vocalized as a performance gap – has profound implications for leadership and management education and learning.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical survey was exploratory in nature and not designed to test any particular hypothesis. The theoretical framework and interpretive account were reflexive afterthoughts – an informal, initial take on some results from a survey. Such methodological bricolage is envisaged in reflexive management research and not limited by compliance with normal standards of academic rigor. Beyond the similarities in conceptualization as between selected readings and selected practice, the authors suggest that management learning and education will need to be organized more structurally and systemically if we are to reproduce a more sustainable organizational future.Practical implicationsSenior managers are clearly aware of the problems resulting from systemic failure – they may need to consider a systemic and not a linear solution. This has consequences for management learning and the business school.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical in‐crisis survey interpreted through lenses of economic and sociological dimensions of globalization.

PurposeThis paper aims to address the importance of a framework for developing employees' sustainability knowledge, skills, and behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on in‐depth interviews with executives from five Fortune 1000 companies that are viewed as market leaders in addressing sustainability.FindingsThis paper provides a series of initiatives to equip their employees' talent – from top executives to employees throughout the organization – with the much needed, but often sorely lacking knowledge, skills and attitudes to spearhead efforts to attend to sustainability both today and tomorrow.Practical implicationsThe usefulness of demonstrating a company's suite of ongoing initiatives to address sustainability to potential employees during the recruiting process is highlighted by each company.Originality/valueThe framework covered by this paper can help companies enhance their talent management skills.

PurposeCompanies increasingly find themselves under pressure to adopt socially responsible forms of operation. Since organizational change is crucially influenced by knowledge creation and sense‐making, this paper aims to determine how knowledge management (KM) processes can foster (or impede) progress towards corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the KM literature to identify areas of knowledge management that are particularly relevant to managing a company's social and environmental externalities.FindingsDistinguishing between two related but analytically distinct approaches to knowledge management, namely an element and a process view, the paper develops a conceptual model of how knowledge management can impact on CSR.Originality/valueDistinguishing between elements of knowledge and processes of managing these allows a more systematic and comprehensive approach to managing knowledge around CSR.

PurposeThis paper aims to explain why CSR policies have failed to render organizations more ethical and to propose concepts for using CSR for improving the ethics of organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the literature on CSR to compare how gaps in this field of literature are similar to those in leadership theory.FindingsThe paper posits that the different logical approaches to CSR are not necessarily ethical since ethics is based on the emotional involvement of the actor. The paper explains that leadership is not a hierarchical position but the emotional ability to follow one's worldview – either the Theta or Lambda worldviews – based on how one perceives his life purpose. The paper shows how to integrate knowledge from leadership theory to render the various CSR policies more ethical.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper shows the implication of the need for emotional involvement in research, in general. While the paper indicates a direction for how to integrate CSR policies into organizations, it does not provide examples.Originality/valueThe paper argues for a definition of leadership as the ability to act authentically according to one's worldview, either Theta or Lambda. Based on this context, it provides a better definition of strategy and tactics while arguing that CSR is only applicable to the latter category.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which companies are embedding the corporate responsibility function in different organizational structures, and to identify, when possible, best practices related to organizational structures which have proved effective in managing corporate responsibility that can be applied by any organization, regardless of size or industry sector.Design/methodology/approachThe authors developed and applied a methodology, in the form of a questionnaire, covering more than 40 aspects to describe what companies are doing to integrate the corporate responsibility function in their organizational structures. The design of the survey was based on available literature as well as their own professional experience answering questions commonly received from clients in Latin America. The questionnaire was then applied to a small sample using companies' public information from reports and company web sites.FindingsThe application of the questionnaire on a sample of Chilean companies using their public information tested the tool as valid and fit for the designed purpose. The main conclusions were that CSR structuring and CSR strategies are both strongly associated with the size of the company in terms of number of employees and revenues.Originality/valueMany questions arise when the task of implementing CSR is proposed and Latin American companies are trying to apply best practices by learning from the experience of companies with longer histories in CSR matters. However, trends are not uniform and different organizations are taking a variety of pathways in the process of CSR implementation. This paper offers a general vision of how companies are making the effort to implement CSR best practices, in terms of structure, strategy and scorecard; and presents a simple tool to assess the gaps, if any, in the effective embedding of corporate responsibility on organizational structures.