Environmental paradigms and organisations with an environmental mission

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Author(s)
Barter, Nick
Bebbington, Jan
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2012
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Show full item recordAbstract
Over the past twenty years scholars have argued that key to achieving sustainability are the paradigms held by organisational leaders who make strategic and operational decisions. Further leaders' paradigms need to move towards more sustaincentric and or ecocentric perspectives. This paper reports on an empirical study that explored the views of leaders of a series of environmentally focused organisations, linking their views to the paradigm scheme of Gladwin et al., (1995) in an attempt to understand how their rhetoric is aligned to different paradigms. Findings suggest that interviewees lean towards sustaincentrism and ...
View more >Over the past twenty years scholars have argued that key to achieving sustainability are the paradigms held by organisational leaders who make strategic and operational decisions. Further leaders' paradigms need to move towards more sustaincentric and or ecocentric perspectives. This paper reports on an empirical study that explored the views of leaders of a series of environmentally focused organisations, linking their views to the paradigm scheme of Gladwin et al., (1995) in an attempt to understand how their rhetoric is aligned to different paradigms. Findings suggest that interviewees lean towards sustaincentrism and or ecocentrism in their rhetoric but that they also support some anthropocentric assumptions. In support some simple practices brought forward by the sample as helpful in embedding sustainability awareness within their organisations are also highlighted. The paper concludes that the organisations suffer with fiscal drag but also demonstrate a new 'future normal.'
View less >
View more >Over the past twenty years scholars have argued that key to achieving sustainability are the paradigms held by organisational leaders who make strategic and operational decisions. Further leaders' paradigms need to move towards more sustaincentric and or ecocentric perspectives. This paper reports on an empirical study that explored the views of leaders of a series of environmentally focused organisations, linking their views to the paradigm scheme of Gladwin et al., (1995) in an attempt to understand how their rhetoric is aligned to different paradigms. Findings suggest that interviewees lean towards sustaincentrism and or ecocentrism in their rhetoric but that they also support some anthropocentric assumptions. In support some simple practices brought forward by the sample as helpful in embedding sustainability awareness within their organisations are also highlighted. The paper concludes that the organisations suffer with fiscal drag but also demonstrate a new 'future normal.'
View less >
Journal Title
International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development
Volume
6
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2012 Inderscience Publishers. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Business and Management not elsewhere classified
Agriculture, Land and Farm Management