Building an Ethical Organisation

How can one in practice go about introducing ethical values systematically into a business organisation? The process described here was presented to the annual meeting of European Business Ethics Centres, held in Prague in 1993. Dr Di Toro is Research Fellow in Business Administration, Environmental and Social Sciences Department, School of Economics, University of Siena, Piazza S. Francesco 17, 53100 Siena, Italy.     

Finn Organisation and Spatial Dynamics

For the past three years the world economy has suffered a recession. In contrast to earlier global, as well as national,recessions when manufacturing industries were most vulnerable,business services have been signijicantly affected. Not surpris-ingly, this has revived old doubts about the role of services in modern economies. The papers in this section re-examine the problematics associated with the efficiency and productivity of service organisations. Even if the social division of labour is a strong argument to support the growth of service industries, attempts to understand better the connection between service firm location and different ways of internally organising and coordinating production might be one useful direction for future research.     

Empathy,Connectedness and Organisation

In this paper, we conceptually explore the role of empathy as a connectedness organising mechanism. We expand ideas underlying positive organisational scholarship and examine leading-edge studies from neuroscience and quantum physics that give support to our claims. The perspective we propose has profound implications regarding how we organise and how we manage. First, we argue that empathy enhances connectedness through the unconscious sharing of neuro-pathways that dissolves the barriers between self and other. This sharing encourages the integration of affective and cognitive consciousness which facilitates the ability to find common ground for solution building. Second, empathy enhances connectedness through altruistic action. In giving to others, feelings of joy and harmony are activated. This in turn allows personal freedom to be enriched and transcendence from the rational ego-self is reduced to develop a more expansive, integrated and enlightened state underlying connectedness. Finally, empathy enhances connectedness which results in sharing the quantum field of coherence where there is little separation between self and other. This means living beyond self-interest in a coherent world based upon interdependent wholeness rather than atomization and separation. Empathy allows us to find that state of coherent connectedness.     

Introduction: History in Organisation Studies

Presenting a detailed reconstruction of the commercial travels undertaken by English hardware factor John Shaw in the period 1810–1815, this article reappraises the somewhat neglected role of the commercial traveller in British business history. In particular, it will be shown how, by the early nineteenth century, commercial travelling was well established and displayed elements of ‘modernity’. The case allows insights into the part played by factors and their commercial travellers in facilitating integration and specialization across the economy.     

A World Environmental Organisation: The Wrong Solution to the Wrong Problem

The starting point for a discussion of reform of the global environmental machinery should be an enquiry into the causes of the ineffectiveness of current arrangements. The argument made here is, firstly, that many of the criticisms made of the existing architecture by advocates of a WEO are misplaced, while ignoring other key faults. Secondly, that the suggested form of a WEO is problematic and may exacerbate existing problems, particularly for developing countries. I focus here more on the notion that a WEO should pursue the internalisation of environmental externalities. I argue that while this goal is worth pursuing, proposals for a deal‐brokering body are unlikely to make much progress in delivering it because of misplaced assumptions about the existing political order and the ability of a WEO to remedy current weaknesses.     

Organisation and Control in Retail Buying Groups

Retail alliances are a mechanism which enables small and medium retail businesses to compete with corporate retail chains. Alliances face different organisational problems from those of corporate chains because of the need to ensure convergence of interests between the individual member and the organisation as a whole. This paper examines how retail buying groups organise in terms of membership structures, control mechanisms, incentive structures and management systems to meet these needs. A study of retail buying groups in the United Kingdom is reported. Results show that these groups are not mirror images of corporate retail chains but vehicles to preserve the independence of their members through voluntary participation and democratic control structures.     

Reviewing Proposals for a World Environmental Organisation

Since the Earth Summit in Rio 1992, several calls have been made for a world environmental organisation (WEO), and only during the last year, in the run‐up to Rio+10, five more have been added. In total, we have found 17 proposals for a WEO. We review, compare, and briefly discuss rationales, models, tasks, organisational set‐up, relations to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and organisations such as UNEP and the WTO, as well as the role of principles, compliance and the interest of developing countries. We conclude that a majority of proposers is in favour of an autonomous coordinating agency, that is, a medium level of integration. Frequently the WTO is mentioned as a precursor agency on which a WEO should be based. We question the effectiveness of a ‘WTO for the environment’ and suggest that other models ought to be considered.     

Linking Unlearning with Work–Life Balance: An Initial Empirical Investigation into SMEs

The use of work–life balance (WLB) supporting cultures to provide and support the welfare of both the individuals and their families is expected to improve organizational outcomes by enabling company members to improve levels of job satisfaction and commitment to work. However, creating or introducing another culture in the company frequently generates internal problems when it conflicts with the current culture in terms of the beliefs, habits, and things managers take for granted. In this paper, we develop a framework for modeling how the unsuitable knowledge may be mitigated in order to strengthen a WLB culture. It is based on the idea that the presence of an unlearning context that fosters the updating of knowledge is likely to be essential for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) that are trying to implement a WLB culture. The research model and hypothesized relationships are empirically tested using the structural equation modeling approach, validated by factor analysis of 229 SMEs in the Spanish metal industry. Our findings show that in order to strengthen a WLB culture and thus positively influence innovation‐related outcomes, SMEs meet the challenge of developing an unlearning context to counteract the negative effects of the outdated knowledge in relevant areas and to facilitate the replacement of out‐of‐date or obsolete knowledge.     

World Environmental Organisation: A Latin American Perspective

This paper offers insight into environmental problems that Latin American countries are currently facing. It also looks at how their domestic and global spheres are intertwined, and subsequently outlines pending roblems that would need international support from a World Environmental Organistion (WEO). One of the hardest and most important tasks of such an Organisation would be to render the Northern and the Southern environmental agendas compatible. While opinions concur on what the principle environmental problems in Latin America are – eforestation and natural resources degradation – the perception of these problems is quite different between North and South. For the former, the most important impact of the situation is the reduction of CO2 capacity and the biodiversity loss, while the main concern in Latin America is the poverty stricken economy behind the deforestation process and the vulnerability of the population that results from such phenomenon. Advancing simultaneously on both these tracks seems essential for a genuine improvement in environmental performance in the region.     

An Asian Perspective on a World Environmental Organisation

We analyse the possible response from Asian developing countries (ADC) to the proposal for the formation of an international legal entity called World Environmental Organistion (WEO) designed to facilitate the internalisation of global environmental externalities. We argue that the WEO must recognise the fundamental indivisibility of the economic growthenvironment agenda in these countries. If suitable side payments in the shape of tariff concessions, relaxation of non‐tariff barriers and transfers of technology and cash are made and the WEO is seen to be relevant to the environmental problems of ADC, they may well participate in such a venture.     

An Internalisation‐based World Environmental Organisation

We evaluate the possibilities for a new World Environmental Organisation (WEO), with our discussion motivated both by recent calls for such an organisation in light of WTO trade and environment conflicts and the relative absence of internalisation of global externalities. We propose an organisation building upon the idea of facilitating Coasian deal on the global environment. We motivate the establishment of such an organisation by itemising the ways in which global environmental deals are presently restrained by various impediments, including free riding, property right ambiguities, and mechanisms for authentification and verification. We indicate how such a WEO might help in each of these areas, stressing the differences from the WTO which is a much narrower bargaining framework.     

Why a new International Development Organisation is needed

The present arrangements for providing developing countries, and in particular the least developed countries, with international finance are inadequate in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Fundamental changes seem necessary. These changes might incorporate the establishment of a new International Development Organisation (IDO). Such an organisation could be financed in a way which does not conflict with the current consensus on international monetary reform.     

How Market–Based Organisation Sustains Organic Innovation

Large corporations persist in the belief that innovation can be acquired. But market leadership comes from truly organic innovation. Internal market forces can prove a dynamic mechanism to make such innovation a reality, say Liisa Välikangas and Paul Merlyn of the Strategos Instititue.     

Organisation structure and innovation performance in different environments

This paper examines the relationship between organisation structure and innovation performance in a large sample of UK small and medium-sized enterprises. It asks whether there is an optimal structure and whether this differs between different firm environments and between young and older firms. We find that the influences on the ability to innovate differ from those on the commercialisation of innovations. We show that decentralised decision-making, supported by a formal structure and written plans, supports the ability to innovate in most circumstances and is superior to other structures. We also find some evidence that young firms operating in high technology sectors with informal structures have a greater tendency to be innovative. In addition, we find very few differences between young and older firms in terms of their optimal structures in low technology sectors.