Living Sustainably Flashcards
Sustainable Responsibility: Business Side (Stakeholder View)
- First, a clear and important need to meet the expectations of a company’s theoretical owners: the shareholders. It would, however, be more accurate to call them investors.
- The purpose of a business, in other words, is not to make a profit. It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better.
(Handy, 2002)
Sustainable Responsibility: Business Side
Corporate Citizenship
Ways in which governmental and corporate roles in administering citizenship are changing:
- Where government ceases to administer citizenship rights
- Where government has not as yet administered citizen ship rights
- Where the administration of citizenship rights may be beyond the reach of the nation-state government
- Western Centric ideas?
Sustainable Responsibility: Business Side
Cultural and Religious Perspectives
- Kibbutz – Socialist and Zionist movements – principals of community enterprise
- Moshav – Pre-war Palestine – marketing and farm purchases as collective engagements
- Islamic obligations – e.g. Takaful – Islamic Insurance; Moral obligations to employees (Bukhari; 2359, 2109); Sharia & Taqwa – deontological obligation – social/commercial integration e.g. dignity and equity
- Jewish – “tzedaka” – Charity; the Torah - anonymous giving of 10% of earnings
- Christianity – Alms giving
- Rejection of libertarian ethics in favour of paternalism
Sustainable Responsibility: Business Side
Domains of responsibility to stakeholders
Responsibility is:
- Instrumental – a tool for profit generation
- Political – concerned with the role of business as a value generator for society
- Integrative – necessary as business can only survive, prosper and grow if it integrates stakeholder demands into its activities
- Ethical – the business-society relationship is embedded in conceptions of what is ethical
Paradoxes of responsibility to stakeholders
Explicit – Pursuing individual pathway, voluntarily meeting specific stakeholder group claims
Implicit – Generalized pathway given by social and institutional consensus on what responsibilities there are and to whom
Convergent – “follow the flock” – common, tried and tested, practice
Divergent – differentiate through innovating stakeholder practices
Immediate – current stakeholders’ situation
Future responsibilities – future generations as the focus
Social stakeholders – customers, NGOs, governments
Non-social stakeholders – animals, the natural environment, future generations
Responsibility – voluntary stakeholder responsibility
Accountability – clear mechanisms to hold to account
Soft – act within the rules of the game
Hard/radical – fundamental shifts in the rules of the economic system or a new system altogether
Who to identify as crucial within stakeholders?
- Stakeholder Salience Model (Mitchel et al, 1997)
3 factors in Venn diagram of:
Power
Legitimacy
Urgency
What to identify as important sustainable issues for an organisation and its stakeholders
The Materiality Matrix
- Shows the axis of ‘Stakeholder Importance’ and ‘Organisational Importance’ with various issues
- Examples of factors include ‘Employee well-being’ and ‘Product safety’
Sustainable Responsibility: Consumer Side
Purchasing and consumption factors- ‘Green Consumerism’
Economic rationality – marginal utility – maximising utility:cost
Price sensitivity – willingness to pay a premium for eco-performance
Cultural factors – norms and values regarding environment and society
Social factors – social standing, acceptance, prestige – conspicuous consumption
Life stage – e.g. parenthood; established career; role of education and media to younger generations.
Lifestyle – attitude towards corporate responsibility; being ‘too busy’
Convenience – e.g. microwavable foods; disposable nappies – fast paced world; dual working families
Psychology – desire for control – green = communal and therefore less individual; exposure to the impact;
influence of marketing; motivating forces
(Fisher & Lovell, 2003)
Sustainable Consumption: Definition
- Consumer behaviour that enhances quality of life and minimizes or eliminates social and environmental harms throughout a product’s life cycle
Sustainable Responsibility: Consumer Side
Activism:
Action at home – sustainable lifestyles
- Raising awareness
- Produce practical knowledge e.g. water use, energy reduction.
- Product choices and investments e.g. low-flow showerheads
Sustainable Responsibility: Consumer Side
Activism:
Civil Society Organisations (CSO)
Examples:
Type: Community Groups, Research Organisation, Business Association, Trade Union, Technical Body
Scope: Local, Regional, National, Transnational, Global
Structure: Formal, Informal, Co-operative, Professional
Focus: Natural environment, social issues, development, poverty alleviation, human rights, animal welfare
Activities: Dialogue, Information provision, service provision, campaigning, partnerships
Sustainable Responsibility: Consumer Side
Civil Society Organisations (CSO) Tactics
Indirect action
Research
Communications and marketing campaigns
Misrepresentation; exaggeration
Direct action Non-violent Demonstrations and marches Protests Letters, emails or social media campaigns Boycotts Occupations Non-violent sabotage and disruption Stunts Picketing Violent
Sustainable Responsibility: Consumer Side
Civil Society Organisations (CSO) - Boycotts
Instrumental Boycotts – force the target to change a specific policy
Catalytic boycotts – raising awareness about the company’s actions and policies. A publicity tool.
Expressive boycotts – general forms of protest to communicate a displeasure about the target company. A ‘misalignment’ of values.
Punitive boycotts – punishing a company for specific actions. Seek to cause harm
Sustainable Responsibility: Consumer Side
Co-Production
Knowledge – sustainability agenda is best served when consumers, experts, researchers enterprises and governments work together in mutual, non-hierarchical, collaborations (c.f. Pohl et al, 2010)
Urban Development – stakeholder inclusion in the development and sustainability of urban communities (c.f. Ostrom, 1996)
Service Provision – the provision of public services, social projects etc. that is organised around inclusion and participation of the users in the production of the service (c.f. Pestoff, 2014)
Collective Action – Dynamic social processes of adaptation and the development and application of social capital towards the resolution of environmental challenges (c.f. Adger, 2010)
Attitudes and Actions:
Environmental Responsibility: Anthropocentrism
Philosophy
The nonhuman world is a storehouse of resources that bears instrumental value to human ends
Human emancipation and fulfilment in an ecologically sustainable society
Rationale
Efficient use of productive resources so as to minimize waste at higher output levels
Ensuring the quality or overall state of health and resilience of the physical and social environments
Aesthetic and spiritual appreciation and preservation of nature
Ethical Solutions
Technocentric – Provide technological solutions and innovative products that do not reduce human quality-of-life
