Management For A Small Planet : Book Review

As we have developed as a species so has our impact on the natural world. This is evident in the rise of natural disasters since the industrial revolution. By the end of the industrial revolution the number of natural disasters had almost doubled. This could be down to the fact that there was an extensive increase in the amount of carbon dioxide and monoxide emitted into the atmosphere (as seen in figure 2.), damaging the balance of the Earth’s temperature. The Industrial Revolution is still known as one of the main catalysts for change in history. There were many engineering advancements that took place and many people benefited however as they say, “There are always two ways to look at a situation”. Huge increases in combustion since the 1800s has doubled the amount of Carbon dioxide that’s been emitted into the atmosphere. The burning of more and more fossil fuels and machine driven products increased rapidly due to the high demand of fast working products.(This can be seen in

Despite only being around for around two hundred thousand years, humanity has accomplished many great tasks. Humans have been able to conquer most of the land on Earth. They have been able to find ways to travel across huge landscapes in a matter of hours. They have developed ways to grow and harvest their own food through agriculture. Humans even were able to send people into space. Despite these accomplishments, they have all come at a great cost. Humans had to deforest many areas in order to be able to live in those places. Almost all of the modern transportation relies on the nonrenewable resource that is fossil fuels. As the population has grown, bigger farms were made that consume loads of water. Due to these costs, the greatest threat to human sustainability is our reliance on nonrenewable energy and resources. In order to shift from this path, humanity must continue to move away from nonrenewable energy and develop renewable energy, and convince businesses that this path is profitable.

Bertrand Piccard quotes, “In the 21st century, the heroes will be the people who will improve the quality of life, fight poverty and introduce more sustainability. This is a powerful message, it sums up the concepts discussed throughout the course. Additionally, the case studies such as the New Belgium Brewery, SC Johnson and The Kimberly Clarke organization have been proven to practice this philosophy. As society progresses in its efforts to provide a more sustainable future, there is a fundamental foundation of principles that must be followed to ensure success. Sustainable business development takes into account the application of business operations as it relates to the three pillars of sustainability, which is a dynamic yet integrative place to begin this journey. DesJardins, (2006) calls for a re-imagination of the future to create a vibrant sustainable model; which forms similar beliefs to Piccard. In addition, organizations are more inclined to create sustainable practices based on consumer demand and the willingness of leadership to participate in sustainability programs.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impacts of different environmental factors on the business operations of a company. The discussion has been made in the light of international accepted microeconomics concepts and practices.

As the days go by the technology of the world advances too. We sit back as people present to us these new inventions to improve our environment. Do you ever think back the materials and supplies you use for your personal needs? Over consumption of natural resources is huge problem in our world. With the new technological advances there are alternative ways to meet these needs. As I sit in my environmental science class, we discuss what natural resources are being over consumed not for our needs anymore, but for our wants.

“Leadership is the process of directing, controlling, motivating and inspiring staff toward the realization of stated organizational goals” (Clegg, S.R. Kornberger, M. & Pitsis. 2011, p.126.) Leadership in the post-bureaucratic era is essential for the success of a company, and also plays part into the Sustainability of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility for an enterprise. In this essay I will discuss how leadership contributes to the Managing Sustainability of Ethic and Corporate Social Responsibility for a business in the post-bureaucratic era. In section I I will provide a basic overview of the concepts and ideas surrounding Business Ethics, Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. In section II I will debate how a company must possess a leader with a sense of power an authority that is able to promote organizational sustainability, but how these managers have the choice to do this both positively and negatively for an enterprise. In section III I will examine new age approaches to leadership and the form ethical leadership as the basis of successfully advancing organisations sustainability, and finally in section IV will review the affect that stakeholders have regarding sustainability and business ethics and how to can encourage and promote the management of sustainability.

In this unit the author speaks about time for a management reset, meaning that since there are so many changes occurring in the business world such as in our economy that it is essential that companies start changing their management strategies. Company managers tend to be more effectively reset their management by restructuring their goals, thus prioritizing environmental and social issues. Furthermore, there are two management resets that occurred in the past, one was the Command and Control Organizations (CCOs), which came about because of mass production due to high consumer demand. The other management reset was the High Involvement Organizations (HIOs) in which began when the work became more difficult and higher educational levels were necessary. The author further states that because of the various environment, social, and business changes that CCOs and HIOs are now obsolete in our current business world; and that the two main reasons are due to the rapid pace of globalization and the rising rate of environmental degradation. Furthermore, the author continues by mentioning that in order to have sustainable management there must be flexibility for change while having environmental awareness, supporting all the employees involved, and making a consistent profit. In order for the effectiveness of an organization it would depend on four methods, which are the how the value is created, how work is organized, how people are treated,

We, as humans, have always had a prevalent impact on our environment and our world as a whole. Not only has our societal presence caused negative global impact, but our expedited population growth has also had an extreme physical impact on earth. An example of the effects of our extensiveness is, “…86% of the world 's resources are consumed by only the wealthiest one fifth of humanity…” (globalissues.org). this means that 4/5ths of the planet already has limited access to resources that are naturally found on earth. In addition to our excessive consumption of the earth natural resources, environmental degradation is the result of extreme pollution and wastes that have made their way into our atmosphere. Because of our severe impact on nature, it is crucial that we stop the accelerated deterioration of our environment by decreasing our misuse of earth’s natural resources, reducing the use of unnecessary technology in our environment and practicing more ecologically responsible lifestyles. This “can help protect the environment and sustain its natural resources for current and future generations” (thrall.org).

An environmental analysis in plays an essential role in business management by providing possible opportunities or threats outside the company in its external environment. The purpose of an environmental analysis is to help to develop a plan by keeping decision-makers within an organization. The changes include exchanging of executive parties, increasing guidelines to decrease pollution, technological developments, and fluctuating demographics. An environment analysis helps the industries to improve the outline of their environment to find more opportunities or threats.

For example, Interface’s model emphasised a more ecological and environmental drive, while accompanying the social aspects of maximising stakeholder satisfaction. However, Bendigo Bank solely emphasised on the social aspects, in accordance to the enhancement of customer and community welfare. Overall, the contribution to sustainability elucidated a post-bureaucratic view, however, Clegg and Courpasson (2004) suggest, post-bureaucracy forms are an original amalgamation of older principles in a perception designated as a new. Therefore, the degree of bureaucratic essence was evidential as both cases acknowledge profit as a significant outcome in the social and the environmental aspect of an organisation. Therefore, Stubbs and Cockling (2008) highlight the role of leadership in contributing to sustainable values, by aligning organisational ideal's with the “community values”. Hence, focused leaders are then contributing to “cultural sustainability” in the minds of the “stakeholder” (Bansal, 2002 cited in Stubbs and Cocklin 2008 pg. 116). However, Cockling and Stubbs advocate, once the culture attains sustainability there is little reliance on hierarchical leadership. Thus, modern-bureaucratic leadership has indefinitely interpolated with this collective style of post-heroic stakeholder sustainability, shaping and driving the purpose and mission of the business, through the sustainable business

Adequate availability of resources, such as food and water, are only available to a limited population, and the way of life of humans is often at the expense of other species and natural habitats. Also, in 3 to 4 decades an extra 2 billion people will be living on Earth. This means food production must rise by 60%.

One positive implication capitalism has to the natural environment is industrial ecology, a system of chain production and consumption, serving to the lowest environmental impacts in a most environmentally sustainable economy as the main goal of operation (Richards & Pearson, 1998). The Companies in a like to operate in such way because of four major reasons. The most important factor is known as the corporate well-being, for it is determined by higher profits and growth provided by innovations in an industry. Profits are increased from recognizing the production ineffiency costs that comes from wasted inputs and energy losses; this allowing cost savings to increase and ineffiency to decrease. compliance with cleaner technology alternatives such as ones that produce less waste and less energy will provide long term savings which are both beneficial to the environment and the business at hand. A real world example freight company changes their salvaged driving equipment to hybrid vehicles. Money is temporarily lost, but the gasoline and maintenances cost savings will compensate in a long run period of time.

With the development of the global economy, the interaction between environment and companies became more important, therefore, throughout macro environment analysis, which includes political, economic, social, environment, legal and technology (PESTEL) that provides an indispensable part in the comprehensive list to understand opportunities and threats on the businesses (Searle and Barbuto, 2010). In this industry, political, economy and technology would mainly influence the strategies, thus

An organization is an open system; therefore it interacts with its environment. To manage the relationship with the environment, a large part of strategic planning is concerned. The environmental factors can be divided to 2 main categories, which is MACRO and MICRO .Macro environmental factors seriously affect an organization business practice, profitability and future progress. It can

This research is compiled to explain how good ethical practices and good values in business can yield sustainability within the business and the society as a whole and in order to do this the concept of ethical business practice and values have to be understood.