Cole Strickland, Sakura Osuga, Audrey Madison, Keahn White, Jackson Levenstein
Employee Engagement in Sustainable Organizations: Finding strategies to keep employees engaged in the rising sustainable economy that has developed in the last ten years. How can sustainable companies appeal to their employees’ ethical mindset to make their employees more productive and successful?
Title: Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk
Hoogendoorn, B, van der Zwan, P.W, & Thurik, A.R. (2017). Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk. Journal of Business Ethics, 1–22.
This paper was written to analyze the possible and observed risks that are present in having a business that is sustainability-oriented. Specifically focusing on sustainable entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, the paper examines the result of implementing an environmentally ethical stance into a business, and the perceived risks that it has by being the presence of their priorities. Our group is focusing on the effects environmental ethics have on business and OB and the strategies they use to keep it a priority in their companies. By examining how startup businesses and entrepreneurs keep themselves motivated through the challenges faced by prioritizing the environment when first establishing their business, we can then apply this information to how businesses that are already established stay encouraged. By seeing how businesses fundamentally stay motivated in the beginning of their career, we can grasp a deeper understanding of how they keep the momentum of motivation throughout their business’s life. The sustainable ethics that are the foundation to a business can be very influential towards future decisions made by companies. The risks that the authors presented can be applied to conventional and already recognized companies and businesses as well. What this information lacks is the fact that it only focuses on entrepreneurs and startups so the other articles that we read through will help aid and inform us more on how traditional businesses act with having the ethical stresses introduced while being a sustainable business.
Title: Business Ethics and Sustainability: Research in Hospitality Management
Lashley , C. (2016, November 16). Business ethics and sustainability. Research in Hospitality Management, 6(1): 1–7
This discussion paper was written to discuss what business ethics and sustainability mean in the tourism and hospitality industry. More importantly, the author lays out an analytical framework and process as to which a managerial decision on how ethical and sustainable they are. It is easy for a company to say that their decisions are ethical and sustainable. With this framework, there is a way to rate and measure the decisions these companies make. The article goes on to discuss the rising recognition that the tourism and hospitality industry is environmentally detrimental. It’s recognized that hotel managers and owners won’t make decisions that are ethical and sustainable, unless they are also profitable. This is where policy would come in and set guidelines for how trash is recycled and disposed of, types of light bulbs, and other green technologies. There is a need for the tourism and hospitality industry (along with other industries) to become more ethical and environmentally focused. This article provides a framework for how to keep companies in check and provides solutions for players in the industry to better improve their practices. This is relevant to our topic about keeping employees engaged in Sustainable Organizations because with a framework for analyzing ethical decisions, organizations can analyze their managers’ decisions and inform their employees of this information.
Correa, Habermas, Seguro (2019). “Sustainable Ethical Decision Making In Groups: Guidelines For Operationalising A Proposal”. Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics. Issue 10, p37-59. 23p. Web.
This article focuses on the necessary need for a new sustainable approach towards business and the way organizations make decisions on different levels. It will determine what an ethical sustainable decision actually looks like, and how the topic of sustainability is interpreted and acted upon in the work environment and business world. Through research and observation, the authors dissect how this topic affects managers as individuals and the shortcomings of individual decision-making, but also the decision-making process between groups of people working together within businesses. The short and long-term decisions that people in these positions have to make serve as great real-life examples for the purpose of researching and beginning to understand the connections between sustainability in business and organizational behavior.
Polman, P., & Bhattacharya, C. B. (2016, September). Engaging Employees to Create a Sustainable Business (SSIR).
In this article, Paul Polman and C.B. Bhattacharya focus on techniques or strategies businesses can implement to increase employee engagement. They identify ways management can influence their employees’ attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors about sustainability based on previous studies and organizations that have successfully created strong engagement. This article is particularly useful because it explains not only how to get employees engaged, but why they become engaged in their work. Understanding employee’s reasoning for being engaged or not with their company helps one develop tools and strategies to create engaged employees, specifically in a sustainable context. Further, Polman & Bhattacharya explain, employees make more ethical decisions in an organization that has a higher purpose. This article helps one gain a better understanding of the relationship between employee’s personal values and their employer’s values and how it can in turn impact the employee’s engagement within the organization.
Schaltegger, Stefan, Horisch, Jacob (2015). “In Search of the Dominant Rationale in Sustainability Management: Legitimacy- or Profit-Seeking?” Journal of Business Ethics, 145(2), 259-276. Web.
This article debates the two sides of why businesses are making sustainable changes. Many are making changes for the sake of gaining ethical validity, while others are finding ways to make these “ethical” decisions simply to find more profit. Big business is especially prevalent in the issue of sustainability because of the high volume of pollution they are responsible for (transportation, waste, fumes, etc.) We are essentially researching the motives behind business’s decisions to make sustainable turns and how they are keeping motivated throughout the process. This article is giving us a look at the different sides of the spectrum and how certain businesses are able to make these changes work for them. The main critique I have for this article is that it only focuses on two very specific arguments. This is good for us in the sense that we will have plenty of research to explore on these two arguments, but it does lack any outside perspective aside from them. Within the other articles we have chosen, we will be able to explore some of the factors not discussed in this article, such as barriers businesses may face, how to handle leadership in these stressful times, etc.
Williams, E. F. (2015). Green giants: how smart companies turn sustainability into billion-dollar businesses. New York: AMACOM, American Management Association.
In this book, Freya Williams, the CEO of Futerra North America pools research with personal experience to develop the six common characteristics she sees in the most successful sustainable businesses. William’s identifies nine billion-dollar sustainable organizations and describes the commonalities found in the ‘Green Giant’s’ success. While much of this text focuses on marketing and sustainability, there are two chapters more relevant to our topic. First describes what a leader of a sustainable business looks like. By studying leadership within profitable sustainable organizations, we can understand what leadership strategies may result in employees that clearly do good work. Another chapter discusses the importance of having a higher purpose and more importantly, it impacts how the organization works from the outside and the inside. Understanding the impact higher purpose has on an organization can help us identify its importance when considering employee engagement and ethics. Finally, the last chapter of the book emphasizes the impact reputation has on a business and the importance of transparency, responsibility, and collaboration. In general, the book highlights the shared qualities of billion-dollar green businesses, which helps us make strong connections between the distinct qualities of sustainable businesses, thus the distinct strategies green businesses may use when developing employee engagement.