Limits to anthropocentrism: toward an ecocentric organization paradigm?

Article Abstract:

This article examines the historically constituted dimensions of anthropocentrism, tracing the emergence of linear perspective, a camera theory of knowledge, and the human-nature dualism. These epistemological conventions are socially reproduced in organization science and management practice in their more contemporary anthropocentric forms: a disembodied form of technological knowing conjoined with an egocentric organizational orientation. Following this critique, the paradigmatic differences between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches for dealing with issues related to the natural environment are discussed in what is referred to respectively as the environmental management and ecocentric responsibility paradigms. Our analysis suggests that corporate environmentalism and so-called "greening-business" approaches are grounded in the environmental management paradigm. It is argued that environmental management approaches are incommensurable with the ecocentric responsibility paradigm. The tensions between these competing paradigms are examined as a useful stimulus for theory development toward an ecocentric organizational paradigm. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Models, Organizational effectiveness

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Ecocentric management for a risk society

Article Abstract:

A central feature of postindustrial modernization is the proliferation of technological and environmental risks and crises. These risks and crises emanate from corporate industrial activities. The traditional management paradigm is limited in several ways for responding to demands of the risk society and should be abandoned. I propose an alternative "ecocentric" paradigm for management in the risk society context, which advocates an ecologically centered conception of interorganizational relations and internal management activities. Thus, organizations are viewed as situated within bioregionally sustainable industrial ecosystems, relating to each other through a logic ecological interdependence. Within this context, ecocentric management seeks to minimize the environmental impact of orgnizational vision, inputs, throughputs, and outputs. Implications of this paradigm for management practice and research are examined. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Protection and preservation, Biotic communities, Organizational behavior, Interorganizational relations

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The role of corporations in achieving ecological sustainability

Article Abstract:

Ecological problems rooted in organizational activities have increased significantly, yet the role corporations play in achieving ecological sustainability is poorly understood. This article examines the implications of ecologically sustainable development for corporations. It articulates corporate ecological sustainability through the concepts of (a) total quality environmental management, (b) ecologically sustainable competitive strategies, (c) technology transfer through technology-for nature-swaps, and (d) reducing the impact of populations on ecosystems. It examines the implications that these concepts have for organizational research. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Corporations

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