By David Wasieleski, Sandra Waddock, Tim Fort, & Nuno Guimaraes-Da Costa

Looking at many management theories today, you could be excused if you thought that somehow management thinking and nature—as well as any scientific understandings about nature—were somehow separable. That is true despite the Herculean efforts of the late Bill Frederick to drive us business in society scholars kicking and screaming into understanding that our human nature and the natural world influences all of “what we do, how we do it, and why we are who we are”. It is true that, despite growing understanding of the role of ecosystems—natural and human made, complexity and chaos theories, and evolutionary development, management theory and even business in society scholarship generally fails to reflect that reality. Business and society scholarship is so rooted in social science assumptions, the natural tendencies of humans are often overlooked.

Sustainability, as the recent issue of Business & Society that we guest edited, reflects, increasingly demands attention to ecological issues and the ways in which we, as human beings and as management theorists, affect and are affected by nature. Sounds to us like the classic definition of a stakeholder relationship, except that we humans are actually stakeholders of nature, not the other way around. The core of the special issue and our introduction to it, titled “Natural Sciences, Management Theory, and System Transformation for Sustainability”, is to recognize that our current geological era is one that is strongly influenced by human intervention—including over biological, geological, and atmospheric processes on the planet. The scientific assessment is that we humans are in trouble on a planetary scale—from the “great acceleration” in human and social impacts and impacts of already-upon-us climate change to the breaching of planetary geophysical boundaries, it is increasingly clear that we are in the age of the Anthropocene.

These and other systemic challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, or inequality cannot be met with narrow spectrum management theories. Indeed, some observers are calling for significant system transformation, which would mean drastic changes in management thinking. That shift includes how businesses in society relate to the natural environment on which they depend. Increasingly we need to engage the type of transformative research that the National Science Foundation says includes “ideas, discoveries, or tools that radically change our understanding of an important existing scientific…or educational practice or leads to the creation of a new paradigm”.

Sustainability challenges, our special issue editor’s introduction and issue argues, demand radical new approaches that are multi-disciplinary, even trans-disciplinary. Paying attention to one sector, or even one body of literature, will likely be ineffective in bringing about the transformations that are needed to bring humankind into alignment with nature’s realities in sustainable ways. Understanding human nature, humans’ relationships with other natural beings, and the natural environment, means rethinking how “management” is done in significant ways. While this special issue is only a single step in that direction, we hope the thinking of the issue’s authors on the Anthropocene, planetary boundaries, systemic resilience, sustainability rating schemes, and the application of scientific methods to understanding collective corruption are a step in that direction. And that, in the future, many more such steps towards integrative, holistic, and transformative ways of thinking about humans, nature, and the natural sciences will be forthcoming.

References:

Frederick, W. C. 1995. Values, nature, and culture in the American corporation. Oxford University Press on Demand.

Freeman, R. E. 2010. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge university press.

National Science Board (US). 2007. Enhancing support of transformative research at the National Science Foundation. National Science Foundation.

Waddock, S. 2011. We are all stakeholders of Gaia: A normative perspective on stakeholder thinking. Organization & Environment, 24(2): 192-212.

Wasieleski, D., Waddock, S., Fort, T., & Guimaräes-Costa, N. 2021. Special Issue: Natural sciences, management theory, and system transformation for sustainability. Business & Society, 60(1).

Wasieleski, D., Waddock, S., & Shrivastava, P. 2021. Management and the Sustainability Paradox: Reconnecting the Human Chain. New York: Routledge.