The new challenge for organisations is to deal with the complex issue of sustainability. However, the confusion surrounding "sustainability" hinders its implementation. This article formulates a framework consisting of three aspects to analyse the conceptual developments that underlie "sustainability": the artefact ("what"), goal orientation ("relative versus absolute") and (behavioural) interaction ("static versus dynamic"). The study of conceptual foundations underpins the framework. Contributions in both the theoretical (definitions) and the practical (indicators) spheres are analysed. The discussion about sustainability takes place in firms. Therefore, organisational developments are used as a reference timeline. Based on observations and analyses, this article suggests a new course for the sustainability discussion and its implications for the organisational context: a knowledge approach focussing on transparency and dialogue. This also implies that the emphasis in the sustainability discussion is changing from a merely environmental to an organisational and societal perspective.
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AbstractPurpose -This paper seeks to argue the relevance of knowledge management (KM) to the development of social capital, and to enhancing the capacity to take effective action in human social systems.Design/methodology/approach -The study applies a pluralistic definition of knowledge (including subjective beliefs in minds and objective claims expressed in language) to show that most forms of social capital reduce to knowledge.Findings -First, social capital mostly comprises knowledge (trust, beliefs, rules, and norms). Second, the capacity to individually and collectively learn (in networks) is therefore arguably the most important form of social capital, even if rarely acknowledged as such in the literature. Third, because of the importance of learning and innovation to the production of social capital in society and organizations, KM has an important role to play in related development efforts.Practical implications -The paper introduces social capital constructivism. Practicing it to strengthen social capital can enhance the capacity to take effective action in human social systems. This points to a new value proposition and functional orientation for KM: to enhance the human capacity to take effective action by fostering the growth and development of social capital. Originality/value -The thesis reveals social capital as consisting mostly of knowledge, and shows how KM can enhance a human capacity to take effective action in social systems by fostering the production of social capital itself.
a b s t r a c tPlanning and scheduling significantly influence organizational performance, but literature that pays attention to how organizations could or should organize and assess their planning processes is limited. We extend planning and scheduling theory with a categorization of scheduling performance criteria, based on a three-stage survey research design. Particularly, the results show that, next to schedule quality, the planning process factors timeliness, flexibility, communication, and negotiation are important performance criteria, and especially so in organizations that are faced with high levels of uncertainty. The results suggest that organizational and behavioral aspects of planning and scheduling cannot be mitigated with advanced models and software that solely focus on good schedules. Rather, high quality schedules and high quality scheduling processes need to be facilitated simultaneously to attain high planning and scheduling performance.
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