Engineering managers and sustainable systems: the need for and challenges of using an ethical framework for transformative leadership

Jones, Sharon A.; Michelfelder, Diane P.; Nair, Indira

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.009

Cited by 33 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The literature also recognizes the role of CSR in promoting social development in low-income and developing countries [6,23,24], and at the same time provides ample discussion on the sustainability aspects of CSR initiatives where businesses are expected to serve the society in a way that they are able to generate a momentum toward sustainable development [25]. While companies have been articulating their views on sustainability for the last three decades or more, embedding them within their operations remains a challenge [26].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: Culture of Monitoring and Evaluation of CSR Initiatives in India

2018

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This study examines the continuum of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies, and analyzes broad patterns that have emerged with respect to monitoring and evaluation practices in the CSR programs of Indian companies under new CSR regulations. Under these regulations, the Indian firms are mandated to spend at least 2% of their profits on social and development sectors. We specifically analyze (i) how Indian companies have conceptualized the idea of sustainability in their annual sustainability reports, and how these ideas get reflected in their CSR policies, and (ii) the monitoring and evaluation practices in CSR interventions. The study uses both primary and secondary data sources, and employs text network analysis and narratives-based content analysis to analyze the data. We find that the conceptualization of sustainability is a largely rhetoric and customary exercise that does not take into account variations in firms’ businesses. This approach toward sustainability initiatives presents serious challenges to sustainability, including social sustainability. The study also finds that there is lack of ‘willingness’ and ‘readiness’ among Indian companies to measure and monitor the outcomes of CSR interventions, which is arguably one of the most robust ways to signal their commitment toward corporate sustainability. Although mandatory CSR spending is a recent phenomenon in India, our study establishes that it is only through the design of effective CSR policies that the best practices for Indian business community can emerge in the near future.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: Culture of Monitoring and Evaluation of CSR Initiatives in India

2018

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“…However, their efforts are often frustrated by the imprecision of the concept, the differences in priorities of project stakeholders, and the lack of appropriate training. For instance, training pays little attention to the influence of engineering and technology on social systems or how those systems interrelate with other sustainability goals (Jones et al 2015). Differences in priorities raise conflicts over project goals; again, engineers are poorly prepared to cope with such differences.…”

Section: Engineering For Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Network priorities for social sustainability research and education: Memorandum of the Integrated Network on Social Sustainability Research Group

Hollander

Amekudzi-Kennedy

Bell

et al. 2016

Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy

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“…In a more recent paper, Bielefeldt and Canney 2015propose a framework that is in part based on an ethics of care in order to help understand how engineering students develop their own personal and professional responsibility. Jones, et. al.…”

Section: Drawing Connections Through Sustainability Education and Thementioning

confidence: 99%

From Caring About Sustainability to Developing Care-Ful Engineers

Michelfelder

Jones

2016

New Developments in Engineering Education for Sustainable Development

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Engineering is commonly thought of as a problem-solving profession (e.g. Allenby, 2009; Zhou, 2012). Still, good problem-solving depends on good problem-framing, which typically means capturing both the technical and social aspects of the problem at hand. It can though be challenging for engineering students to capture both these aspects of a problem. Cech (2014) has pointed out that significant challenges still exist within engineering curricula with regard to "reading" technical problems with multiple layers of meaning. What can be done to better this state of affairs? Fortunately, sustainability issues have caught the attention of this generation of college students (Watson et. al., 2013). Building on the student enthusiasm associated with sustainability may be one way to foster student development regarding how to include ethical dimensions as an integral part of engineering framing and problem solving. We suggest that one option to achieve this is by teaching sustainability using an ethic of care framework that offers elements that more easily engage individuals in problem framing. This approach assumes that because engineering students "care" about sustainability as it applies to their disciplines, faculty can use an ethic of care framework to help students operationalize ethics as an integral component of the engineering decisionmaking process. By building on these initial lessons, students are better prepared to consider the sociotechnical dimensions of engineering problems. Our argument draws upon examples from the University of Portland that both demonstrate how students have a difficult time translating ethical theories to engineering problems, and show how the ethic of care approach can manifest itself naturally in the engineering curricula. We hope this paper serves to facilitate efforts to intentionally use sustainability issues to improve the teaching and learning of engineering ethics and further cultivate the T-shaped engineer.

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Engineering managers and sustainable systems: the need for and challenges of using an ethical framework for transformative leadership

Cited by 33 publications

References 23 publications

Bridging Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: Culture of Monitoring and Evaluation of CSR Initiatives in India

Bridging Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: Culture of Monitoring and Evaluation of CSR Initiatives in India

Network priorities for social sustainability research and education: Memorandum of the Integrated Network on Social Sustainability Research Group

From Caring About Sustainability to Developing Care-Ful Engineers

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