Socially Sustainable Work Organisations: A Debate

Abstract

This is our third Research Note belonging to an ongoing debate in Systems Research and Behavioral Science about socially sustainable work organisations and systems approaches in their creation. In the Research Note, we provide a history of the debate and summarise some of its key points. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Misunderstanding Metatheorizing

“…Starting in 2008, an open debate has taken place in this journal on the scientific validity of chaordic systems thinking (ChST) and its theoretical contributions to open system theory (OST). To briefly recount, Kira and van Eijnatten (, , , ) proposed ChST as a new approach to thinking about sustainable work. They proposed ChST as a model that builds on, but also goes beyond, OST and socio‐technical systems (STS) theory.…”

“…Figure shows that there is a considerable difference between the positions of ‘A’ (metatheory building) and ‘B’ (middle‐range theory testing) and that these differences need to overtly recognized for meta‐level researchers and middle B‐level researchers to communicate to one another. Kira and van Eijnatten are inside the building arc of the metatheoretical level of research where evidence equates with ‘basic concepts’ (, p. 748) ‘systems lenses’ (), ‘theoretical constructs’ (, p. 745) and the ‘structural and dynamic elements’ of theories (, p. 419). Emery sits predominantly (in this debate at least) in the testing arc of the middle‐range research level.…”

“…However, Kira and van Eijnatten also make it clear that their metatheoretical aim is not to replace OST, as they say ‘ChST adds to OpST rather than replaces it’ (, p. 748). They also state that, ‘comparing ChST and a specific theory, such as OST(E), never had been our intention’ (). Understanding the pluralistic aims of contemporary metatheoretical research may have helped Kira and van Eijnatten in better communicating their true position.…”

Multilevel Influence of Routine Redesigning, Legitimacy and Functional Affordance on Sustainability Accounting: Mediating Role of Organizational Sense-making

“…However, during the last decades, many organizational scientists realized that lenses and concepts of systems have to view the organization as more than open systems, mainly because organizations face great difficulties due to the global changes, and this requires the need for new methods to understand work organizations as systems. This understanding is required to reinforce social sustainability within them based on contemporary work contexts (Kira & Eijnatten, 2013). Organizations’ behaviours and procedures related to social, economic and environmental sustainability have become a crucial issue (Eneizan, Abdulrahman, & Alabboodi, 2018; Enticott & Walker, 2008).…”