Book Summary of Greening Business: Managing for Sustainable Development by John Davis
Citation:
Greening Business: Managing for Sustainable Development, John Davis, (Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell, 1991), 208 pp.
This Book Summary written by: T.A. O'Lonergan, Conflict Research Consortium
Greening Business: Managing for Sustainable Development will be of
interest to those who seek an understanding of the effect of the environmental
movement on the management of business. The first chapter is an attempt to
define'?sustainable development'. The author addresses some commonly held
assumptions about sustainable development by both economics and
business. He also offers what he views as the radical business transformation
strategies necessary to attain sustainable development. The second chapter
asserts the need for vision and values in business management: visions
of essential purpose and corporate values.
The third chapter discusses the relationship between scale effects
and: administration, purchasing, pricing, technology, marketing
and profitability. No mention is made of the scale effects and the
environment. The fourth chapter examines: the choice between manufacturing
and reconditioning, the balance between money and human
productivity, and the misleading nature of the Gross National
Product approach to estimations of economic growth. The author
addresses the possibility of achieving good quality work with alternative
business arrangements. He considers the influence of new technology on
work, the need for investment in the labour force, alternative
arrangements for accomplishing work, and expectations of, and attitudes toward
these new arrangements.
The sixth chapter considers the distinction between research and
development. In this context the author addresses the question of how
much research and development is needed and provides a framework
for such development. The next chapter is an evaluation of alternative
ownership schemes. The author asserts that absentee landlord owners
dehumanize the labour force. He offers only a cursory examination of what is
termed a 'State form of capitalism' (without a definition of what this might
be), and then dismisses such a scheme out of hand as "... demonstrably an
unsatisfactory alternative"... Reformed private ownership seems to hold
some promise for Davis.
The eighth chapter is an examination of: quality management, standards,
codes of practice, and the impact of sustainable development on
business practices. Following an examination of the necessity of changing "...
habits of thought and action" the author addresses the financial
environment of small firms and cooperatives and issues a call to action.
The last chapter save one, discusses the new opportunities offered by
sustainable technologies. The authors assert that all industry and
businesses must be reformed. The final chapter acts as a postscript and offers
an assessment of sustainable development as a common aim for East and West; one
which will require the formation of a new economics "... grounded in
traditional wisdom".
Greening Business: Managing for Sustainable Development is a cursory
examination of capitalist business management, which offers capitalist
solutions to business attempts to respond to the environmental movement.
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