Ecocentric Management for a Risk Society

TLDR

Postindustrial modernization has produced widespread technological and environmental risks from corporate activities, and the traditional management paradigm is inadequate for addressing the demands of the risk society. The paper proposes an ecocentric management paradigm that centers ecological interdependence in interorganizational relations and internal activities. The paradigm operationalizes ecocentric management by minimizing the environmental impact of organizational vision, inputs, throughputs, and outputs. The study examines the implications of the ecocentric paradigm for management practice and research.

Abstract

A central feature of postindustrial modernization is the proliferation of technological and environmental risks and crises. These risks and crises emanate from corporate industrial activities. The traditional management paradigm is limited in several ways for responding to demands of the risk society and should be abandoned. I propose an alternative “ecocentric” paradigm for management in the risk society context, which advocates an ecologically centered conception of interorganizational relations and internal management activities. Thus, organizations are viewed as situated within bioregionally sustainable industrial ecosystems, relating to each other through a logic of ecological interdependence. Within this context, ecocentric management seeks to minimize the environmental impact of organizational vision, inputs, throughputs, and outputs. Implications of this paradigm for management practice and research are examined.