BACKGROUND & BASICS

Intro to Management
(Chapter 1)

This chapter introduces the three basic approaches to management described in the textbook: Financial Bottom Line (FBL) management, Triple Bottom Line (TBL) management, and Social and Ecological Thought (SET) management. Each approach is grounded in a different moral-point-of-view, and each has a different understanding of how managers put into practice the four main functions of management discussed in the rest of the book: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Learning these three different approaches to management is akin to learning three “languages” of management, and which enhances readers’ critical and ethical thinking and their ability to understand themselves and others better.

Which is your preferred approach?

A Short History
(Chapter 2)

This chapter provides a necessarily brief review of approaches to management over the course of the history of humankind, with a particular emphasis on five eras of pre-contemporary management thought, and six eras of contemporary management thought since the early 1900s and ending with the growing interest on SET management. A key idea in the chapter is that management is a socially constructed concept, whose meaning is malleable and will continue to change based on how people put it into practice.

What approach to management will be dominant 30 years from now?

Management & Financial Well-being
(Chapter 3)

The meaning of financial well-being is quite different from a SET management approach versus FBL and TBL. This is true both within high-income countries, and internationally. A SET approach builds on the interest among a growing number of investors who want to take into account the social and ecological externalities associated with business.

Do you prefer free trade or fair trade?

Management & Ecological Well-being
(Chapter 4)

This chapter describes how a SET approach to management influences the way we think about managing the basic resources humankind relies upon, including energy and the carbon economy (e.g., reducing consumerism), food systems (e.g., decommodifying food), and physical health (e.g., adopting the precautionary principle).

Of all the ecological issues facing humankind, which would you like to work to address?

Management & Social Well-being
(Chapter 5)

This chapter discusses how can we manage to create meaningful work, where relationships go beyond instrumental transactions and have a more holistic dimension, and foster peace within and between organizations and nations.

Would you prefer a job that is meaningful to you and pays $40,000 a year, or a job that is boring and pays $100,000 a year?

Entrepreneurship
(Chapter 6)

The four-step entrepreneurship process emphasizes identifying opportunities to enhance socio-ecological externalities, testing ideas and develop plans for a new venture with a variety of stakeholders who help to shape the start-up, and take action by gathering necessary financial and other resources. Most entrepreneurs start a business in order to do things differently and to make the world a better place. The “Entrepreneurial Start-Up Plan” described in the chapter serves as a useful framework for people contemplating starting a new organization to address some of the financial, ecological, and social issues presented in the previous chapters.