Summary Introduction to Responsible Organization
Chapter 01 (Management in context)
• Profession: a type of specialized occupation in service of society and the world
• Professional practice: practicing and practices that serve society and the world in
professional conduct
• Professional management: management practice carried out with professional conduct
and in pursuit of goals serving society and the world
• Management practices activities that management practitioners customarily engage in
• Unprofessional management: practice managerial practice not conducted in the service
of society and the planet or without professional conduct
• Friedman argument: the only managerial responsibility is to make profit
• The Old Management World: Efficiency, profit, control, shareholder value
o Fordism and Taylorism
• The Transition Management World: Mix efficiency with responsibility and adaptation
o At companies: sustainability reports, CSR, 3Ps
• The New Management World: Long-term value for all stakeholders and regenerating
society and nature
o Circular economy, Patagonia
• 3 Dimensions of professional management: ethics, responsibility, sustainability
Chapter 02 (Management in Practice)
• Management: the practice of getting things done with people and resources
• Practicing management: working with people and resources to achieve performance
effectively, efficiently, and in line with pre-established goals
• Effectiveness: describes the degree to which the management process has
contributed to the pre-established managerial goals
, o Professional management effectiveness is measured in the amount of triple
bottom line value and stakeholder value created and the degree of moral
excellence achieved
• Efficiency: describes the proportion of resource input per management output and
vice versa
o Professional management efficiency consists of the relationships between
the triple bottom line capital used and created, the stakeholder input and
value created, and the moral issues encountered and moral excellence
achieved throughout the management process
• Performance is the output of the management process, valued by its proximity to the
predetermined goals
o Professional management performance is a product of professional
management effectiveness and efficiency achieved. Professional
management must re-assess the criteria applied for evaluating performance
as good or bad
• Management practices activities that management practitioners customarily engage
o Practices are constructed of three elements: Meanings (what is intended or
conveyed through a practice), Materials (the ‘stuff’ used in practices) and
Competence (the ability to carry out a practice)
• Modes of management distinct bundles of practices shaped by distinct managerial
tasks: organizing, folleading, deciding, communicating, digitalizing, glocalizing,
strategizing, innovating, and entrepreneuring.
• Occupational practices specialized bundles of practices related to tasks carried out by
a specialized managerial occupation
Chapter 03 (Ethics)
• Ethics is the systematic consideration of right or wrong, using particular principles
• Morality describes norms, values, and beliefs of wrong or right held by a particular
individual, group, or culture
• Ethical management means practicing management ethically and engaging in ethical
practices
• Moral dilemma a situation where right or wrong is questioned through a set of alternative
actions that are likely to have significant effects on oneself and others and where the
answer is not evident
• Ethical problem an issue centred on right or wrong decisions and behaviours
o Ethical problems are not always dilemmas. Ethical problems can be divided into
four broad types, based on the clarity of the moral judgement and the motivation
of decision-makers to do the right thing
o Genuine dilemma → real moral conflict
o No-problem problem → obvious right answer
o Moral laxity → moral weakness
o Compliance problem → rule-following issue
, • Business ethics, in its interdisciplinary nature, consists of three main domains: Normative,
Descriptive and Ethics management. All three domains are absolutely necessary for
ethical management. They are mutually reinforcing and complementary.
• Normative ethics: centred on ethical theories of right and wrong to solve ethical
dilemmas. With 3 main theories:
o Consequentialism judges by the consequences of one’s actions
▪ Act utilitarianism: ‘Does the single act I am conducting create more
pleasure or pain?’
▪ Rule utilitarianism: ‘Does the type of behaviour in general create more
pleasure or pain?’
▪ Distribution fairness: Are the costs and benefits created distributed
fairly?
o Deontology based on the importance of duties and rules
▪ Universal law and the golden rule: Would you wish everybody else to act
the same way?
▪ Non-instrumentalization. End in itself: Do you treat (human) beings as
means or as an end?
▪ The kingdom of ends: Make sure that the maxims your actions are based
on are acceptable to every other rational being.
o Virtue ethics highlights that the ‘good person’ who lives a virtuous life, with a
virtuous character, and virtuous practices will make right decisions
▪ To the inside (courage and self-control): A courageous person is able to
overcome fear and risk when necessary for a higher goal.
▪ To the outside (generosity, magnificence, magnanimity, and sociability):
Generosity is the virtue that regulates our desire for wealth
▪ Towards fairness (justice): The virtue of justice can be seen in obedience
to law, or more broadly in thinking fairly
o Major alternatives: discourse ethics, which aims at ethical decisions through good
communication, and feminist ethics that bases good decisions on good relations
and empathy
• Descriptive ethics serves to describe, understand, influence, and predict moral behaviour
of individuals and groups: how and why people make ethical or unethical decisions
o For someone to truly act ethically, four things must happen in sequence: ethical
awareness, ethical judgment, ethical motivation /intention and ethical action
Chapter 01 (Management in context)
• Profession: a type of specialized occupation in service of society and the world
• Professional practice: practicing and practices that serve society and the world in
professional conduct
• Professional management: management practice carried out with professional conduct
and in pursuit of goals serving society and the world
• Management practices activities that management practitioners customarily engage in
• Unprofessional management: practice managerial practice not conducted in the service
of society and the planet or without professional conduct
• Friedman argument: the only managerial responsibility is to make profit
• The Old Management World: Efficiency, profit, control, shareholder value
o Fordism and Taylorism
• The Transition Management World: Mix efficiency with responsibility and adaptation
o At companies: sustainability reports, CSR, 3Ps
• The New Management World: Long-term value for all stakeholders and regenerating
society and nature
o Circular economy, Patagonia
• 3 Dimensions of professional management: ethics, responsibility, sustainability
Chapter 02 (Management in Practice)
• Management: the practice of getting things done with people and resources
• Practicing management: working with people and resources to achieve performance
effectively, efficiently, and in line with pre-established goals
• Effectiveness: describes the degree to which the management process has
contributed to the pre-established managerial goals
, o Professional management effectiveness is measured in the amount of triple
bottom line value and stakeholder value created and the degree of moral
excellence achieved
• Efficiency: describes the proportion of resource input per management output and
vice versa
o Professional management efficiency consists of the relationships between
the triple bottom line capital used and created, the stakeholder input and
value created, and the moral issues encountered and moral excellence
achieved throughout the management process
• Performance is the output of the management process, valued by its proximity to the
predetermined goals
o Professional management performance is a product of professional
management effectiveness and efficiency achieved. Professional
management must re-assess the criteria applied for evaluating performance
as good or bad
• Management practices activities that management practitioners customarily engage
o Practices are constructed of three elements: Meanings (what is intended or
conveyed through a practice), Materials (the ‘stuff’ used in practices) and
Competence (the ability to carry out a practice)
• Modes of management distinct bundles of practices shaped by distinct managerial
tasks: organizing, folleading, deciding, communicating, digitalizing, glocalizing,
strategizing, innovating, and entrepreneuring.
• Occupational practices specialized bundles of practices related to tasks carried out by
a specialized managerial occupation
Chapter 03 (Ethics)
• Ethics is the systematic consideration of right or wrong, using particular principles
• Morality describes norms, values, and beliefs of wrong or right held by a particular
individual, group, or culture
• Ethical management means practicing management ethically and engaging in ethical
practices
• Moral dilemma a situation where right or wrong is questioned through a set of alternative
actions that are likely to have significant effects on oneself and others and where the
answer is not evident
• Ethical problem an issue centred on right or wrong decisions and behaviours
o Ethical problems are not always dilemmas. Ethical problems can be divided into
four broad types, based on the clarity of the moral judgement and the motivation
of decision-makers to do the right thing
o Genuine dilemma → real moral conflict
o No-problem problem → obvious right answer
o Moral laxity → moral weakness
o Compliance problem → rule-following issue
, • Business ethics, in its interdisciplinary nature, consists of three main domains: Normative,
Descriptive and Ethics management. All three domains are absolutely necessary for
ethical management. They are mutually reinforcing and complementary.
• Normative ethics: centred on ethical theories of right and wrong to solve ethical
dilemmas. With 3 main theories:
o Consequentialism judges by the consequences of one’s actions
▪ Act utilitarianism: ‘Does the single act I am conducting create more
pleasure or pain?’
▪ Rule utilitarianism: ‘Does the type of behaviour in general create more
pleasure or pain?’
▪ Distribution fairness: Are the costs and benefits created distributed
fairly?
o Deontology based on the importance of duties and rules
▪ Universal law and the golden rule: Would you wish everybody else to act
the same way?
▪ Non-instrumentalization. End in itself: Do you treat (human) beings as
means or as an end?
▪ The kingdom of ends: Make sure that the maxims your actions are based
on are acceptable to every other rational being.
o Virtue ethics highlights that the ‘good person’ who lives a virtuous life, with a
virtuous character, and virtuous practices will make right decisions
▪ To the inside (courage and self-control): A courageous person is able to
overcome fear and risk when necessary for a higher goal.
▪ To the outside (generosity, magnificence, magnanimity, and sociability):
Generosity is the virtue that regulates our desire for wealth
▪ Towards fairness (justice): The virtue of justice can be seen in obedience
to law, or more broadly in thinking fairly
o Major alternatives: discourse ethics, which aims at ethical decisions through good
communication, and feminist ethics that bases good decisions on good relations
and empathy
• Descriptive ethics serves to describe, understand, influence, and predict moral behaviour
of individuals and groups: how and why people make ethical or unethical decisions
o For someone to truly act ethically, four things must happen in sequence: ethical
awareness, ethical judgment, ethical motivation /intention and ethical action
