"The Past, Present, and Future of Sustainable Management is more of an academic book ... . It's also a surprising and exciting work as it challenges many of the assumptions we have about the field ... . It's a refreshing read, providing relevant historical context for important questions faced by managers today." (charterworks.com, August, 2021)
1.The Presence of the Past.- 2.The Conventional History of Sustainable Management.- 3.A Counter-history of Sustainable Management (or how the American most hated by big business invented Management).- 4.A New History of (Sustainable) Management
Stephen Cummings is Professor of Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and Co-Chair of The Academy of Management’s Critical Management Studies Division.
Todd Bridgman is Associate Professor of Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Management Learning.
We might think sustainable management is a new idea, created in the 1960s by enlightened modern scientists. We might think that it puts us on a new path, beyond what management was originally about. But this is not true. Sustainable management is as old as civilization and was a foundation stone of management science as it was formed in the first decade of the 20th century. Recovering this forgotten past provides deeper roots and greater traction to advance sustainable management in our own times.
This book charts a history of sustainable management from premodern times, through the birth of management science as an offshoot of the conservation movement, to the present day. The authors argue that modern tools like Triple Bottom Line reporting and multiple Sustainable Development Goals may be less useful than a return to a more fundamental and holistic view of management.
Stephen Cummings is Professor of Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and Co-Chair of The Academy of Management’s Critical Management Studies Division.
Todd Bridgman is Associate Professor of Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Management Learning.