Tag Archives: Green

Changing Organisational Space: Green? Or Lean and Mean?

 

ā€œAs organisations strive towards creating a greener workspace, managers must take great care how they explain to staff the reasoning behind the changes. Too often, whatā€™s intended to be ā€˜greenā€™ is instead views as ā€˜meanā€™ā€, Professor Pauline Leonard.

A recent study at the University of Southamptonā€™s Work Futures Research Centre was published in the leading government and public service media platforms: the Public Servant and Government Today.

The research project ā€˜Making the Workplace Workā€™, funded by the British Council for Offices, aims to contribute to sociological understanding of organizational environmentalism through a focus on the workplace and changes in workspace. Lead by Professor Pauline Leonard, Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the WFRC, the research findings was published in the following articles:

Going Green? Look out for the backlash, Public Servant, Edition December 2012

Stop presenting sustainability as a Con,Ā Government Today, Featured Article, 27th November 2012.

he recent dynamism in the design of workspace is frequently constructed by developers and managers as motivated by a desire to improve sustainability. These claims are reflected in the growing currency of ā€˜greenspeakā€™ in organizational discourses and policies at local, national and global levels, as well as a developing academic interest in organizational environmentalism. This article explores the extent to which the increase in an environmental rhetoric has been accompanied by a meaningful shift in organizational practices. Drawing on a new empirical study exploring the place of sustainability within workspace transformation, the study engages with Lefebvre and Foucault to argue that ā€˜greenā€™ has frequently become bound up with ā€˜leanā€™ and ā€˜meanā€™ within organizational discourses and imaginations. This has important policy implications for organizations as well as broader theoretical implications for organizational environmental sociology.

Further information:

Changing Organisational Space: Green? Or Lean and Mean? Sociology published online 16 May 2012