| Managing in the Millennium: Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) -- A First Nations Approach to Sustainability |
| | Whiteman, Gail | Queen's U. | whiteman@nsi-ins.ca | (613) - 241-3535 ext. 249 |
| | Abstract:
As the millennium ends, ecological damage continues at an unprecedented rate and the need for sustainable management is evident. Yet managers often lack a practical template -- how do they ‘walk the talk’ of sustainability? There are not many concrete examples. However, the management practices of indigenous peoples can provide important concrete insights into the practice of sustainable management. Using ethnographic data collected on the Cree tallymen of eastern James Bay (subarctic Canada), this paper provides empirical data on a First Nations approach to sustainable management and explores ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ (TEK) as an indigenous management system that has successfully avoided ecological collapse. Perhaps most critically, research findings indicate that a TEK-based management approach is both socially and ecologically embedded. In turn, the embeddedness of TEK gives rise to a number of key principles for sustainable management: (i) humble pragmatism, (ii) a fundamental commitment to social and ecological reciprocity, and (iii) managerial leadership is based on ecological legitimacy gained through TEK. TEK also emphasizes the need to learn how to manage sustainability from outside the organization’s four walls. As the millennium draws near, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) may provide a powerful template for a sustainable future. |
| | Keywords: Sustainability; Native; TEK |
| Contested Identities: Community-based Collaboration and Its Implications for Organizational Form |
| | Worline, Monica C. | U. of Michigan | mworline@umich.edu | 734-763-4138 |
| | Bryan, Todd | U. of Michigan | tbryan@umich.edu | (734)-997-0929 |
| | Community-based collaboration heralds a new period for the American environmental movement, representing a
significant change in frame. These community-based groups focus on the common ground of place, and bring together
diverse stakeholders in a discussion about local priorities and values. The current paper provides a social movmement
perspective on collaborative groups, revealing that the changing frame in the environmental movmement results in shifts
in the ways in which participants experience and define their identities. For example, as community-based collaboration
focuses attention on local issues, national environmental organizations resist local control, leaving without a base those local
participants who had considered themselves "environmentalists." Similar identity dilemmas occur for other participants in
community-based collaborative groups. A theoretical focus on frame and identity in community-based collaboration reveals
an underlying fundamental challenge to organizational form in the environmental movement. |
| | Keywords: Collaboration; Identity; Environmental Movement |
| An Empirical Study of the Effect of Moral Intensity on Environmental Ethical Decision Making |
| | Flannery, Brenda L. | Minnesota State U.,Mankato | brenda.flannery@mankato.msus.edu | (507)-389-5333 |
| | May, Douglas R. | U. of Nebraska | dmay1@unl.edu | 402-472-8885 |
| | The influences shaping the environmental ethical decision intentions of a U.S. sample of managers in the metal finishing industry were investigated empirically in this study. The theoretical framework for the study was grounded in Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior and Jones' (1991) moral intensity construct (i.e., magnitude of consequences). Findings revealed that moral intensity moderated the relation between five antecedents (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control - self-efficacy, financial cost, and ethical climate) and managers' environmental ethical decision intentions. Implications for theory and practice in environmental decision making are discussed. |
| | Keywords: Environmental Decision Making; Ajzen's Theory of Planned Beha; Moral Intensity |