Books, Publications, and Media
BOOKS
Make it Meaningful
Unorthodox meets Start with Why: how escaping a cult led Debbie Haski-Leventhal to become a ‘professor of purpose’ and master the art of finding personal meaning in life.
When she was five, Debbie’s parents found solace from a family tragedy in joining the Kabbalah Centre, an organisation founded in Jewish mysticism. They immersed themselves in the Centre unreservedly – from its peculiar rituals (rolling in the snow naked to purify their sins) to the beauty of belonging to something greater than themselves. To Debbie, though, it increasingly resembled a cult, and – after years of abuse and living in communes in three countries – at eighteen, she left, devastated and isolated, searching for meaning in her life.
Debbie turned that search into her life’s work: today, she is a professor who specialises in finding meaning in our personal and professional lives. In this book, she shares her own and other people’s stories to explore ideas of purpose, impact, values, and resilience.
In the age of ‘The Great Resignation’ and ‘Quiet Quitting’, Make it Meaningful is the perfect guide to finding a more profound meaningfulness in our own lives and jobs.
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
With the changing expectations of consumers, employees and regulators, being the best in the world is no longer enough. Businesses are now also expected to be best for the world: to be socially and environmentally responsible, sustainable and ethical.
Strategic CSR offers the most holistic and effective approach to corporate social responsibility, the author presents the key concepts, theories and philosophical approaches to CSR, along with cases, examples and practical tools needed to implement this knowledge in the real world.
The book is split into three parts; the first part provides the theoretical background of CSR, the second part examines various CSR approaches and how they can be implemented, and the third part discusses measuring and communicating CSR.
The second edition (2021) features a whole new chapter and fully revised content. It includes numerous new cases and examples, sections on CSR in China and India, CSR and COVID-19 and much more.
The concept of social intrapreneurship has emerged as a way to increase employee involvement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Social intrapreneurship occurs when employees engage in social innovation while employed by an organization. It sits at the intersection of social entrepreneurship, where entrepreneurs start an organization to address social issues, and business intrapreneurship, where employees innovate new products and services.
Employee Engagement in CSR: The Case of Payroll Giving in Australia
In a study conducted among 24 Australian companies and over 4500 employees we found that participation and levels of giving were significantly related to motivation to give, barriers, employee engagement and organisational commitment.
Companies supportive of LGBTIQ+ employees and political policy have found that there is gold at the end of the equal-rights rainbow.
Published in MIT Sloan Management Review, the article details three key ways in which companies can support the LGBTIQ+ community, through policies, organizational culture and corporate political activism
Congruence in Corporate Social Responsibility: Connecting the Identity and Behavior of Employers and Employees
In this article, we connect two dimensions of social responsibility - identity and behaviour - to build the Social Responsibility Matrix. The Matrix consists of four patterns for classifying the social responsibility of employees and employers: Low Social Responsibility, Identity-based Social Responsibility, Behavior-based Social Responsibility, and Entwined Social Responsibility. The positioning of employers and employees on the same matrix is vital for assessing the level of congruence between them and for creating a good person-organisation fit
Employee Need Satisfaction and Positive Workplace Outcomes: The Role of Corporate Volunteering
Borrowing from the existing literature and self-determination theory, we examine how satisfaction of psychological needs through corporate volunteering (CV) affects job satisfaction and affective commitment. Drawing on a survey of 4,127 employees, volunteers show significantly higher rates of job satisfaction and affective commitment compared with non-volunteers.
Responsible Management Education as Socialization: Business Students’ Values, Attitudes and Intentions
Based on a large international survey of business students from 21 countries, this study shows how responsible management education in business schools relates to students’ values, attitudes and behavioral intentions. For example, RME was positively related to students’ willingness to sacrifice their future salary to work for a responsible employer.
MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
What is the purpose of universities, and what is their role in our world? Many would say that it is to educate students and conduct research. This is true, but somehow, the narrow focus on these two goals led universities to be perceived as ivory towers and detached elitist institutions.
In an era when many organisations shift towards purpose, responsibility, and sustainability, universities have a role to play in becoming a force for good. While many higher education institutions are focused on being the best for the world, some are changing to become the best for the world. A movement has begun.
A purpose-driven university utilises its resources, knowledge, talent and people to continuously and intentionally contribute to the communities and the environment in which it operates: through research, education, programmes and service.
This timely book offers the why, how and what of a purpose-driven university, utilising cases, research, concepts and a framework which can be implemented in any university interested in making a difference. This book tells the stories of purpose-driven universities and other organisations and serves as a call for action by academic leadership to change higher education for good.