Katrin Käufer

Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MIT

The third edition of The SAGE Handbook of Action Research presents an updated version of the bestselling text, including new chapters covering emerging areas in healthcare, social work, education and international development, as well as an expanded ‘skills’ section which includes new consultant-relevant materials. Building on the strength of the...

This paper offers an in-depth case study of a bank that combines profitability with social responsibility as its core business model. The case study reveals the interdependence between innovations of financial products and societal challenges in the areas that the bank is operating in, and identifies limitations and challenges of this business mode...

In this paper, a positive organizational ethics (POE)-based framework is informed by the microfinance and socially responsible investing movements to capture the process of sustainable financial innovations. Both of these movements are uniquely characterized by the formation of positive ethical networks (PENs) to develop sustainability innovations...

We live in an age of profound disruption. Global crises that are related to finance, food shortages, fuel supplies, water quality, resource scarcity, and poverty challenge almost every society. Yet this disruption also brings the possibility of profound personal, societal, and global renewal. For that renewal to take place, we first need to stop an...

We have entered an age of disruption. Financial collapse, climate change, resource depletion, and a growing gap between rich and poor are but a few of the signs. Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer ask, why do we collectively create results nobody wants? Meeting the challenges of this century requires updating our economic logic and operating system fr...

Purpose – The paper asks how leaders in organizations address complex situations or challenges where past experiences are no longer helpful or might pose an obstacle for success. The authors use the metaphor of the blank canvas to describe the work of entrepreneurs or innovators who connect to an emerging future possibility. Based on their research...

Today, as consumer choices on one side of the planet affect living conditions for people on the other side and complex supply chains span the globe, businesses are facing a host of "sustainability" problems - social and ecological imbalances created by this globalization. Beginning in the late 1990s, organizational members of the Society for Organi...

Traditional teams are not faring well in today's rapidly changing business environment. Even when they establish clear roles and responsibilities, build trust among members and define goals according to the book, their projects often fail or get axed. Three MIT Sloan School researchers think they have found the reason: Traditional teams are too inw...

Faced with profoundly new business realities -- unprecedented demands from global competition, new technologies, emerging markets, possible mergers and alliances, and growing environmental pressures -- many companies are falling back on old leadership habits. In particular, they seek to create more adaptive and flexible enterprises through turning...

Since the early 1990s managed care has become the dominating form of health insurance in the US. Managed care's success in cutting costs is paralleled by increasing public criticism. The current status of managed care and its future potential are discussed with a focus on the recent development of managed care and its organizational components. Wit...

Literaturverz. S. 183 - 224. Zugl.: Witten, Herdecke, Privatuniv., Diss., 1995.