Oliver Laasch

ESCP Business School Berlin | ESCP · Chair of Responsible Management

In this essay, I argue that we should radicalize managerial climate change education given that incremental and accommodative forms of responsible management learning and education (RMLE) are at odds with the urgency, nature, and magnitude of the climate crisis. I argue for three practices to radicalize RMLE, and illustrate them through examples fr...

Business models for sustainability (BMfS) enable organizations to create social and environmental value for a wide variety of stakeholders. As BMfS are new for well-established industries, their implementation requires deep organizational change to overcome path dependencies of existing business models. In this article, we present a framework which...

At the centre of responsible management (RM) learning is the development of managerial competence for ethics, responsibility, and sustainability (ERS). Important contributions have been made from each: the ethics, responsibility, and sustainability disciplines. However, we are yet to integrate these disciplinary contributions into a comprehensive i...

The emerging field of responsible management (RM) studies the integration of sustainability, responsibility, and ethics in managerial practices. Therefore, turning to practice theories for the study of RM appears to hold great promise of conceptual and methodological contribution. We propose a posthumanist practice approach for studying RM-as-pract...

The emerging field of responsible management (RM) studies the integration of sustainability, responsibility, and ethics in managerial practices. Therefore, turning to practice theories for the study of RM appears to hold great promise of conceptual and methodological contribution. We propose a posthumanist practice approach for studying RM-as-pract...

Principles of Management: Practicing Ethics, Sustainability, Responsibility was the first official textbook of the United Nations global initiative network, Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Now fully revised and updated with three brand new chapters on communicating, innovating and leading, this accessible and engaging textbo...

This case study portrays how ALLSAFE, a mid-sized manufacturing firm in Southern Germany, made a transition from mechanistic to humanistic management practices. Highlighting the importance of a leadership philosophy centered on responsible freedom and voluntary responsibility, the study analyzes the strategic pathways through which ALLSAFE accompli...

Doctoral education in responsible management learning and education (RMLE) has immense potential to further promote responsible management education contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. However, there is a dearth of doctoral education both in literature and practice of RMLE. Doctoral education in business schools needs to ensure that...

The emerging field of responsible management learning is characterized by an urgent need for transdisciplinary practices. We conceptualize constellations of transdisciplinary practices by building up on a social practice perspective. From this perspective knowledge and learning are 'done' in interrelated practices that may span multiple fields like...

Competence to enact responsible practices, such as recycling waste or boycotting irresponsible companies, is core to learning for responsibility. We explore the role of apps in learning such responsible practices ‘in the wild,’ outside formal educational environments over a 3-week period. Learners maintained a daily diary in which they reflected on...

Since responsible management originally appeared on the agenda of management researchers in the early 20th century, the research field of responsible management has gone through an extended period of labor. It has not been, however, until the early 21st century, with the establishment of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management, tha...

What is responsible management? The responsible management field so far has been looking for a convergent one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Conversely, we choose to ask the grammatically incorrect, but generatively paradoxical question of "What are responsible management?" In response, this chapter features a rich potluck of six academic p...

We recognize the over-rationalized nature of contemporary management theory and practice as one of the main roots of irresponsible management. Responsible managers, therefore, first and foremost have to internalize that managerial myths of rationality are not above and beyond human agency. This insight may empower responsible managers to engage in...

This publication’s title “Mintzberg on (ir)responsible management”, is a play on words eluding to Henry’s seminal publication “Mintzberg on management”. Its purpose is to make Henry’s perspective on responsible management accessible, both for managerial practice and future research. We tie together the pearls of Henry’s wisdom on the string that is...

Archie Carroll is arguably one of the most iconic pioneers of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) discussion. Here, Archie connects CSR's organizational level conceptualization back to its roots in the individual-level study of managerial responsibility. He explains how the discussion of responsibility had moved from the discussion of individ...

Edward (Ed) Freeman, often called the father of stakeholder theory, is arguably one of the most influential and prolific thinkers in business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Here, he translates key ideas from his work to the context of responsible management. Ed discusses how responsible management might help to overcome the 'management...

Nancy Adler is one of the most influential scholars in cross-cultural management and leadership. The exchange documented in this chapter showcases the value of Nancy’s contributions to responsible management and leadership. The chapter starts with discussing the relationship between responsible leadership and responsible management, and then moves...

Humanistic management practices are often perceived as ‘unrealistic’, as they stand in steep contrast to ‘normal’ business reality shaped by the commercial logic of neoclassic economics. The conceptual lens of performative practices focuses on how practices that appear to be unrealistic can be ‘made real’ through their enactment. This paper studies...

The discussion of responsible management learning and education (RMLE) has developed from a preoccupation with business schools’ (ir)responsible education practices, more specifically, practices centered on educating responsible managers. We have learnt much about the academic field’s responsible management education practices. However, we still kn...

This article explores the phenomenon that corporations’ commercial-logic business models increasingly embed responsibility-logic patterns: The proverbial leopards’ spots. We have conducted a thematic analysis of responsibility patterns in annual report business model descriptions (artefacts) and a qualitative comparative analysis of corporations’ s...

The chapter outlines the relevance of an institutional logics, pluralism, and leadership perspective on responsible management. The responsibility of corporate managers has been interpreted, to a large extent and for a long time, as giving primacy to the financial interests of shareholders. Yet, the growing emphasis on responsible management invite...

The discussion of responsible management learning and education (RMLE) has developed from a preoccupation with b usiness schools' (ir)responsible education practices, more specifically, practices centered on educating responsible managers. We have learnt much about the academic field's responsible management education practices. However, we still k...

The discussion of responsible management learning and education (RMLE) has developed from a preoccupation with business schools' (ir)responsible education practices, more specifically, practices centered on educating responsible managers. We have learnt much about the academic field's responsible management education practices. However, we still kn...

Drawing on Theories of Practice, we develop a process-oriented conceptualization of business models that resonates with the original formulation of sustainable development as a process.

Humanistic management practices are often perceived as 'unrealistic', as they stand in steep contrast to 'normal' business reality shaped by the commercial logic of neoclassic economics. The conceptual lens of performative practices focuses on how practices that appear to be unrealistic can be 'made real' through their enactment. This paper studies...

The field of responsible management learning and education (RMLE) has developed from a preoccupation with business schools' (ir)responsible education practices, more specifically, practices centered on educating responsible managers. We have learnt much about the academic community's responsible management education practices. However, we still kno...

We are witnessing the emerging study of business models through sociological lenses. Such research has been conducted, for instance, through the lenses of economic sociology, organizational institutionalism, and theories of practice. This brief positioning paper provides an overview of emergent discussions and suggests promising future discussions....

Business models have been studied as organizational value logics, which manifest in the states of cognition, artefacts, and activities. There is no conceptual perspective integrating all three of these states yet. In response, this paper develops a conceptual scaffold of an actor-network perspective: Value logics become programs of action as they a...

Social media has become a key element of communication often central to processes of social construction and reconstruction, constituting new realities. This holds equallytrue for the field of corporate responsibility (CR) communication. A conceptual cornerstone of this field are Morsing and Schultz’s (2006) CR communication strategies. However, th...

While responsible management increasingly consolidates as a field of study, the question about the identity of this emerging field arises. Are there novel conceptual themes or is it all just ‘old wine in new bottles’? In this paper I propose a non-exclusive list of three conceptual shifts distinguishing responsible management from related discussio...

Guided by the question "What is responsible management (learning and education)?", this presentation addresses the topic's development over time; the transdisciplinary conceptualization integrating to sustainability, responsibility, and ethics; a social practices perspective; three distinctive conceptual positioning points; and core themes of the r...

This paper explores the principles of the Slow Movement to counter work-stress among university and college teachers. We believe that a Slow approach to teaching and learning may be the most effective way to counter the erosion of humanistic education by the corporate ethos of consumerism, efficiency, accountability, and standardisation We explore...

The business model has been conceived as a commercial logic of value proposition, creation, exchange and capture. However, its underlying conceptual structure of an organizational value logic holds promise also for application beyond a purely commercial context, for partially commercial and even noncommercial organizations. This paper unlocks this...

This special issue of the Journal of Management Education comes in response to the need for new approaches to introductory management courses—a need emerging from a complex global business environment of socioeconomic challenges for managers. Its contents summarize potential progress toward improved introduction to management education. The article...

This paper departs from the observation that Kingfisher, a FTSE100 corporation, combined responsibility elements with its commercial business model elements. How prevalent is the phenomenon of such hybrid business model devices? How are they constructed? In this paper, devices in the 2014 annual reports of all FTSE100 corporations were studied usin...

‘The Company’ had introduced ‘Being Responsible’ a program for the embedding of responsibility-sustainability. Corporate responsibility-sustainability here describes efforts to address entangled cares of responsibility and sustainability. The program showed potential to change the business model, which led to the research problem: ‘How can responsi...

Introduction to management courses present particular challenges for faculty, students, and business program curriculum. In many programs, Principles of Management or Introduction to Organizational Behavior courses are the only management classes (other than Strategy) that business students complete in their undergraduate or graduate program. As su...

The idea of responsible management competences implies that being a competent manager may require competences distinct from the usual ones for commercially-driven mainstream management.While such competences have been described in the sustainability, responsibility and ethics literatures, their fragmented nature impedes access for researchers and p...

Sustainability, responsibility, and ethics (SRE) have become significant drivers for change in business with the term responsible management as an umbrella term describing managerial practices embracing SRE. Responsible management implies that being a competent manager now necessitates competences distinct from the ones traditionally required. An e...

This chapter deals with the relationship between CSR and management, and its potential role in successful business. The chapter examines why businesses very often do not have a clear definition of what they are searching for when trying to implement CSR, as well as looking at advanced management tools and real-life examples from international compa...

Conventional economic, business, and management theory have been blamed for systemic ailments of the global economy, from the financial crisis, to global inequality, and human rights abuses. Humanistic management and humanistic business are a growing area of research and of practice application, providing an alternative to the conventional neoclass...

We begin with a critique of the ontological underpinnings of the mainstream business model literature with its origins in design-science and offer instead insights from sociology and organisational institutionalism to argue for a more accurate representation of actual processes of organisational transformation, especially necessary where scholarshi...

PRINCIPLES OF RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT offers an international, scientifically sound, and strictly practice-related perspective. It is the first official textbook of the United Nations for the Principles for Responsible Management Education academic network, and a reference book for companies of the United Nations Global Compact Initiative. It is a p...

Laszlo's and Zhexembayeva's book Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage develops around the question of how to make sustainability an integrated and central part of corporate strategy. The message for managers, who are the main audience for this book, is that sustainability is an essential ingredient and a necessary condition f...

Stakeholders today want to know about your company’s social and environmental performance. Effectively communicating these topics has become critical to economic success. This book offers an extensive toolbox of the most effective instruments that can help you, and each chapter provides specific examples of how to communicate social and cause-relat...

DO WE GO to the movies to learn about better eyesight? Cinépolis, an international movie theatre chain based in Mexico City, believes we do and as a company has successfully demonstrated the business practice of corporate social responsibility to the public through its visual health campaign. According to Laasch and Flores (2010), Cinépolis “has an...

This guide sets out proposals and recommendations for integrating the PRME into the curricula of executive degree programs. The integrative perspective of the ICRM regards the possibilities of implementing the PRME into university curricula gives reason to hope that an internationally accepted discussion framework will evolve to inspire and champio...