Ecocentric Management for a Risk Society

Abstract

A central feature of postindustrial modernization is the proliferation of technological and environmental risks and crises. These risks and crises emanate from corporate industrial activities. The traditional management paradigm is limited in several ways for responding to demands of the risk society and should be abandoned. I propose an alternative “ecocentric” paradigm for management in the risk society context, which advocates an ecologically centered conception of interorganizational relations and internal management activities. Thus, organizations are viewed as situated within bioregionally sustainable industrial ecosystems, relating to each other through a logic of ecological interdependence. Within this context, ecocentric management seeks to minimize the environmental impact of organizational vision, inputs, throughputs, and outputs. Implications of this paradigm for management practice and research are examined.