Special Issue – Business and Organizational Development: Global Perspectives, Cultures and Domains

The latter part of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st, have witnessed an acceleration of alternative approaches to, and appreciations of, business and organisational development. Approaches focusing on cognitive elements, behavioural aspects and critical perspectives have emerged and become established in the mainstream. In turn, these approaches have facilitated and supported alternative domains, such as organisational learning, sustainability, social and environmental responsibility and gender issues. These areas are now of inevitable concern for all sectors: government, quasi-government, private and not-for-profit. Moreover, these developments have occurred against a backdrop of high profile events, such as the financial crisis of 2008 and the BP oil spill of 2010, and ongoing geo-political upheaval (for example the Eurozone tensions and the ‘Arab spring’). As a result, contemporary organisational leaders are realising that, in order to cope with the complex and chaotic environments they face, alternative approaches and considerations are needed. This special issue provides space to explore and examine a number of these contexts through specific domains and issues. It achieves this by developing a range of perspectives, both epistemologically and geographically related, and presents case studies that focus on a range of emerging markets, sectors and approaches. The special issue opens with two papers that focus on sustainability – an area that has become of paramount importance. Martins, Loureiro and Amorim consider environmental, financial and social sustainability in the management of quality in higher education. The paper emphasises the need for leaders and senior managers in higher education institutions to enhance both quality and sustainability in order to secure long term success. The special issue progresses by exploring the crucial issue of gender. Desivilya Syna and Palgi’s paper explores gender issues and decision-making in senior management teams in Israel. The paper discusses both hidden and overt issues relating to gender structuring and the roles played by women in top management teams, and highlights potential policy implications. The subsequent paper by Flores continues this theme, and considers the perennial issue of organisational culture and its impact on competitiveness, growth and change. This generates an interesting perspective by exploring how cultural development can be achieved by engaging in organisational learning. The penultimate paper supplies a novel sector context by examining issues relating to wine investment. Granier, Rios-Morales and Huh’s paper explores the perceptions and motives of both individual and institutional wine investors. The authors identify that, while institutional investors are predictably profit-driven, individual investors often rely on less rational investment decision-making criteria, such as home bias. The concluding paper considers the significant issue of how information is presented in social and environmental business performance reports. Thomas’s paper emphasises the need for clear and unambiguous presentations of information in order to enhance relationships between society and business and to avoid the increasingly pervasive trend of ‘greenwashing’. In summary, the special issue delivers an interesting collection of contexts, domains and perspectives in relation to business and organisational development. Insights have been developed into a range of sector and geographical settings and these have been considered against a backdrop of change in the contemporary global business environment. We believe that these insights make a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate and exploration of business and organisational development.