Sustainable Governance in Hybrid Organizations: An International Case Study of Water Companies(Finance, Governance and Sustainability: Challenges to Theory and Practice)

In Sustainable Governance in Hybrid Organizations the author Linne Marie Lauesen explores how businesses that have succeeded in conducting sustainable governance, manage and govern their sustainable performance: in other words, how they manage to be economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. In this respect, hybrid organizations that are formed as businesses with a mission to be sustainable and to provide services for society - such as water companies - are a good point of departure. Water companies are highly regulated whilst working primarily for the betterment of society and on behalf of generations to come, for whom clean and plentiful water and the preservation of nature is a must. Linne Marie has dug deep into these types of hybrid organizations in order to reveal which mechanisms of organizational governance for sustainability are at play, and how these organizations manage to balance their triple bottom lines in order to survive financially, socially, and environmentally and make a business out of their conduct. Balancing these three bottom lines in a sustainable way is explained in a clear and accessible way and the juxtaposition between non-profit and for-profit water companies will show how this model can be transferred to other business spheres.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface; Introduction; Deciphering hybrid organizations; Sustainable governance; The logic of sustainable governance in a business context; Opportunities and barriers in managing and balancing a logic of sustainable governance; The role of stakeholder management in sustainable governance; When stakeholders are not so easy to manage; Transparency in stakeholder management through corporate texts?; What does sustainable governance mean in practice?; Evaluation of sustainable governance in the water sector; Epilogue; Appendices; References; Index.

About the Author :
Dr Linne Marie Lauesen, PhD, is currently a project manager and business analyst of a water company called Vand and Affald (Water and Waste) in Denmark. She has been active in the field of CSR and sustainability for more than 10 years. She completed her PhD at Copenhagen Business School, Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility in March 14, 2014, and received a notable evaluation of her thesis: Corporate Social Responsibility in the Water Sector: How Material Practices and their Symbolic and Physical Meanings Form a Colonising Logic.

Review :
'The structures of complex organisations are changing and so must our understanding of them, particularly in the fields of governance and sustainability. This study of water businesses around the world makes a vitally important contribution to our understanding of such business and the new logics under which they operate and provides a roadmap for the future governance of such organisations.' David Crowther, De Montfort University, UK 'There is an increasing awareness of the need for new models of management to account for global crises in the financial, environmental and social realms that were created by traditional models of corporate organization. In Sustainable Governance in Hybrid Organizations Linne Lauesen provides a lucid and compelling new model of organizational governance that draws from emerging new knowledge of the virtues of transparency, stakeholder engagement and community involvement. This book is an outstanding model for sustainable governance that will be useful for students, practitioners and citizens interested in sustainable management.' Roy Suddaby, Winspear Chair of Management at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, Canada and Newcastle University Business School, UK 'Dr Lauesen's thought-provoking analysis about sustainable governance, corporate social responsibility and stakeholder engagement in hybrid organizations in the water industry after the 2007 financial crisis has the advantage of an author deeply knowledgeable about this subject from a practical and a professional point of view. The book provides solutions designed to be fair, ethical, trustworthy and, crucially, grounded in material practices. If implemented, these would be of immense value to our society far beyond the confines of the water industry.' Miriam Green, Icon College of Technology and Management, UK 'This book addresses a topic of current worldwide significance: the quasi-privatization of water management services. Based on rich data from Scandinavia (and beyond), it offers actionable insight into the challenges of implementing a sustainable (stakeholder-based) governance system that is suitable for the hybrid organizations that are emerging in this new global context.' Eva Boxenbaum, Mines ParisTech, France `The structures of complex organisations are changing and so must our understanding of them, particularly in the fields of governance and sustainability. This study of water businesses around the world makes a vitally important contribution to our understanding of such business and the new logics under which they operate and provides a roadmap for the future governance of such organisations.’ David Crowther, De Montfort University, UK `There is an increasing awareness of the need for new models of management to account for global crises in the financial, environmental and social realms that were created by traditional models of corporate organization. In Sustainable Governance in Hybrid Organizations Linne Lauesen provides a lucid and compelling new model of organizational governance that draws from emerging new knowledge of the virtues of transparency, stakeholder engagement and community involvement. This book is an outstanding model for sustainable governance that will be useful for students, practitioners and citizens interested in sustainable management.’ Roy Suddaby, Winspear Chair of Management at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria, Canada and Newcastle University Business School, UK `Dr Lauesen’s thought-provoking analysis about sustainable governance, corporate social responsibility and stakeholder engagement in hybrid organizations in the water industry after the 2007 financial crisis has the advantage of an author deeply knowledgeable about this subject from a practical and a professional point of view. The book provides solutions designed to be fair, ethical, trustworthy and, crucially, grounded in material practices. If implemented, these would be of immense value to our society far beyond the confines of the water industry.’ Miriam Green, Icon College of Technology and Management, UK `This book addresses a topic of current worldwide significance: the quasi-privatization of water management services. Based on rich data from Scandinavia (and beyond), it offers actionable insight into the challenges of implementing a sustainable (stakeholder-based) governance system that is suitable for the hybrid organizations that are emerging in this new global context.’ Eva Boxenbaum, Mines ParisTech, France