Lara Bartocci Liboni

Strategy for sustainability in a Brazilian sugarcane industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest the application of systemic methodologies, such as Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), to develop sustainability strategies and solve problems involving the sustainability of organizations and their operations. The sustainability paradigm implies the need for changes in current production systems, societal organization and use of the natural resources that are essential to all life forms. Sustainability, as a new paradigm, modifies the way in which organizations operate to make companies responsible for sustainable development and ensure that resources are available for future generations. Sustainable development requires a broad new development strategy that encompasses political, economic, social, technological and environmental dimensions. Design/methodology/approach – As a method of analysis the research will use the application of SSM in a case study from the sugarcane industry. The basic scientific thought paradigm, inherited from Bacon and Descartes, no...

Beyond the law: additional corporate sustainability practices of Exame's sustainability guide

Environmental legislation system in Brazil requires corporate actions to attend conservation of natural resources, labour legislation and social practices. On the other hand, the additional practices are voluntary actions, which are not restricted to fulfil the legal compliance. In this context, this study aims to list, categorise and analyse the sustainable practices of the companies selected in the Exame Sustainability Guide. Results listed standard companys practices and verified if these companies take proactive practices or only comply with established law. The research resulted in the listing of 1854 practices; only 5.33% of actions listed were law compliance actions. The majority of practical are proactive proposes actions in addition to those provided by law, reflecting the increasing engagement of companies with socio-environmental responsibility.

Resilience for sustainability as an eco-capability

Purpose This paper aims to identify the dynamic capabilities that foster organizational resilience towards sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The study is a qualitative multi-case study with Brazilian manufacturers of different industries that provides an in-depth exploration of underlying dimensions towards resilience for sustainability. Findings The results indicate that to develop organizational resilience towards sustainability, both in theory and in practical terms, the actions required are long-term plans, regular meetings, benchmarking, communication between areas and distinct hierarchies, partnerships and eco-efficient actions. Regarding human aspects, the leader’s behaviour and shared culture are the means to encourage, educate and exemplify sustainability for all in the organization. Research limitations/implications The study has limitations in the form of a small sample size. The implications indicate a relationship between resilience and dynamic capability for sustainability. In other words, resilience develops organizational, human and technological capabilities for sustainability. Such results can improve the organizational strategy construction methods towards sustainability development. Practical implications The study has two practical implications for companies to continue working for sustainability. The first practical implication is the need to work the processes that are aimed at the exchange of information both internally and externally to the organization. It has been seen in managers’ speeches that creating ways to listen to employee suggestions could make important resource-saving discoveries and release waste. Another important source of information for improvement of operations is to listen to civil associations and industry and non-governmental organizations, as well as participate in events, lectures and discussion forums. The second practical implication is the need to work with the human side of the organization; sustainability needs to be a part of the worker’s daily life, and it needs to become common to them of the need to reflect on how to improve sustainability of processes for which they are responsible. To achieve this goal, companies need to work the pillar of cohesion resilience, emphasizing the behaviour of leaders (role models) and organizational culture. Social implications The comparative case analysis shows some practices that are able to induce good environment and provide social and organizational benefits, namely, long-term plans, regular meetings, benchmarking, communication between areas and distinct hierarchies, partnerships, eco-efficient actions, behaviour of leaders and shared culture among members of the organization. These practices are the means to encourage, educate and exemplify sustainability for all in the organization. Originality/value The originality of this paper is to bring together two streams of the literature, namely, resilience and dynamic capabilities, in the context of sustainability. Drawing on this approach, the study provides a new conceptual model with empirical evidence of key aspects of resilience for sustainability as an eco-capability.

Falta de mão de obra qualificada no setor de serviço na região de Ribeirão Preto: uma avaliação pela ótica dos empresários

O texto se situa entre aqueles que tomam o trabalho como uma dimensao epistemologica e praxiologica fundamental, entendendo seu estudo como necessario, em tempos de mudancas, no devir historico. Propoe-se a identificar as dimensoes que os trabalhadores de uma organizacao publica associam ao trabalho na contemporaneidade e socializa os resultados de uma pesquisa em que foi utilizado um questionario estruturado como instrumento de coleta de dados. O tratamento dos dados coletados ocorreu atraves da tecnica analise fatorial. O modelo final foi constituido de quatro fatores, denominados: dimensoes do trabalho flexivel, dimensoes do trabalho tradicional, dimensoes indesejadas do trabalho e dimensoes vitais e morais do trabalho. Os fatores indicam um hibridismo nas relacoes que os respondentes estabelecem entre as variaveis e o trabalho, ora tendendo a ressaltar relacoes com as dimensoes flexiveis, ora apontando uma relacao com variaveis que remontam ao trabalho sob o capitalismo tradicional, ora em ambas, numa especie de amalgamento. Os resultados permitiram refletir sobre as mudancas nas concepcoes de trabalho de servidores em face da visao gerencialista que tem sido propagada nas ultimas decadas e possibilitou a reflexao no que diz respeito ao quanto se conserva da tradicao no que hoje se chama de flexivel. DOI: 10.5020/2318-0722.2014.v20n1p379

A Expansão da Cana de Açúcar e a Avaliação dos Impactos Sociais Acarretados pela chegada da Indústria Sucorenergética no Nordeste Paulista

Este trabalho se propoe a estudar a associacao entre as variaveis socioeconomicas municipais riqueza, longevidade e escolaridade, capturadas pelo indice paulista de responsabilidade social (Fundacao Seade), e a chegada das matrizes sucroenergeticas nos municipios do nordeste paulista. Pretende-se avaliar os principais impactos da chegada das referidas matrizes nas contas publicas e, fundamentalmente, na “riqueza”/qualidade de vida dos cidadaos paulistas, admitindo que o indice paulista de responsabilidade social (Fundacao Seade) tenha sensibilidade para capturar estes impactos. O trabalho trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva, desenvolvida por meio da analise de dados secundarios, portanto nao se buscou relacoes causais ou tampouco o desenvolvimento de teorias que expliquem esses fatos. O presente trabalho conclui que a expansao do setor sucroenergetico no nordeste paulista desacelerou o desenvolvimento da qualidade de vida dos municipios, uma vez que a evolucao da produtividade do setor nao e seguida por elevacao nas notas atribuidas a cada componente do Indice Paulista de Responsabilidade Social.

Regiones productoras de caña de azúcar tienen mejor desarrollo socioeconômico? Un estudo utilizando el "Índice Firjan de Desenvolvimento Municipal (IFDM)" .

This paper aimed to evaluated, taking account the year of 2010, if the Brazilian municipalities with sugarcane production have better average of socio-economic development than those municipalities without sugarcane production. For this, was analyzed the “Indice FIRJAN de Desenvolvimento Municipal (IFDM)” by 2010 using like sample all municipalities from Sao Paulo state. There are statistics evidences that sugarcane production municipalities with small population range and big population have better socio-economic development than those analogous municipalities where sugarcane is absent. However, there weren’t statistics evidences for the medium population range municipalities. Furthermore, the statistical summary analyses showed that those sugarcane production municipalities with better average also have biggest population.