Changing organisational space: green? or lean and mean?
Changing organisational space: green? or lean and mean?
The recent dynamism in the design of workspace is frequently constructed by developers and managers as motivated by a desire to improve sustainability. These claims are reflected in the growing currency of ‘greenspeak’ in organizational discourses and policies at local, national and global levels, as well as a developing academic interest in organizational environmentalism. This article explores the extent to which the increase in an environmental rhetoric has been accompanied by a meaningful shift in organizational practices. Drawing on a new empirical study exploring the place of sustainability within workspace transformation, the study engages with Lefebvre and Foucault to argue that ‘green’ has frequently become bound up with ‘lean’ and ‘mean’ within organizational discourses and imaginations. This has important policy implications for organizations as well as broader theoretical implications for organizational environmental sociology.
environment, lefebvre, organization, space, sustainability
333-349
Leonard, Pauline
a2839090-eccc-4d84-ab63-c6a484c6d7c1
April 2013
Leonard, Pauline
a2839090-eccc-4d84-ab63-c6a484c6d7c1
Abstract
The recent dynamism in the design of workspace is frequently constructed by developers and managers as motivated by a desire to improve sustainability. These claims are reflected in the growing currency of ‘greenspeak’ in organizational discourses and policies at local, national and global levels, as well as a developing academic interest in organizational environmentalism. This article explores the extent to which the increase in an environmental rhetoric has been accompanied by a meaningful shift in organizational practices. Drawing on a new empirical study exploring the place of sustainability within workspace transformation, the study engages with Lefebvre and Foucault to argue that ‘green’ has frequently become bound up with ‘lean’ and ‘mean’ within organizational discourses and imaginations. This has important policy implications for organizations as well as broader theoretical implications for organizational environmental sociology.
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Accepted/In Press date: 16 May 2012
Published date: April 2013
Keywords:
environment, lefebvre, organization, space, sustainability
Organisations:
Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 339280
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/339280
ISSN: 0038-0385
PURE UUID: de2dbafa-3fda-44a0-9936-967eddccf6df
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Date deposited: 28 May 2012 14:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:48
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