Emergent Responsible Management A Social Connection Model

This book proposes emergent responsible management as a new tool to address the infinite nature of managerial responsibility and discusses how to bring out activities based on infinite responsibility in organizations. Whereas the concept of responsibility of corporations has been brought to the forefront with increasing recognition of the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), its essence has not been fully perceived, which has inevitably resulted in the restrictive feeling associated with organizational CSR activities. This book not only involves theoretical discussion by shedding light on the notions of ‘responsibility’ and ‘emergence’ underpinning the theory of emergent responsible management; it also provides practical insights with several case studies to examine how activities reflecting these fundamental elements have been practiced. In this way, the authors propose corresponding organizational design and process to encourage its continued practice. In addition, the effects of emergent responsible management and how it can be applied to new issues such as fulfilling sustainable development goals (SDGs) are also examined. The book is highly recommended for business practitioners as well as consultants who deal with CSR in everyday practice.

Chapter 1 Responsibility Creates Value in Management.- Chapter 2 Beyond Accountability, Towards Responsibility.- Chapter 3 Transforming to Emergent Responsible Management.- Chapter 4 OMRON—Realising the Corporate Philosophy Driven Projects.- Chapter 5 Bridgestone—Our Way to Serve.- Chapter 6: Creating an Organisation through Voluntary Participation in Marui Group.- Chapter 7 Yahoo Japan’s Problem-Solving Engine.- Chapter 8 The Kizuna Activities of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group.- Chapter 9 Design of Emergent Responsible Management.- Chapter 10 The Process of Emergent Responsible Management.- Chapter 11 Challenging SDGs with Emergent Responsible Management.- Chapter 12: Effects of Emergent Responsible Management.

Katsuhiko Kokubu is a Professor at the Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University, Japan. He is currently serving as a Deanof the Graduate School of Business Administration. He also was a Vice President of Kobe University from 2019 to 2021.He completed his Ph.D. in Business Administration at Osaka City University. Professor Kokubu is a leading scholar of sustainable management and accounting. He has published more than 30 books, including Sustainability Management and Business Strategy in Asia(World Scientific, 2019) and 300 papers in leading journals including the Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Environmental Management, and Sustainable Production and Consumption.

Kimitaka Nishitani is a Professor at the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University. He is also currently serving as the Deputy Director of the RIEB and the Center for Computational Social Science,Kobe University. He completed his Ph.D. in business administration at Kobe University. He was also an academic visitor at the School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, from 2015 to 2016. Professor Nishitani has published extensively on sustainability management, and social and environmental reporting in leading journals including Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Environmental Management, and Sustainable Production and Consumption.

Hirotsugu Kitada is an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Business Administration, Hosei University, Japan. He completed his Ph.D. in business administration at Kobe University. In 2012, he joined the Faculty of Business Administration, Hosei University as an associate professor and is concurrently an invited researcher at KDDI Research, Inc. He is also an expert for ISO/TC323 (Circular Economy) and, as well, was an expert for ISO/TC207 (ISO14007, Guidelines for Determining Environmental Costsand Benefits). His research interests encompass management accounting and sustainability accounting. His work has been published in leading journals including PLOS ONE and the Journal of Cleaner Production.

Mitsunobu Ando is a representative director of the CSR Communication Association. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree at Daito Bunka University, he worked for an internet advertising company for several years. In 2008, he became an independent consultant and has provided consulting services to listed companies regarding sustainability management in such areas as strategy formulation, third-party evaluation, web/report creation support, and information disclosure.