Dr Alexander Schieffer's Books

Integral Renewal

A Relational and Renewal Perspective

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

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Integral Renewal

A Relational and Renewal Perspective

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

In 2010 Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer published their seminal work on Integral Research and Innovation, whereby they identified the four R’s; relational and renewal, reason and realization based research paths that altogether encompass the major qualitative research methods and methodologies. Within each path they identified a trajectory from origination to transformation via foundation and emancipation. However these paths, underlying the research process, conventionally termed 'method', were disconnected from the integral economic and enterprise content, conventionally termed 'literature', with which they were concerned. In this book, Integral Renewal they seek to remedy such, in two major respects. As transformative masters and PhD programs are focused on the 'Global South', where the vast majority of the world’s population is based, as well as those developmental agencies focused on such, the great majority of the people with whom the authors deal select the relational research path, and the path of renewal, over and above the paths of reason and realization. The focus of this book will be on these two paths of integral research, now interconnected with integral enterprise and economics. Uniquely, the authors pursue research and innovation in a systematic way. In that respect, while their prior Integral Research book still provides the research foundation for the four southern and eastern, northern and western paths, this book will focus on the former two relational (southern) and renewal (eastern) from the combined perspectives of research process and economic and enterprise content.

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489

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Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472454375

ISBN 13

9781472454379

Inclusive Organizational Transformation

An African Perspective on Human Niches and Diversity of Thought

By: Dr Rica Viljoen

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Inclusive Organizational Transformation

An African Perspective on Human Niches and Diversity of Thought

By: Dr Rica Viljoen

In Inclusive Organizational Transformation, Dr Rica Viljoen acknowledges that diversity of thought presents both gifts and challenges to leadership in multi-national organizations. Here, Inclusivity is positioned as a radical transformational methodology with the purpose of unleashing the benefits of engagement and diversity of thought. Case studies from Ghana, South Africa, Australia, Peru and Tanzania are included and insights gained from the dynamics observed are shared. A synthesis of Inclusivity is presented in a model, meta-insights are derived and the prerequisites for Inclusivity on individual, group and organizational domain are illustrated.

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361

Publisher

Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472423011

ISBN 13

9781472423016

Integral Development

Realising the Transformative Potential of Individuals, Organisations and Societies

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

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Integral Development

Realising the Transformative Potential of Individuals, Organisations and Societies

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

Alexander Schieffer and Ronnie Lessem introduce a groundbreaking development framework and process to address the most burning issues that humanity faces. While conventional top-down, outside-in development has reached a cul-de-sac, a new, integral form of development is emerging around the world. Integral Development uniquely articulates this emergent approach, and invites us to fully participate in this process. The integral approach has been researched and framed over decades of in-depth experience in transformative development education and practice all over the world. It uniquely combines four mutually reinforcing perspectives: nature and community; culture and spirituality; science, systems and technology; and enterprise and economics. Conventional development theory and practice has prioritized the latter two perspectives, neglecting the former two. This has caused massive imbalances in today’s world. The four interconnected perspectives allow for a transformative and integrated engagement with core development issues in a way that is locally relevant and globally resonant. Throughout, the practical impact of Integral Development is brought to life through highly innovative cases from around the globe, drawing on the authors` first-hand experience. This makes the book a living demonstration of the power of this pioneering approach. Integral Development shows how individual, organizational and societal developments need to be interconnected to release a society’s full potential. It shifts the responsibility for large-scale development from often-distant experts and organizations to each individual, community, enterprise and institution within the society. It is essential reading - and a call to action - for everyone concerned with the current state of local and global development.

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593

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Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409460401

ISBN 13

9781409460404

Integral Economics

Releasing the Economic Genius of Your Society

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

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Integral Economics

Releasing the Economic Genius of Your Society

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

Why on earth is economics perceived to come in only one or at best two different a-cultural if not a-moral guises? There are real, and many, alternatives to the economic mainstream. The trouble is, of course, that they are hidden from us. In Integral Economics Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer pave the way for a sustainable approach to economics, building on the richness of diverse economic approaches from all over the globe. By introducing the most evolved economic perspectives and bringing them into creative dialogue they argue that neither individual enterprises nor wider society will be transformed for the better without a new economic perspective. Here, they introduce a comprehensive framework based on the same 'Four Worlds' model that is applied to enterprise and research in their earlier works. Given the richness of even mainstream economic theory reviewed in this book, let alone the variety of alternative approaches introduced, it is frustrating that policymakers and business practitioners are impoverished by a lack of apparent economic choice – between a seemingly failing capitalism and an already failed communism. The 'villains of the piece' in relation to this lack of choice are not so much the financial community and governments, though they do have much to answer, but the schools of economics and the business schools, that have created the very social ethos, the philosophical principles, and the mathematical models, that influence events. Integral Economics is partly addressed to academics and students in those very schools, who have either realized the error of their ways, or, less dramatically, are curious to explore whether our businesses and communities could be run in a different way. It will be welcomed by informed senior practitioners, eager to understand the current rethink of economic theory and practice and to discover how to position themselves, their organizations, and their society within a new framework.

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424

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Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409459799

ISBN 13

9781409459798

Integral Dynamics

Political Economy, Cultural Dynamics and the Future of the University

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Dr Junie T Tong,Dr Samuel D Rima,Professor Ronnie Lessem

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Integral Dynamics

Political Economy, Cultural Dynamics and the Future of the University

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Dr Junie T Tong,Dr Samuel D Rima,Professor Ronnie Lessem

The theory of integral dynamics is based on the view that the development of individual leaders or entrepreneurs requires the simultaneous development of institutions and societies. It seeks a specific way forward for each society, fundamentally different from, but drawing on, its past. Nearly every natural science has been transformed from an analytically-based approach to a dynamic one: now it is time for society and culture to follow suit locally and globally. Each culture, discipline and person is incomplete and is in need of others in order to develop and evolve. This book sets out a curriculum for a new integral, trans-cultural and trans-disciplinary area of study, inclusive of, but extending beyond, economics and enterprise. It embraces a trans-personal perspective, linking self with community, enterprise and society, and focusing on the vital relationship between local identity and global integrity. For the government policy maker, the enlightened business practitioner, and the student and researcher into economics and enterprise, the new discipline is set out here in complete detail by a multi-national team of Gower's Transformation and Innovation Series authors. Illuminated with examples relating the conceptual to the practical, this is a text, not for a pre-modern, modern, or even post-modern era, but for what has been called our trans-modern age.

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Page Count

1217

Publisher

Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409471357

ISBN 13

9781409471356

Globalization's Limits

Conflicting National Interests in Trade and Finance

By: Prof Dr Dimitris N Chorafas

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Globalization's Limits

Conflicting National Interests in Trade and Finance

By: Prof Dr Dimitris N Chorafas

So far there has been only praise for globalization. However, the export wave of China’s manufacturing machine and, more recently, the Global financial crisis show that globalization has limits. Globalization, the internationalization of trade, and financial integration are having enormous implications for businesses as well as for the whole economies of countries or blocks of countries. In this book Dr Chorafas argues that research is now producing evidence that there are limits to such globalization and amalgamation and that these need to be better defined and understood if some of the problems now being identified are to be prevented from applying the brakes, or worse, putting the process into reverse gear. The author examines the impact on countries such as the United States and European Union of occurrences like China's emergence as a massive manufacturing platform and the distortions of trade that result, affecting countries' GDP and creating problems such as uncontrollable current account deficits. He also considers the effect of Sovereign Wealth Funds as new entrants on the scene. These, he argues, are seen by some as 'the Trojan horses of state capitalism', particularly in what he defines as the 'absence of a global sheriff'. Globalization’s Limits looks at the EU and the Euroland as a test of globalization. The conclusions Chorafas draws about the effect on member states of pan-European banking, and the Euro as common currency, have implications for Britain and for the rest of the world. Issues relating to missed opportunities and leadership beg questions such as 'Who, if anybody, is or should be in charge of global monetary policy?

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366

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Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409459756

ISBN 13

9781409459750

Integral Research and Innovation

Transforming Enterprise and Society

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

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Integral Research and Innovation

Transforming Enterprise and Society

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

The core question underlying Integral Research and Innovation is: 'How can social research be turned into social or indeed "integral" innovation?' Complementing their acclaimed Transformation Management, this second book in the Transformation and Innovation Series explains how the knowledge creation that underpins transformative processes occurs. The authors show how research has to be transformative, rather than just informative if it is to contribute usefully to building integrated and sustainable enterprises. At a time when business practitioners and others responsible for organizational development are desperate for usable knowledge the authors contend that social science research is failing to support business and management generally. Instead, academic researchers engage in esoteric arguments about research methodology which do not contribute usefully to the resolution of real world problems. Drawing on their experience of environments where researchers and practitioners do engage constructively, resulting in research that is active, participative, and genuinely innovative, Professor Lessem and Dr Schieffer are in territory that is far beyond that covered by standard works on research methodology. This is a book not just for academics and researchers wanting to make a meaningful contribution, but also for reflective practitioners from the corporate organizational, and consultancy based worlds who operate in the area of interface between business and management, education, learning, and society, and who need to know how research can be used to make a real difference.

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448

Publisher

Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409459489

ISBN 13

9781409459484

An Integral Approach to Development Economics

Islamic Finance in an African Context

By: Dr Basheer Oshodi

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An Integral Approach to Development Economics

Islamic Finance in an African Context

By: Dr Basheer Oshodi

Despite economic growth in countries like the author’s native Nigeria, poverty and unemployment blight the lives of the majority of citizens. In An Integral Approach to Development Economics, Basheer Oshodi examines modernization theories, dependency theories, world system theories and emerging 21st century economic theories. He links a neo-modern mix of economic thought with the practicalities of finance in parts of the World where poverty is rife, focusing on the use of Islamic banking and finance in an African setting. Islamic finance is considered in the context of the triple heritage of indigenous culture, Westernized Christianity, and Islam. The author argues and demonstrates that the principles of Islamic banking and finance can be applied in a way that integrates with other elements of that heritage, and meet the challenges of poverty and unemployment.

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283

Publisher

Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472411250

ISBN 13

9781472411259

Transformation Management

Towards the Integral Enterprise

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

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Transformation Management

Towards the Integral Enterprise

By: Dr Alexander Schieffer,Professor Ronnie Lessem

The concept of transformation has long been known to the sciences and has been around in the popular vocabulary for several decades. Because it has never been fully developed as a managed process and applied to our organizations, the way in which we have been trying to deal with the complex issues we face today is looking increasingly inadequate. Transformation management, argue the authors of this inspirational book, now provides the opportunity for the application of the first significant world-wide innovation in the way we manage since Drucker put management itself on the map in the 1950s. In a book that draws on seminal theses and practical examples from the four corners of the world, Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer provide leaders, students of leadership, managers and change agents with a trans-culturally tested, integrated approach to leadership and management. Only through a redefinition of what leadership, management and entrepreneurship amount to, say the authors, can organizations be transformed into sustainable enterprises capable of dealing with the burning issues of our time. Leaders are coming to realise that it is no longer possible for organizations to operate in any sort of isolation from the society and the wider world in which they exist, but paying lip service to notions of either social responsibility or globality is not good enough. From this indispensable book, those whose enterprises are to have any hope of becoming authentically socially responsible or authentically global will learn to understand and activate the process that dynamically links any organization with the society in which it is embedded and that links the local with the global. The practice of transformation management is about creating real value... for organizations, people, and society. This book, from the Transformation and Innovation Series, makes that practice possible.

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664

Publisher

Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

140946010X

ISBN 13

9781409460107

Spiritual Capital

A Moral Core for Social and Economic Justice

By: Dr Samuel D Rima

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Spiritual Capital

A Moral Core for Social and Economic Justice

By: Dr Samuel D Rima

Presenting a thorough, comprehensive theory of spiritual capital based on solid academic research, 'Spiritual Capital' serves to reinforce and amplify the notion of a moral economic core that is beginning to feature in contemporary economic arguments. In this rare major work wholly dedicated to the subject of spiritual capital, Sam Rima explains the desperate need for revolutionary and transformational thinking in the area of economic policy and practice and makes the case for a new moral foundation to business and economics that directly addresses today's financial and business crisis. Writing in an accessible style, and drawing on examples from several continents, Rima explains spiritual capital theory in terms of the resources needed for its creation, how it is formed, how it can be invested and what the return on investment can be. The book provides practical tools for measuring a personal or organizational store of spiritual capital, along with clear guidelines on how to engage in spiritual capital formation. These will benefit business leaders interested in developing viable and sustainable enterprises capable of avoiding the disconnection between economic policy and social reality. There are also recommendations here for policy makers regarding the macro application of spiritual capital theory. This important contribution to Gower's Transformation and Innovation Series will appeal to business leaders and policy makers, academicians and students in the fields of sociology, theology, and economics, and anyone interested in social and economic justice issues, social innovation, and corporate social responsibility.

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480

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Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409460169

ISBN 13

9781409460169

Integral Polity

Integrating Nature, Culture, Society and Economy

By: Dr Ibrahim Abouleish,Professor Louis Herman,Professor Ronnie Lessem,Mr Marko Pogacnik

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Integral Polity

Integrating Nature, Culture, Society and Economy

By: Dr Ibrahim Abouleish,Professor Louis Herman,Professor Ronnie Lessem,Mr Marko Pogacnik

Integral spirituality, integral philosophy and the integral age, at an overall or holistic level of consciousness, has become a strong enough idea to form the genesis of a movement over the course of the last half century--and Integral Polity applies this notion to business, economics and enterprise. Using case studies ranging across the globe this review of a newly integral theory and practice provides a new lease on life to what may increasingly be perceived as the self-seeking, insulated and occasionally violent and corrupt realm of the political.

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377

Publisher

Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472442474

ISBN 13

9781472442475

Remaking Ourselves, Enterprise and Society

An Indian Approach to Human Values in Management

By: Dr G P Rao

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Remaking Ourselves, Enterprise and Society

An Indian Approach to Human Values in Management

By: Dr G P Rao

Decision makers interested in going beyond their own personal and professional interests and involving themselves in humanising their organization, community and society should read Remaking Ourselves, Enterprise and Society. This book is about adherence to human values at an institutional level, and its starting point is the belief that human beings have basic goodness, which in turn is reflected in the desire to be of help to others and to do good. Professor Rao introduces the Indian concept of 'Spandan' (Heartbeat). Spandan is operationalized through a process of diagnosis, discovery and development enabling organizations to achieve an optimal balance between what are defined as transactional, transformational, and terminal human values. This leads to management and organizations developing sensitivity to the needs of others, which they come to understand. When such sensitivity becomes integral to its work ethic and culture, an organization is able to temper its commitment to task with humanity and it becomes functionally humane. Experience suggests, not surprisingly, that organizations that can achieve this optimal balance between results and relations achieve higher employee commitment and productivity and increased accommodative spirit that better equips them to deal with difficult times. This exciting addition to Gower's Transformation and Innovation Series will enlighten business leaders, governmental and non-governmental policy makers, management educators, organization developers, and researchers.

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289

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Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409473562

ISBN 13

9781409473565

The Rise and Fall of Management

A Brief History of Practice, Theory and Context

By: Dr Gordon Pearson

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The Rise and Fall of Management

A Brief History of Practice, Theory and Context

By: Dr Gordon Pearson

Insight into today's economic and financial problems comes, in this revealing book, from an understanding of how and why the practice and the teaching of management has developed as it has. Gordon Pearson, who has spent equal parts of his long career as a practising manager and a management educator, clarifies through rigorous historical review the difficult issues around management with which we struggle today, such as why management custom and practice so often lead to contravention of the law. Pearson reviews how management became a practice and body of understanding, the development of its crucial role in economic progress, and then how its corruption came about as a result of malign theory, leading to the dominance of the bonus payment culture and short term deal-making that plague us today. Understanding management's past, suggests Pearson, will help its improvement for the future. Contributing to that understanding, this challenging book sheds light on how management might be renewed and on the benign role it could play if freed from the restraints of inappropriate economic theory. This book is not just a history or a sociological analysis of management. It gives a broad, practically informed, critical view of the subject that will be welcomed by any reader with a professional or an academic interest in practice, theory, and context.

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299

Publisher

Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409459551

ISBN 13

9781409459552

The Open Organization

A New Era of Leadership and Organizational Development

By: Dr Philip A Foster

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The Open Organization

A New Era of Leadership and Organizational Development

By: Dr Philip A Foster

What is it that makes certain organizations more successful? Organization design and its management has long been the fixation of leaders and scholars alike. Cracking the code to the perfect organizational ecosystem appears to be the dividing line between great success and mediocrity. The 21st century launched with great volatility and a level of cultural and global diversity unknown by previous generations. This instability demands new approaches and methods for the delivery of products, services and ideas. We can no longer afford to run organizations with 19th and 20th century ideas. The pressures of shifting demographics, culture and technology require new approaches to organizational leadership and structures. Welcome to the era of the Open Organization. The Open Organization: A New Era of Leadership and Organizational Development, by Dr Philip A Foster, is divided into three distinct parts; the first explores the foundations of an Open Organization, covering the evolution of leadership and organization theories from the beginning of known time through to the 21st century; the second discusses the elements of such an organization, presenting the ecosystem of an Open System with its structure, culture and decision-making functions, while the third examines the 21st century organization, questioning ‘who should go Open’ and reviewing the reality of creating this type of organization, understanding control and resistance and addressing the matter of bringing about change.

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Page Count

213

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Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472440137

ISBN 13

9781472440136

Integral Renewal

A Relational and Renewal Perspective

By: Professor Ronnie Lessem,Dr Alexander Schieffer

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Integral Renewal

A Relational and Renewal Perspective

By: Professor Ronnie Lessem,Dr Alexander Schieffer

In 2010 Ronnie Lessem and Alexander Schieffer published their seminal work on Integral Research and Innovation, whereby they identified the four R’s: relational and renewal, reason and realization-based research paths that all together encompass the major qualitative research methods and methodologies. Because their transformative PhD programs are focused primarily on the 'Global South', where the vast majority of the world’s population is based, most agents of transformation with whom the authors deal select the relational research path, and the path of renewal, over and above the paths of reason and realization. The focus of Integral Renewal is on these two latter paths, now interconnected with integral enterprise and economics.

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Page Count

489

Publisher

Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472454359

ISBN 13

9781472454355

Finance and Society in 21st Century China

Chinese Culture versus Western Markets

By: Dr Junie T Tong

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Finance and Society in 21st Century China

Chinese Culture versus Western Markets

By: Dr Junie T Tong

In this revealing book Junie Tong reflects on the role of banking and finance in China. The author adopts a critical perspective that views the societal as well as economic functioning of banking and finance. Finance and Society in 21st Century China considers how far the modern economy is disconnected from Chinese culture and history and the problems this separation may cause. She questions the common assumption that China has outgrown its reliance on its Western counterparts. The author believes that the country is still very much dependent on exports and foreign investments and any radical or rapid reduction in either would have serious adverse consequences for China's sustainable economic growth. To provide a model for 'finance and society' that integrates culture and economy, Tong draws on the seminal work of Belgian economist, banker and social commentator, Bernard Lietaer, who has focused on cultural forces and the future of money in the world, generally. Using representative case studies for illustration, Tong applies Lietaer's work in a specifically Chinese context, highlighting the need to root finance and enterprise in the rhythms and forces within Chinese culture to avoid future chaos and achieve socio-economic stability in a country now so critical to global well-being.

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