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Fuente: Fundacão José Saramago - Democracia e Universidad

Nowadays “green issues” are in focus in different kinds of media. Almost all organizations have some environmental program and it can be seen on ads all over the place. Is it happening because of a feel good factor or only the fear of losing clients and seeing profit reducing? Do organizations must have green projects or it is only an extra? Is it possible to be green and to improve finance bottom line at the same time? Can project professionals interfere by a relevant way in company´s policies related to sustainability? To discover the answers to these questions and to know more about sustainablity in a business context, continue reading this text.

It is possible that CEOs from some organizations are really interested in doing green programs with the goal of improving the life in society and preserving the environment, but, in general, the most important point to them make a decision is profit. “Many [sustainability] projects fail because CEOs do not pay attention to them.”, says Aaron Shener, PMP, institute professor of management and founder of the project management program at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hobokem, New Jersey, USA. “Too often, they see projects as costs, not as investments[...].”. These passages show us how much profit is important and overlaps social needs. “The best way to convince CEOs to get on board is to show ROI[Return On Investnment] in terms of financial savings and improved brand loyalty and recognition.”, says Cara Cannella, author of “Sustainability: a green formula”, 2008 Leadership in Project Management.

Around the world, in special places where productive activity is more intense, bad practices like burning fossil fuels are causing environmental problems like global warming. It is a serious question and people are aware. It is impossible, nowadays, in this context, to maintain an environmentally unworried organization. To retain customers and to establish a good reputation is indispensable to do green projects.

“There is emerging evidences that sustainable[projects] can deliver superior financial returns and market performance”, says Eric Lee, international director for property management firm Jones Lang La Salle, Hong Kong. Through green projects are possible to be more cost-effective, to pass this saving to customers and at the same time gain a better reputation. One example is Britsh Telecom, wich in 1996 embarked on a project to cut pollution by using energy-saving equipments in its data centers. “We can operate more cost-effectively and save money.”, says Steves O´Donnell, BT´s operates environment champion and global head of data centers and customer experience management. ”We want to be seen as a corporately, responsible, green, clean company.”.

Project professionals have an important role in green policies, because they are the bridge between CEOs and employees . This kind of professional should learn about roots of the business in order to compare his/her actions with competitors and measure customer perception. After, he/she should give the information to CEOs and convince them to adopt sustainable practices. At this moment is important to link ROI and sustainability.

One of many tasks of a manager is to implement organization´s strategy and to make others – his/her team, unit or department – execute it very well.

Although, sometimes the manager can think that the strategy adopted by the organization is wrong. In this case, the manager´s professional should be cautious and analyze the situation with patience, because to start, immediately without to be sure about what is happening, the “fire alarm” can be dangerous to him/herself image.

Experts say that to develop a strategy is difficult, needs time, often the process is messy and the result is never perfect. A manager must speak up about his/her thinking and doubts, but, before needs to pass by some steps.

The first step is to understand in what context the strategy was created. At this moment, it is important to contact experienced people who fellow the development process. These people can return useful information and advice from a variaty of points of view.

The second step is to reflect about the concerns using gained information in a contextualized way. No one strategy is a hundred percent perfect, but, sometimes one mistake can be only a different perception of eavaluating it and not a real problem. A responsible manager should ask him/herself if there is a real problem or only an unease because of his/her feelings and point of view.

After research and reflection about the problem compared with his/her motivations, if the concerns continues is time to verbalize them.

The third step is to talk with his/her direct boss about what concerns him/her. At this moment is important to have solid information that sure is going to help explain his/her thoughts. Besides, the manager should propose actions that can mitgate the strategy´s mistakes. In the conversation it is important not question the authority of boss.

The number of cases with mistakes related to strategy that put organizations in real risk is small. If it is the case, the manager should consider quitting, but is necessarily to send a message to his/her CEO talking about roots of decision.

In the past, to find people who work abroad was very difficult. Nowadays, some things like low-cost air travel and high-speed internet connectivity have made workers, regardless of position, establish professional relationships with many others around the world. This change occurred with the advance of globalization, - a phenomenon mainly identified by the integration and interdependence among economies and the technological, ecological and others spheres of societies around the world. In this context, leaders are challenged – and need to learn – to be more culturally sensitive and need to teach and motivate employees to do the same.

Before learning cross-cultural skills and changing your behavior is necessary to find out when and where cultural differences exist. It can be difficulty, because all people are totally immerssed in their culture and do not see its features. It is impossible to describe with a hundred percent certainty and in detail the individual behavior of each citizen in a country or city, but with antropological research, called etnograph, we can discover common denominators about behavior in a society. Fons Trompenaars, a Belgian academic, wrote a book called Riding the Waves of Culture, based on Geert Hofsted´s research, and determined that cultures could be characterized by their features in a number of dimensions such as uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism and hierarchical vs. participative decision process. For example, in what Mrs. Trompernaars called “particularism”, relationships are more important than rules. On the other hand, in what he called ”universalist”, rules take procedence over people.

After knowing mainly characteristics of a culture and determining its key-points, it is necessary to fit policies and work manneers to it. For example, if in a culture face-to-face contact has a high value, leaders should not use solely e-mail. They need to find other medias like vídeoconferencing. This aproach is supported by Rudolf Melik, author of The Rise of the Project Management Workforce: Managing People and Projects in a Flat World. Another example is give to us by Ron Hyams, a South-Africa-based managing partner with the multinational executive coaching firm Praesta. He explains a female marketing director who was accustomed to walking in her company´s office looking at Black Blarry. The perception about her, in South Africa where she was working, was negative because there people value eye contact and they felt insulted by her.

Daniel Hepp, a Canada-based director of professional services at Blue Cats Networks, looks at differences among cultures as a good thing. In his opinion, people from different cultures give to organizations an advantage built by different points of view and perspectives.

Dean Cunnengham, England-based managing director of Cross Border Coaching believes that, about every thing, overcoming natural habits and adjusting your behavior is not a piece of cake and demands practice, so you should not get disillusioned.

A motivação para o estudo do tema em questão advém da minha percepção sobre o mundo da administração e sobre aquilo que a respeito dele é publicado nas mais diversas mídias. O que comumente se vê são materiais que tratam a administração pelo prisma do sistema capitalista fundamentado na economia de mercado onde a obtenção de lucro torna-se o objetivo fim, dando pouco ou nenhum espaço para os aspectos sociais. Pretendo aqui preencher esta lacuna, fazendo o leitor refletir e desenvolver um senso crítico mais apurado para que assim este também possa, com as suas ações, contribuir para o desenvolvimento de uma administração mais justa e coerente com as necessidades daqueles que compõem a teia social.

O objetivo destes artigos será esclarecer, através de uma evolução histórica, mas ao mesmo tempo intimamente relacionada ao contexto presente, o surgimento da organização empresarial como a conhecemos hoje, sua escalada no que diz respeito à ocupação cada vez mais constante em posições de poder e influência social, bem como desenvolver uma abordagem crítica dos seus métodos, ações e respectivas conseqüências para a sociedade e por fim ressaltar a importância de se desenvolver uma visão administrativa que relacione os aspectos econômicos e sociais.

Para guiar os estudos sobre o tema, descrevo abaixo alguns tópicos que servirão como alicerces.

- A razão instrumental.

- Desenvolvimento histórico do capitalismo com foco nas suas organizações produtivas e relações sociais engendradas no interior das mesmas.

- Necessidade de sistematizar o conhecimento sobre a administração dessas organizações e o surgimento do Management e a sua diferenciação semântica com a Administração.

- O management na atualidade.

- Desenvolvimento de uma administração que pense o econômico, mas que tenha o social como fator de relevância.