Social responsibility, Reflexivity and development of Cybernetics

Kybernetes

Submission deadline: January 31st 2020

Guest editors

Igor Perko, University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business, [email protected]
Vladimir Lepskiy, Russian Academy of Science, Institute of Philosophy, [email protected]

Scope of the Special Issue

Social responsible behaviour on the personal and organisational level is becoming one of the main topic in the world, especially when confronted with the clear profit seeking practises of organisations at all levels: from the global corporations, financial trusts to the local companies, faced with the need to optimize beyond their ability for function in a sustainable manner. The inability of the regulators to steer the development in a social responsible path that upgrades the personal morality organisational ethics standards is addressed by pointing out the need for other means of support, using reflexive cybernetic toolset, in supporting the social responsible behaviour by all the participants in the system.

The socially responsible behaviour integration in the society demands for advanced methodologies. This demands for development of reflexive cybernetic methodologies to discover the functional means of governing the change towards social responsible behaviour based on reflexivity on personal, society and ecological level is necessary.

Kybernetes main topics are Systems thinking and cybernetics. Though the topic "Social responsibility" is discussed in multiple Kybernetes papers, the Special issue “Social responsibility, Reflexivity and development of Cybernetics” offers the opportunity to compare multiple approaches and provide clear links to reflexivity and Cybernetics.

The aims of the special issue

  • to further develop the social responsibility concepts to get in line with the state of art and the requisitely holistic development in the social, ecological and business environment, setting special focus in reflexive behaviour, interdependence and creative cooperation.
  • to further develop cybernetics and reflexive methods that can be applied in supporting the social responsible behaviour patterns.
  • to elaborate the cases of social responsible behaviour in companies, government non-governmental organisations, and by active citizens. The aim is to give example on how to rethink standard processes from multiple perspectives and to integrate socially responsible behaviour at all levels.
  • to report on measurements, measuring methods and results, related to social responsibility that support planning, implementation and optimisation of socially responsible behaviour.

Indicative list of anticipated themes

A. Theoretical aspects of Social responsibility, reflexivity and cybernetics

  • Research development in the field of social responsibility and from the viewpoint of social responsibility and sustainable development
  • The role of people in social responsible behaviour of organisations
  • The reflexive behaviour theory
  • The research implications on research, professional, social and ecology level
  • Impact of science on environmental policy and its social responsibility
  • The implications of technology in social responsible behaviour
  • Social responsibility of scientists, institutions, enterprises and other organizations to the local and global social and natural environment in terms of applied science
  • Viability of the organisations and social responsibility
  • Cross-Country Diversity in social responsibility concerning applied science
  • Political and legislation aspects concerning (applied) science
  • Regional aspects concerning (applied) science
  • Developing interdependence and creative cooperation

B. Social responsibility applications

  • Socially responsible business behaviour
  • Social responsibility in business, government and non-governmental organisations
  • Social responsibility inducted by people and civil societies
  • Education for Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility
  • Interdependence and creative cooperation

C. Measurement tools and schemes for Social responsibility

  • Instruments for Evaluating the Performance of Corporate Social Responsibility (codes of conduct, management standards, reporting, labels, Social responsible investment (SRI)...)
  • Responsibility Implementations of SR & SD in Business practice (GRI, ISO standards, Nonfinancial Reporting, ...)
  • Self-assessment tools, good practice examples, awards, recognitions, index...
  • Business benchmarking – performance measurement and targets, key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Principles and Codes of Conduct, Guidelines for Management Systems and Certification Schemes, Social Rating Indices, Accountability and Reporting Frameworks
  • Social responsibility Measurements sets, methods and models
  • Measuring Social responsibility impact on society, ecology and business
  • Integrating Social responsibility in business plans, activities and results
  • Interdependence and creative cooperation impacts

D. Young people and social responsibility

  • Learning social responsibility though social responsibility
  • Redefining learning environment to integrate social responsibility
  • Connecting the social responsibility learning and activities in the real world
  • Social responsibility in Higher Education

We would like to provide assets for:

  • researchers: development in reflexive based cybernetic methodologies and to the research process as such introducing social responsibility as an important factor in research. 
  • regulators: the means for proactive regulation and introduction of new success norms
  • profit organisations: examples, measurement and effects of introducing socially responsible behaviour
  • people and non-profit organisations: frameworks for successful self-organisation and providing value added for society.

Instructions for authors

Author submission: January 31st 2020

Authors are instructed to follow the Guide for Authors and submission guidelines and to choose "Social responsibility, Reflexivity and development of Cybernetics" as the paper type in the online submission system.