Papers by Douglas Taylor
The Proceedings of the 21st European Conference on Management Leadership and Governance, 2025
Projects producing environmental or social change within a community have the potential to cause ... more Projects producing environmental or social change within a community have the potential to cause contestation. The Social Licence to Operate (SLO) and how it might be earned are examined in this paper. A new approach, the IUE Model (Identify, Understand, and Engage), is suggested to better facilitate conflict reduction and thus enhance project acceptance and long-term sustainability. While the literature often portrays communities as homogeneous, the research revealed that individuals or groups constituting the 'community' were remarkably diverse, even at the local level. Apart from those directly affected by the project, there were numerous "influencers" attempting to sway opinion. Identifying the various community elements is the first vital step in earning acceptance. Effective engagement necessitates understanding the diverse motivations of communities supporting or opposing the project. Support was motivated by potential benefits, either for the individual or the community. Reasons for opposition were far more nuanced, ranging from perceived personal impact to environmental and ecological objections. Engagement requires Procedural Justice (are the rules and procedures fair?), Interactional Justice (are all parties treated fairly?), Environmental/Ecological Justice (going beyond legal compliance to ensure no harm) and Distributive Justice (beyond CSR to fair benefit distribution in line with needs and capabilities). These elements are essential for sustainable interaction. Engagement is not unidirectional; it requires all parties to treat each other with respect and dignity, in line with Ubuntu's underlying principles of cohesion and reciprocal value. The Ubuntu lens provides a decolonised basis for considering justice, offering the insight that while communities have the right to award or withdraw their acceptance, their actions may impact their rights. The paper concludes with an explication of the IUE (Identify, Understand, and Engage) Model, providing a new understanding of how acceptance is earned and offering pragmatic guidance that can be understood and adopted in practice.
The interest in environmental sustainability and its reporting in South Africa have steadily incr... more The interest in environmental sustainability and its reporting in South Africa have steadily increased as legislators and corporations recognize the need for change in business practice to achieve good corporate governance. Assistance with such disclosure is readily available to businesses in the form of, for example, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting guidelines and sustainability principles provided by the King Report of Corporate Governance (King III). However, to date, adequate progress in sustainability reporting has not been achieved. It is thus necessary to identify strengths and weaknesses of both the GRI and King III to guide business practice towards long-term sustainability and to obtain a better understanding where improvements could be made. Annual reports of 30 Top 100 Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) -listed companies were analysed to assess reporting quality and the presence of long-term monitoring. For this, the King III sustainability principles and t...
Defining ubuntu for business ethics – a deontological approach
South African Journal of Philosophy, 2014
ABSTRACT The term ‘ubuntu’ defines how people and communities should interact, based on the aphor... more ABSTRACT The term ‘ubuntu’ defines how people and communities should interact, based on the aphorism that ‘a person is a person through other people’. Adopting a deontological perspective the paper reviews the work of many writers on ubuntu, and examines three possible interpretations of the ubuntu principle before deriving the principle that: ‘An action is right insofar as it promotes cohesion and reciprocal value amongst people. An action is wrong insofar as it damages relationships and devalues any individual or group.’ The various elements of this principle are discussed and some objections considered. A brief case study considers how the principle could be applied.
The paper reviews the process involved in developing a transdisciplinary Master’s degree in Globa... more The paper reviews the process involved in developing a transdisciplinary Master’s degree in Global Change. It first considers the meaning of the various disciplinarities before reviewing the team selection and development process. It provides an overview of the research behind and development of the curriculum, and discusses dealing with academic
administration. It finally provides an overview of the teaching experience.
Lessons learned cover teams, their selection and development; structures and the work required to address administrative challenges; course design and the issue of transdisciplinarity; and teaching, including the use of various alternative teaching and learning methods are presented. This is followed by a postscript - an overview of a course module and students’ responses.
The term ‘ubuntu’ defines how people and communities should interact, based on the aphorism that ... more The term ‘ubuntu’ defines how people and communities should interact, based on the aphorism that ‘a person is a person through other people’. Adopting a deontological perspective the paper reviews the work of many writers on ubuntu, and examines three possible interpretations of the ubuntu principle before deriving the principle that ‘An action is right insofar as it promotes cohesion and reciprocal value amongst people. An action is wrong insofar as it damages relationships and devalues any individual or group.’ The various elements of this principle are discussed and some objections considered. A brief case study considers how the principle could be applied.
Conference Presentations by Douglas Taylor
A Social Licence to Operate (SLO) is a theoretical construct representing the implied consent by ... more A Social Licence to Operate (SLO) is a theoretical construct representing the implied consent by affected stakeholders for businesses to operate, independent from legal or statutory requirements. The SLO concept has been applied to the mining industry as a means of determining or measuring relationships with affected communities. Literature proposes, inter alia, that communities will grant a SLO to a company that establishes its legitimacy, is consistently credible and ultimately demonstrates its trustworthiness with the community through the development of a long-term relationship with that community. Based on the literature a tentative model of trust development to earn the SLO is proposed and then tested. This case study covers the resettlement of the residents of Dingleton in the Northern Cape to allow the Sishen Mine to further expand its operations. The community consists of 920 households of diverse ethnicity, all with differences in opinions and expectations. The case considers the processes undertaken and reflects interviews with a wide section of the affected community. Overall results indicate that the company has largely managed to establish legitimacy and acceptance within the community. However, the most important issue related to appreciating the culture and value systems of the community; with concerns, such as housing and room sizes, grazing and slaughtering, community activities and visiting grave sites all requiring understanding. Probably the greatest learning took place here, as the gap between mine management and its consultants and the community highlighted the " culture gap " that exists. These lessons are of significance to the entire extractive industry. It appears that many of the criteria to earn the SLO have been met. However, the relationship has still some way to go before fully attaining trust. Furthermore, the proposed model requires some modification. This is an ongoing process that requires further research.
Do female board members impact corporate performance? Gender diversity in the workplace is of imp... more Do female board members impact corporate performance? Gender diversity in the workplace is of importance and the body of literature on gender diversity and corporate performance has consequently grown substantially in line with the increased interest in the topic. There are such contradictory findings on the matter that it is difficult to draw concrete conclusions from the various studies conducted. This research was conducted better to understand the effect, if any, of gender diversity in boards of directors on corporate financial performance. Board gender composition and financial performance of the top hundred companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2014 were analysed using multiple regression analysis and Structural Equation Modelling. Both Tobin's Q and Return on Assets were used as financial performance measures. No statistically significant positive or negative relationship could be observed between board gender diversity and company financial performance. While this is contrary to some literature, that found either a positive or a negative relationship between these variables, a large number of studies similarly found no relationship at all. A possible explanation is that the average number of female directors on boards of the companies studied was below three for each of the five years analysed. This implies a higher risk of tokenism, when there are three or less women on the board, and where women are seen only as symbols because there are so few of them. Another possible explanation is endogeneity, where the number of women on the board is argued to be a factor of company attributes. Or, perhaps, financial performance is possibly more complex than demographics of board members? While not providing any definitive answers, the research raises important questions about female board representation and highlights areas for further investigation. There have been 13 significant studies on this topic worldwide, but not in SA, with disparate results. Gender representivity is a major issue facing all boards, but the question remains – does it make any difference? This research considers the problem, finding no evidence of impact on performance, but highlights some possible issues.
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Papers by Douglas Taylor
administration. It finally provides an overview of the teaching experience.
Lessons learned cover teams, their selection and development; structures and the work required to address administrative challenges; course design and the issue of transdisciplinarity; and teaching, including the use of various alternative teaching and learning methods are presented. This is followed by a postscript - an overview of a course module and students’ responses.
Conference Presentations by Douglas Taylor