In the historical progress of nations, economic wealth plays an important role as well as prosperity in social and cultural make-up. When the entire Turkish history is considered, we come across with the institution of Akhism that is both related to the regulation of sociocultural life as well as to the operation of business life within the framework of certain principles and rules. Even though Akhism has aspects in parallel with today’s management philosophies, history has not been immutable and economical activities have changed since the thirteenth-century establishment of Akhism. This theoretical study intends to introduce Akhism that stands as a turning point in Ottoman history in social, cultural and economical aspects. Then the purposes of the institution, its principles and historical progress will be outlined. Furthermore, Akhi associations as well as conflicts with total quality management, social responsibility and corporate culture will be diagnosed.

This article comprises deep structure clues to ethical issues in our lives drawn from the wisdom writings of Tagore, Vivekananda, Gandhi and Aurobindo. All of them had recognized frankly the negative tendencies of man-as-he-is. This fault at the base needs systematic correction and restoration. For, the positive spiritual potential of man-as-he-could-be requires a fault-free baseline as the runway. All of them readily accept the classical word ‘character’ as signifying such a base. Illustrations from various walks of life, small or big, have been interspersed in the article to indicate the essential connections of principle to reality. It is hoped that we might consent to draw sustenance for ethics from our very roots despite inevitable failures or slippages. Ethics is too precious to gain or preserve without persistent battles with one’s own self. Codes and laws are but thin layers of icing on the ethical cake.

Fractal dynamics is a unique, systems-based approach of looking at and thinking about organizations. In this view, the organization is viewed as part of a pervasive organizational fractal. Many astounding properties such as fractal completion, fractal influence and fractal universality emerge in fractal space. These offer new insight into the fundamental dynamics animating all organizations. Routine management tasks such as strategy formulation, cost cutting, process redesign, product formulation, management of change and leadership development can be conducted anew with powerful and innovative insights, unavailable when management is approached traditionally through a linear and sequential thinking approach. This article focuses primarily on the rationale for employing fractal dynamics, and on the search for the pervasive organizational fractal that animates all organizations. A brief example of how fractal dynamics offers insights in the case of management of change is also provided.

Environmental management (EM) is at a turning point in its evolution as a discipline. Daunting social, ecological and spiritual problems of global magnitude implore EM to be inspiring and efficacious in theory and practice. Ironically, the present EM movement, in its ontologically dualistic configuration—measuring and manipulating the environment as an abstract, objectified economic resource for human gain—is unknowingly contributing to the very ecological degradation it wishes to ameliorate. In order for EM to become a truly ‘transformative epistemology’,1its praxis must ontologically transcend the narrow foundations of staunch empiricism, logical positivism and rationalism that now firmly gird it. As a possible alternative to EM’s ‘monological flatland’,2we introduce a holistic praxiological system grounded in the ancient Indian vedanta wisdom tradition. Natural law-based environmental management (NLBEM) portends a radical metamorphosis of EM into a discipline that makes a meaningful impact on today’s precarious global condition.

This article is an assessment of the moral problems that beset cultural relativism, that is, the belief that the nature of human existence and value is strictly dependent on, and therefore autonomously proper to, each particular culture. According to this view, the human experience never transcends its native ground. It is, hence, no use judging one form of the human experience against another since no universal non-local yardstick exists to measure them by. After exposing the flaws and contradictions inherent in this view, the author draws a picture of the consequences of upholding cultural relativism, particularly as it shapes the moral self-understanding of its followers in this instance and, for illustrative purpose, Richard Rorty. Finally, the article sketches an argument for a humanistic understanding of culture, a theory that allows us to hold that human existence does vary according to local and historical communities, and yet holds to a moral centre valid across all human culture.

Knowledge management hinges upon the presumption that workers within an organization possess knowledge that can be converted into concrete business improvements if the information is harvested and disseminated to others to whom it could be of use. True knowledge management must involve capturing the internal knowledge generated by a firm—its best thinking on products, customers, competitors and processes—and sharing it. Insofar as organizations are concerned, postmodernists argue that one view that has been in appropriately privileged is that of the organization rather than the process of organizing. They draw our attention to the link between individual and collective identity. If there is a link between individual identity and how that individual behaves, there may also a link between collective identity and organizational action, for which a study on discourse ethics is essential. After considering the implications of knowledge management and the actual situation and work culture where the knowledge workers are in action, this paper raises and explores the questions wherein lies our individual identity and what its functional relation ship with the collective identity is. It has been envisaged in this article that through principles-driven cross-functional teams and innovative organizational mechanisms, sharing and conviction building need to be facilitated in modern organizations phasing out bureaucratic approaches and hierarchical power domination. Flexibility with a focused attitude is a must for organizations to adapt in a changing environment.