Assessing managerial sensemaking processes of businesses with biodiversity issues

这个博士项目将确定生物多样性的挑战和机遇如何影响个体企业管理者的意识形成过程，并影响或推动一系列不同的商业和金融部门的集体自然积极行动。企业管理者是生物多样性影响的有力参与者。企业可以成为自然积极解决方案的关键驱动力。然而，在人们（管理者）和公司能够更有效地管理生物多样性挑战之前，他们必须理解情境背景。意义建构是一个解释性过程，参与者和组织在此过程中解释其周围的社会和生态线索，并建立决策背后的认知叙事（Weick et al.，1993; Whiteman &库珀，2011）。在一个复杂的环境中，管理者必须注意微妙的线索，克服障碍，并在整个组织中共同发展推动决策的“意义理解”。如果人们（管理者）没有给予足够的关注，他们将遇到一个“可预见的惊喜”-一个可以避免的危机局面，但不是因为现有的社会和经济结构。关于企业和财务管理人员如何理解生物多样性挑战和机遇的深入研究基本上是不存在的。这个博士项目通过对商业行为者和拥护者的意义建构过程的定性深入访谈和观察，包括识别有效意义建构和自然积极商业行动的障碍和推动因素，来解决文献中的这一差距。不同个体的感觉构建能力不同（Schön，1983）。博士候选人将通过科学目标网络（SBTN），商业为自然，英国商业生物多样性论坛和自然相关财务披露工作组（TNFD）等举措，确定和分析一系列“自然积极”活动的意义构建过程，该工作组旨在为企业和金融机构提供一个评估框架，管理和报告它们对自然的依赖和影响。这个博士是RENEW项目的一部分。RENEW学生奖学金计划的主要目标是创造新一代跨学科，以解决方案为重点的研究人员，他们经历了丰富的文化，包括基础研究和与主要合作伙伴的合作。

This Phd Project will identify how biodiversity challenges and opportunities affect the sensemaking processes of individual business managers and influence or drive collective nature-positive actions across a range of different business and finance sectors.Business managers are powerful actors with respect to biodiversity impacts. Businesses can potentially be key drivers of nature-positive solutions. However, before people (managers) - and companies - can more effectively manage biodiversity challenges, they have to make sense of the situational context. Sensemaking is an interpretive process whereby actors, and organisations, interpret social and ecological cues in their surrounding and build cognitive narratives that underlie decisions (Weick et al., 1993; Whiteman & Cooper, 2011). In a complex environment, managers must pay attention to subtle cues, overcome barriers, and collectively develop 'sensemaking' across organizations which drives decision-making. If people (managers) do not pay sufficient attention, they will encounter a 'predictable surprise' - a crisis situation that could be avoided but isn't because of existing social and economic structures. In-depth studies of how business and finance managers make sense of biodiversity challenges and opportunities are largely non-existent. This Phd project addresses this gap in the literature through qualitative in-depth interviews and observations of the sensemaking processes of business actors and champions, including the identification of barriers and enablers to effective sensemaking and nature-positive business actions. Sensemaking ability varies across individuals (Schön, 1983). The Phd candidate will identify and analyse the sensemaking processes across a range of 'nature positive' activities through initiatives such as the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), Business-for-Nature, the UK Business Biodiversity Forum, and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) which aims to provide a framework for corporates and financial institutions to assess, manage and report on their dependencies and impacts on nature.This Phd is part of the RENEW project. A principal goal of the RENEW Studentships programme is to create a new generation of interdisciplinary, solutions-focussed researchers who have experienced a rich culture including fundamental research and engagement with key partners.