Social and ecological research programmes in management : let’s get radical?

The pressing and complex nature of ecological and social issues calls for a profound rethink of traditional management and organization studies. This contribution aims at exploring the radicality of the main "scientific research programs" (Lakatos, 1978) on social and ecological issues in management and organization studies. In light of the urgency and complexity of ecological and social issues, some research programmes are challenging traditional management and organization studies.We argue that only the most radical proposals from research programmes can contribute to this goal. Therefore, this paper addresses the question of are scientific research programs in management and organization studies sufficiently radical to address the urgency of our contemporary ecological and social challenges? To this aim, our paper presents the major scientific research programmes on social and ecological issues in management and organization studies: grand challenges, anthropocene, sustainability transitions and corporate social responsibility. Then, we show in each research program, their positions on the radical vision of organizations to answer social and ecological issues. Thus, we tend to clarify how radical scientific research programs on social and ecological issues may influence mainstream management and organizations studies.