Sixty six ways to get it wrong: A response to Banerjee and Linstead

Gail Whiteman learned to be a beaver trapper by working in the field with a Cree tallyman in Eastern James Bay, Québec. An account of her managerial experiences and some potential lessons for organizations were reported in Whiteman and Cooper (2000). Central to her managerial experience was the sense of being ecologically embedded – literally being grounded in the local ecology. From that experience we suggested that resources are more likely to be cared for if managers have a strong ecological sense of who and where they are. Banerjee and Linstead (2004) have provided an extensive critique of our article. We itemize the sins with which we are charged and provide responses to the more central criticisms. We close by reiterating the purpose of the original article and what we continue to believe are the virtues of the main points.