**5. Material and methods**

*Multifunctionality and Impacts of Organic and Conventional Agriculture*

environment in a proactive manner [29].

commitment to working to develop solutions to problems.

As discussed in [9, 10], our ancestral tendencies can thwart our ability to advance sustainable practices. Moreover, in many cases the strategies we pursue are ones that do not match these tendencies—in that they do not take into account our natural tendency to promote and prioritize our own self-interests above that of the group or common good. They recommend strategies that take advantage of these natural tendencies (which resemble our ancestral mode of behavior) such as creating small dense interdependent social networks and foster group identities. CBOs provide a platform to facilitate the implementation of these strategies that promote

environment that requires increasing integration with the ecological sustenance base in order to achieve sustainability. Consequently, these qualities determine the capacity of the organization or the community to adapt to its ever changing environment. Under a bureaucratic type of governance, decisions are always made by management at a level above where the work is actually done. Thinking and doing are seen as separate tasks carried out by different individuals. Decision making is centralized and autonomy and freedom to be creative are curtailed. Here, the task of governance is discharged by a privileged few on behalf of the organization. Such organizations are tightly integrated and emphasize control to maintain order and protect the organization from external threats that would disrupt established structures and ways of doing things. The stability of these organizations depends on the extent to which they can be insulated from disrupting forces. These organizations operate as closed systems which react to change by attempting to manage or transform the environment in an adversarial or competitive manner rather than responding to the

Globalization, the proliferation of communication possibilities, continual technological change, the easy movement of technology and capital across countries, and the need to reorder our relationship with the sustenance base (the ecological realignment of our industrial, economic and social institutions) create unprecedented complexity and dynamism that require organizations to continually adjust and adopt. To increase the odds of survival, an organization must become more participative, i.e., decision-making is decentralized; freedom, autonomy, trust, transparency and continual learning and creativity are nurtured. In this context, participative organization processes-freedom, autonomy, openness, learning and innovation-create the flexibility the organization needs to become an adaptive and open system as opposed to being closed and rigid. As an open system, participative organizations develop a symbiotic relationship with the environment—influencing the environment and being influenced by it. The interface of the participative organization and the environment becomes the "focal point" of activity where the purpose and mission of the organization achieve meaning [29]. In this sense then, an organization achieves meaning when it responds adaptively to the needs existing in the environment, which includes not only the need for products but also for quality service, non-invasive, unsustainable use of resources, collaborative partnering with stakeholders and the participation of stakeholders in charting the course of the organization as wells as steering the organization on course. The central role of governance is to define purpose and chart a course for achieving the defined purpose. However, achieving purpose in a turbulent and dynamic environment is a function of adaptive capacity, and since adaptive capacity is a function of participative processes, then, the role of governance in a dynamic environment is to create conditions under which participative processes can take root and flourish. Trust, freedom, autonomy, creativity, and openness are the touchstones of participative governance. These principles enable organizations such as CBOs and communities to deal effectively with complexity and change because each member is vested in the participatory process, which nurtures

**90**

sustainable behavior.
