The Research

The focus of my research is to provide insight into pathways to shift the economy from one focused on profit to one that prioritizes making positive change in the world through business. I will use a narrative approach to in-depth interviews in order to determine the pathways that people have taken from the traditional corporate world to start businesses oriented toward positive social/environmental change.

My research question is: Why do people leave the traditional corporate world to start businesses oriented toward positive social/environmental change?

My research is intended to answer the call to economic geographers to bring to light pathways that will steward our earth system. The research will address the affective and emotional environment that facilitates the shift and how people’s sense of self was affected as they made the shift. The research will also provide valuable insight to others who are interested in making the shift and to the traditional corporate workplace that may be interested in reinventing themselves. I am conducting the research to meet the requirements of Doctoral Studies at the University of Waterloo.

February 2024

I have a draft dissertation completed. This dissertation has provided me with an understanding of my own experience in the corporatized workplace. I have gained a much better understanding of the power dynamics of the corporatized workplace and their effects on those that work within it. In the dissertation I examine the corporatized workplace at two different scales i) the systemic and ii) the individual. I then examine the movement from the corporatized workplace to the business that participants view as oriented to positive change. Many participants described that movement as a journey. 

It has taken me longer than I had anticipated to get to this point. Life continued to happen as I worked on my PhD. The research journey was more that just an academic journey. Like so many study participants, it was also a journey of what bell hooks refers to as  “remembering myself.” So, as I was navigating data to cognitively understand what happens to some in the corporatized workplace, I was also trying to untangle myself from the myths that society works to ensnare us in. It takes effort and support to journey back to wholeness.

I am in the process of finding a replacement on my committee. I anticipate defending my disseratation in July of this year. I will post a link to it here once that is completed.

I am very grateful to the study participants who so graciously shared their stories, to my advisors and committee members who provided guidance along the way, and to my family and friends who supported me along the way. 

Alison Braithwaite

PhD. Candidate
Geography and Environmental Management
University of Waterloo
AJBraith@uwaterloo.ca

I am interested in the corporate world because of its proven potential to change the world. I spent about 20 years in the corporate workplace, responsible for environmental performance and sustainability. I managed to shift the corporate culture significantly toward acknowledging we were part of the environment and with that comes a responsibility to support the environment in the actions taken by the corporation. I became fascinated with what facilitates this shift toward creating positive change and wondered how it could be done on a larger scale.

My Master’s degree is in Leadership from Royal Roads University. I have a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching, also from Royal Roads University. I have worked in Leadership positions in both the public and the private sector. During my career, I dedicated myself to creating change towards a more caring and appreciative workplace. My first passion was care for the environment. Then with the realization that the environment won’t be looked after until people feel cared for my interested shifted to people.

I am an author of the book In Her Own Words: Women’s wisdom to move you from surviving to thriving. The book is a collection of stories of twenty women who offer a new perspective on how to thrive in the world.

I approach my research through a feminist geography lens. I have chosen this perspective  because it sees space as relational, knowledge as situated, and places care and connection centrally in human and non-human relations. Feminist understand there is a different way of knowing and have been instrumental in uncovering the unseen and unrecognized in society.

I am intrigued by emotion and affect and their role in creating the workplace. Given emotions are what move us, understanding that role is imperative.

Inclusion and Belonging

My previous research was in leadership, an action research project within a family-owned corporation with greater than 500 employees that operated within highly masculinized industrial sectors. The project took an appreciative inquiry approach which focused on inclusion and belonging in the workplace and looked at how the shared stories of when women felt recognized, affirmed and celebrated for their uniqueness, could inspire a more inclusive corporate culture. I used a circle dialogue, collage and journaling as my methods. The conclusions and recommendations aligned with a subsequent employee engagement survey and inspired the executive team to create a program based on the values of integrity, care and creativity. A training program was developed to instil an appreciative culture aimed at creating a greater sense of belonging within the company.

Royal Roads University, Leadership Conference: Leadership. Complex. World.  Presented Master of Arts Action Research outcomes as part of the Organizational Leadership Research Roundtable, October 2015