Changed Rules!

It is reported that on an occasion the great JRD Tata so impressed with the work of Mother Teresa, walked up to her and asked her how he could contribute to her cause? The lady simply replied that it would help if he ran his organizations well!

Business Guru, Jack Welch steadfastly held that the purpose of a business enterprise was to make profits and was echoing British economist John Maynard Keynes. Towards the end of his tenure Jack Welch was in a spot of bother when one of GE's chemical plants was accused to discharging harmful effluent into a river.( http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/1048 ) 

The point that is up for discussion is whether the responsibility of an organization is limited to earning a profit for its shareholders, paying tax's and providing employment or is it much more. Today an organization is expected to be a 'Corporate Citizen' and play a larger role in society while running a superbly efficient organization. The rules have changed!

Corporate Citizenship is unfortunately a nebulous phenomenon and a mirage to many an organization which struggles with the issue. The question that needs to be answered is whether philanthropy is important for its own sake or does it aid business and profit in some way for the organization. It is found that as organizations mature and move through their life cycle, philanthropy is viewed in a detached manner rather than as a strategic initiative. 

Most people these days would prefer organizations that are socially responsible, respond to a crisis or a challenge with empathy and are transparent in their dealings when in trouble. In the GE case, Welch's successor Jeff Immelt took responsibility for the clean-up of the Hudson River and committed funds.

In today's world few organizations would be able to get away with what Union Carbide did at Bhopal in the mid 1980's and live to tell the tale.

Corporate Citizenship in its broadest terms encompasses how an organization treats its employees and other stakeholders. Citizenship today is all pervasive an integral part of which is what your employees have to say about your HR practices.

Importantly it cannot be viewed in isolation. There was this perverse story doing the rounds when Satyam Computers went down, that its founder and chief protagonist Ramalinga Raju needed to be given some consideration because he ran a free ambulance service. Corporate Citizenship is a total concept with individual parts to it and in many ways a shifting goal post. It is not just about good governance or the environment. It is all that and much more.

In India where Corporate Citizenship is a new fad, the unfolding story can only get better and more interesting.

As Winston Churchill said:

"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."

The key to good Corporate Citizenship is self-interest and the interest of people 

in a connected global world and the faster organization's understand this, the 

easier will be their journey.

An Experience!

A few days ago an erstwhile colleague of mine (from my shipping days) called me up with anxiety loaded in his voice. He was distraught. His daughter had been selected, from campus, by one of India’s iconic IT firms with its HQ in Bangalore. The issue being that his daughter had received an offer letter from the organization’s HR (E-Mail) with another new joiner’s name on the offer letter. Considering that my friend has little idea of the IT industry or Bangalore, the anxiety was justified. Since I lived in Bangalore he inquired if I could assist?

I called up another friend of mine who holds a very senior position in the said organization and posed the problem to him. In turn he put me across to HR, all in quick succession. To cut a long story short, the right offer letter was rolled out shortly and the HR got back to me , saying that there was ‘systems error’ and that they felt obliged that I had brought this issue to their attention.

I was pleased that the issue had been sorted out. The following morning as I stepped out of my home for my morning stroll, I bumped into this friend who holds a senior position. My friend inquired if the issue had been sorted out and as I nodded in the affirmative, he apologized for the mess up. I politely told him that he had nothing to apologize about, to which he simply said “It’s my company.”

I teach Organization Behavior and ‘am well aware of the concepts therein, but have rarely seen them followed. Taking ownership of your organization calls for a superbly well-established organization culture, where every employee has that sense of belonging and pride in his/her organisation. They value the organization as a whole. Individual commitment to a group effort is what makes an organization work and Organization Commitment Behavior is that behaviour displayed, which is not called for by his or her Job Description. 

It is discretionary behaviour which emanates from a deep seated and well established value system which has a strong organizational culture as its bedrock. 

"I continued on my way with a spring in my step and with a belief that what I taught made sense to some people after all!