Social Responsibility.
I have started reading Robert Greenleaf’s essay “Advices To Servants.” The essay is a collection of nine communications he had with various organizations over a two year period in the early 1970’s. The collection followed up his previous three essays “The Servant as Leader”, “The Institution as Servant”, and “Trustees as Servant.”
The first communication was written in response to a company whose directors had read “The Institution as Servant” and asked, “We would like to know how to be that one.” Greenleaf prepared a memorandum outlining a new social policy that the company could follow to become an institution as servant which he titled “Business Directors Initiate Social Policy.” His memo proposed that “The company is to be economically successful (both in the long term and short term) and it is to be regarded as socially responsible by all interested parties: work force employees, management employees, owners, customers, suppliers, church, university, and appropriate agencies of government.”
In order to do this he proposed that “The company will be concerned to develop a leading role in social matters, and hence will take care not only to follow the spirit of existing legal requirements, but even to keep ahead of them, by elaborating and applying original measures ahead of legal requirements.”
Greenleaf outlined the following procedures for the company to implement the proposal:
1. Prepare an annual report summarizing new laws governing social performance and the position of the company regarding each of the laws.
2. Develop a system for assessing the attitudes and opinions of the interested parties listed above on the social performance of the company.
3. Appoint a task force made up equal numbers of workers and managers to work full time to conduct a study of opportunities for workers to participate in decisions that affect them.
4. Appoint a task force of managers to study the structure of power and authority using “The Institution as Servant” as a guide.
5. Provide staff support to help the study teams complete their work, but do not influence the outcome of the reports and recommendations.
6. Stay aware of the trends and developments of other companies regarding the proposal.
The ultimate purpose of these items was to provide information to the directors of the company. Per Greenleaf, “If directors want a more socially responsible company (. . .) they should start the process by becoming more responsible directors.”
So how do we implement these practices in our own work?
The first communication was written in response to a company whose directors had read “The Institution as Servant” and asked, “We would like to know how to be that one.” Greenleaf prepared a memorandum outlining a new social policy that the company could follow to become an institution as servant which he titled “Business Directors Initiate Social Policy.” His memo proposed that “The company is to be economically successful (both in the long term and short term) and it is to be regarded as socially responsible by all interested parties: work force employees, management employees, owners, customers, suppliers, church, university, and appropriate agencies of government.”
In order to do this he proposed that “The company will be concerned to develop a leading role in social matters, and hence will take care not only to follow the spirit of existing legal requirements, but even to keep ahead of them, by elaborating and applying original measures ahead of legal requirements.”
Greenleaf outlined the following procedures for the company to implement the proposal:
1. Prepare an annual report summarizing new laws governing social performance and the position of the company regarding each of the laws.
2. Develop a system for assessing the attitudes and opinions of the interested parties listed above on the social performance of the company.
3. Appoint a task force made up equal numbers of workers and managers to work full time to conduct a study of opportunities for workers to participate in decisions that affect them.
4. Appoint a task force of managers to study the structure of power and authority using “The Institution as Servant” as a guide.
5. Provide staff support to help the study teams complete their work, but do not influence the outcome of the reports and recommendations.
6. Stay aware of the trends and developments of other companies regarding the proposal.
The ultimate purpose of these items was to provide information to the directors of the company. Per Greenleaf, “If directors want a more socially responsible company (. . .) they should start the process by becoming more responsible directors.”
So how do we implement these practices in our own work?
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