This chapter in Goodpaster’s book is about giving direction to what he refers to as a “Type 3” organization; that is, an organization that is focused more on the community at large rather than on profit-making as an end. This type of organization has made a decision to focus its attentions on giving back to the community—that profit-making is a means to this end. This chapter, “Orienting Corporate Conscience”, focuses on helping such organizations develop or redefine their mission, take inventory of their current location, and find out the motivations they have for reaching their end goals (as stated in their mission).
Goodpaster likens this process to a vector in mathematics, which is an arrow that shows both a current location, a direction the arrow is pointing to, and also the magnitude of the pull to the direction. This is an apt metaphor for this process in that companies each have different starting points, different directions, and different levels of pull. The point of this chapter is to help companies determine their own personal vector.
He starts by examining the mission (direction) of an organization. Much of the chapter is devoted to this section, with good reason. Without a mission, he argues, a company has no overarching purpose to look back to, with which to make decisions, and to serve to create community for the organization. He quotes a former CEO of Medtronic, Inc., Bill George, “the most frequent reason companies get into trouble is trying to grow without a well-understood mission…internal decision makers have no framework for making decisions” (p 118, coursepack). He goes on describe how some companies have a mission or direction that is expressed in terms of “value priorities” (p 119, coursepack) which take the form of a way of doing business (i.e. importance of the employees, a community culture, commitment to the members of the enterprise as well as customers) versus those companies whose mission is expressed more in terms of the actual product or service provided (i.e. organizations who provide health care or education). Frequently, these “type 3” organizations have both.
The mission or direction, whether developed at the creation of a company, or redesigned later to reflect changing values within an organization, can have an extremely valuable impact on a company as it goes through changes and faces conflicts. If there is a clearly understood mission, the individuals within the company can simply look to the mission for direction. Goodpaster gives several examples, including that of Cummins Engine. Cummins Engine was a engine manufacturer that had since its onset devoted itself to the development of the local community. When changes in the market forced the company to move a large portion of their operations outside of that community, they were faced with a serious question of how to stay true to their mission while still remaining profitable and sustainable as a business. If, however, they had not had such a clearly defined mission, they probably would just have moved operations and felt bad about it…but not really known how or what to do about that. The mission allowed them to know that it was of utmost importance that they use creativity and their resources to create new opportunities for the community that had supported them for so long. Goodpaster sums this up nicely by saying, “a company without a shared sense of direction has no ‘compass’ when crucial decisions (strategic or otherwise) confront it” (p 123, coursepack).
The next issue he brings up is that of current location. Specifically, he addresses the fact that inevitably, there is a disjoint between where a company currently is and where it is intending to go. Often there is also a disjoint between where a company thinks it currently is and where it actually currently is. In order to get a realistic view of where the company truly is, he suggests periodic surveying (both formally and informally) of employees, management, and possibly the customers, suppliers, and other external clients (if feasible given the nature of the business). It is also important to share these views within the company (with management as well as lower-level employees) to be sure that an honest picture of the organization is reflected. At this step the most important thing is to clearly and honestly describe “the dominant ethical values” (p 128, coursepack) of the company—without judgement. It is essential that the organization not make the current picture look rosier than it actually is so that the task at hand (reaching in the new direction) does not seem smaller than it is.
The last section of this chapter is to look at just how passionately a company wants to get to its end goal. Now that they know where they stand and where they are intending to go, and by virtue of that, just how far the road to travel is, the organization must examine their reasoning for doing so and how much they really want to get there. An organization with a strong mission and a clear picture of the “here” but with only mild interest in reaching the goals laid out in the mission simply will not succeed in getting there. This is not an easy task and sometimes can be a long and unpleasant one. This motivation can come in the form of a push (something is wrong and reaching these goals will alleviate the problem) or a pull (something better is on the horizon and there is desire to reach it).
Goodpaster makes a point to specify that companies where the motivation for corporate conscience comes from within the company (rather than the board or other outside pressures) tend to have a stronger group passion for and dedication to achieving the mission. This internal motivation has the effect of creating an “us” feeling and a connection between the employees that creates a community feeling that can be extremely effective in getting people to devote themselves to the mission of the company. A last quote from Goodpaster gives us a nice summary of this section, “orienting an organization is not just a matter of clarity about where the organization is and where leaders want it to go—it is also a matter of how passionately they want it to go there” (p 134, coursepack).
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Posted by: atotoneit | 12/10/2011 at 04:09 AM