(Author Sunita Singh Sengupta)
The Malaise of Modern Organizations and The Role of Corporate Greed
The relentless pursuit of egoistic gratification has led to the current situation of corporate greed and lack of trust amongst people as reported in the cases mentioned above. Corporate ethics in bureaucracies have tended to be depersonalized with managers and employees, expected to place company interests before their own private interests with their ultimate fealty to society. The trusteeship theory of Mahatma Gandhi defines a practical context for the owners of wealth to reach towards the unitive, cosmocentric consciousness.
The declining graph of the organizations took place because of greed and covetousness of the players. Such unethical practices have a great bearing on the internal as well as external environment of the organization. It creates a culture of intra-psychic conflict. Therefore, it requires good governance. Good governance is a state of mind. The top management needs to move out either from the frame of mind that they are above all or the law does not apply to them.
The culture of the workplace has a role to play in its downfall. The unbelievably aggressive way of getting business - ‘ too- good- to- be- true- performance' caused lack of focus, clarity and accountability. As a result the entire environment became greed driven leading to unhealthy work culture.
The dominant philosophy in business is to maximize shareholder value. Michael Douglas's academy award winning performance in claiming that “Greed is Good” in the movie Wall Street still appears to be the mantra of businesses big and small. The author in one of her studies (Singh- Sengupta, 2002) made efforts to understand how do the organizations maintain their sustainable competitive advantage by using organizational existentialism approach. This approach incorporates organization responsibilities and duties towards both, the internal community, which comprises of people who work there and the larger community where it is located. She writes, “…The benefits of high – integrity and high – responsibility organizations are well-established conscience mechanisms that emphasize on fair practices which are manifested in responsible decision making and organizational citizenship behaviour. This cannot be possible unless and until the organization adopt a reflective approach in its managerial style. The reflective managerial style on the one hand provides caring climate to the organization where members freely interact and have a free frank dialogue and on the other hand is aware of the purpose of its existence in the society” (p.301).
Transparency in the organization can be perceived when it has fair practices and high standards of business ethics, which is manifested in its day-to-day dealings. Auditing of the business environmental ethical social and profitability bottom lines will enable the business to make a difference to the continuous improvement of the organization. And in doing that, to make continuous improvement to overall society (Birch, 2000).
Business is a socio-cultural activity, which impacts the lives of many more people than actually involved in the work, or directly benefit from the profits and share dividends of the company. The business need to redefine the way in which a company sees itself, away from a rigid adherence to a narrowly focused `single' bottom line, with companies seeing themselves as responsible only to their shareholders, towards a more socially, ethically and environmentally aware definition of themselves as a company ‘ doing business in the public eye '.
Creating culture by doing business in public is, therefore, a powerful catalyst for establishing a sustainable society, where everyone is recognised as a legitimate stakeholder able to comment openly. Such openness is therefore, a public conversation that takes place as a part of a public culture and this lies at the heart of corporate citizenship, because it is participation in this public conversation, which defines public culture as expressive citizenship (Birch, 2000). Neal (1999) writes, “… We are actually in the midst of an important paradigm shift as the last vestiges of defunct industrial era practices prepare to fall. We are experiencing the beginning of a transformation in the workplace. This is not the latest fad but a genuine recognition that the workplace has an important role to play in our need for wholeness and integration”(p. 28). This paves the way for a conscious-business movement.
Corporate Prosperity Through Evolution & Involution
Swami Vivekananda said,
“…It is in the very nature of things to manifest themselves. The momentum is not from outside, but comes from inside. He further says, ‘…each evolution presupposes an involution. We know that the sum total of energy that is displayed in the universe is the same at all times, and that matter is indestructible.' ‘Everything begins', he adds, ‘as it were, from certain seeds, certain rudiments, certain fine forms, and becomes grosser and grosser as it develops; and then again it goes back to that fine form and subsides.'
[Sunita Singh Sengupta, a former Professor of IIM(Calcutta), is the founder of ISOL(Integration of Spirituality and Organisational Leadership). Presently, she is working as a Professor with Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), New Delhi. Views are personal.]
