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Emgee
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role of corporations in community development
August 5, 2007 - 09:22 PM
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Such a great topic and so little space. I really believe that corporations do, no, must have a role in developing communities worldwide. What with globalization and the interaction of cultures, as well as the marketing of products and services worldwide, many corporations are seeking ways to give back to communities. Only problem is who to give back to. I would like to state that the give backs should more than 60 percent be oriented to the next generation, the 45 per cent of the world's 6 billion who are between the ages of 15 and 24, the generation who will soon take the baton to lead the world, the generation most of whom are disadvantaged, underappreciated, almost all in a state of hopelessness, ticking timebombs...
If this generation is suddenly valued, appreciated and assisted in learning and earning so that they can be transformed, then their children will most undoubtedly be a generation with hopefulness, a generation who would be able to lead and sustain a future that would look different from what we are seeing now - at least what I am seeing now.
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BenoitCtr
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Re: role of corporations in community development
August 6, 2007 - 10:31 AM
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I salute your courage to take a stand.
Here is the most exhaustive Internet work I know of, to educate the corporate world to move in the directinon that you advocate:
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/224
This post was edited on: 2007-08-06 at 10:37 AM by: Benoit Couture
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Ben Warner
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Re: role of corporations in community development
August 8, 2007 - 12:37 PM
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The triple bottom line approach (or TBL+1 now) is gaining currency among corporations. See the Global Sustainability Institute's TBL+1 website for more information.
The approach is not without its critics, especially as corporations try to illustrate what they're talking about with incomprehensible graphics. However, the number of corporations paying attention to their social and environment accountability is increasing, as illustrated in the recent KPMG report (worth taking a look.)
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Steve
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Re: role of corporations in community development
August 22, 2007 - 04:33 AM
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I don't see how anybody can claim corporations have a role in making the world a fair and just place until they are owned and controlled by the workers. Corporations have only one bottom line: profits, any socially beneficial work they do is purely for public image reasons will only ever be enough to make them look good.
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Ben Warner
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Re: role of corporations in community development
August 22, 2007 - 06:08 AM
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One could say the same thing about people -- no person will ever really do anything altruistic, they only ever act for selfish reasons or to make themselves look good.
People are motivated for a number of reasons, and self-interest is one of them. Corporations are run by people. Some of them are only into doing good for PR reasons -- but that's no reason not to accept their good work.
Others I know give quietly and don't want publicity associated with their giving. It's hard to ascribe any motive to their giving related to public image when they avoid the spotlight.
Worker-owned companies, paradoxically enough, may be worse at corporate giving and corporate involvement in good works, since there isn't an accumulation of profits controlled by relatively few. If the profits are redistributed among the workers, the motivation to give weakens quite a bit.
And worker-owned companies also need to be focused on the bottom line of making money. Everyone is focused on the bottom line, because it directly affects everyone's paycheck.
I don't see how distribution of ownership reshapes corporate policy beyond dealing with the immediate worker/owner pay disparities (which are worth addressing, to be sure.) I suspect your assessment of corporations is too pessimistic and of workers too optimistic, but I'd love to hear more about your assessment of the matter.
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Steve
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Re: role of corporations in community development
August 22, 2007 - 02:15 PM
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I don't agree that people will never do anything altruistic, the donations for the Asian tsunami victims a few years ago proves that people are more than happy to give without personal benefit or recognision, there are many more examples.
Corporations, on the other hand are designed to maximise profit over any other consideration (see Dodge v Ford for an example).
Worker owned (and controlled) companies may possibly be less willing to give (and I do not believe that would be the case) but without the exploiting of workers (particularly in the third world) many problems would disappear anyway. And if corporations were designed for the benefit of the workers, community and customers and held responsible for the environmental damage they create there would already be so much less to worry about.
This post was edited on: 2007-08-22 at 02:22 PM by: Steve
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BenoitCtr
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Re: role of corporations in community development
August 22, 2007 - 10:28 PM
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I got this info from one of my mentors, Chris Macrae.
So from him and his dad comes an opportunity for workers and corporations to go as one
"From competing to completing"
The following is a practical opportunity for Taking It Global to invite the mentorship needed to learn how and where to participate in order to contribute as a genuine force of the release of the universal youth's heart and spirit, into the current movement that is carrying corporations and workers into the work of conflict resolution and of reconciliation with each other as opposed to being trapped to work against each other in the name of competitivity:
http://www.omidyar.net/group/community-general/news/1947/
Can we dream of carrying on our global work in such a way as to become
one of the hosts in the transition process of Omidyar's communities?
Ps for TIG administration:
Omidyar is owned by the owners of Ebay and it is shutting down in September
So if the decision makers of TIG do not spend at least 2 full days exploring who and what this post is about, then there might be a possibility that TIG in not going to survive much longe eitherr...
Are we ready to stop debating and can we get on with a genuine decision-making process from cyber space to reality? or are we going to be satisfied with playing games of "who is the smartest"
Of special interest to the youth's mission of Taking It Global, see the second last link of this message, the one of Sir Ken Robinson
:
This post was edited on: 2007-08-22 at 10:56 PM by: Benoit Couture
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Anita
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Re: role of corporations in community development
August 24, 2007 - 02:34 AM
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Corporations are a sum total of the economic and consumer aspirations of a society. The behavior of corporations all over the world is monitored by their existing corporate laws and their implementation. There are needless to say lapses in this as different countries have different systems and procedures to regulate corporate practices.
An enlightened corporation understands that it cannot thrive if the society around it is pagued with social issues and grave disparities. This may be self-interest (i.e the vision to see a more complete society), which helps the organization to tide over competition, availability of skilled labor and a healthy environment to work in. A corporation may contribute towards this effort through philanthropy, foundations, research, and collaboration with NGOs, Governement , to alleviate depressed/marginalised communities.
It would be ideal if such work was done purely for good, but that would be an unrealistic expectation. The more pragmatic way to think about it would be to develop systems whereby the extent and level of their participation increases and corporations start to inernalise their role in social upliftment and development, realising that its is the same society that they belong to and hence if they do not start helping it would affect their bottomline eventually.
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Ben Warner
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Re: role of corporations in community development
August 24, 2007 - 06:21 AM
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Jill Graham, in an essay titled "Servant-Leadership and Enterprise Strategy", outlines a continuum of choices companies make when developing their corporate ethics and determining how they are going to operate.
They range from a profiteering enterprise strategy -- make money at all costs, no matter what the law says -- through classical economic strategy (make money within the law), profit protection enterprise strategy, balanced stakeholder service, philanthropic enterprise strategy, and more.
For each she has examples, such as Levi Strauss or Reebok pressuring foreign subcontractors to improve conditions, to Ben & Jerry's commitment to all its stakeholders(including customer, employee, vendor, and community), to places like Greyston Bakery which uses its profits to finance social giving.
I think the point is that fewer MNCs are profiteers only -- they generally operate within the law, as you said -- and more and more are moving beyond what the law demands to a different ethics, often spurred by stockholder or customer expectations but sometimes just by enlightened management.
Which means, just as individuals can behave altruistically, so do corporations, and community pressure (positive and negative) shapes expectations for corporate altruism and corporate responsibility. That's why triple-bottom-line approaches are such a positive development -- recognizing the environmental and social impacts of a company, and its efforts to make the world better, are reported along with the profit/loss sheet.
Social justice movements and environmental movements are reshaping corporate behavior, and I suspect we'll see some tremendous movement in that regard.
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nsawabkc
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Re: role of corporations in community development
September 15, 2007 - 11:16 AM
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Corporations in a community are just as important as water in a community. Most all civilizations started around water. Communities grow and prosper due to corporations just like civilizations grew because of water.
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Hayk
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Re: role of corporations in community development
September 16, 2007 - 08:08 AM
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Corporations redraw physical borders of countries. Physical country borders mean less and less for the developed part of the world. all recent technologies enabled everyone to be rather mobile and likes of IBM with 325000+ staff i a country onto itself with its governor, its constitution, etc.
The whole corporate culture is changing not only physical borders of countries, but also updating mentalities, approaches and lifestyles of thousands involved in these corporations. Moving inside a corporation in different countries becomes more and more a staple approach for adventurous and easily-bored ones.
And now, the whole bricks-and-mortar corporate culture goes online. Literally. Almost everything one can imagine happening in a tete-a-tete format before can now be found online, be it idea exchnage, or business plan writing, or management consultancy.
Physical and tangible things matter less and less in this world...
H.
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nandernc
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Re: role of corporations in community development
September 16, 2007 - 11:23 AM
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I think companies have a big places in community devolopment. They help bring mony into towns.
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Dr. Ahmed Tammam
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Re: role of corporations in community development
September 16, 2007 - 11:33 AM
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i agree with u all on the point of thats the role is not really cover but lets donot forget that it may be astep on the way
have awonderfulday
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Dr. Ahmed Tammam
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Re: role of corporations in community development
September 16, 2007 - 11:43 AM
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i agree with u all on the point of thats the role is not really cover but lets donot forget that it may be astep on the way
have awonderfulday
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Adedeji Ajayi
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Re: role of corporations in community development
September 18, 2007 - 09:08 AM
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Without doubt, the global exploits of the multinational corporations have left many of their host countries stranded. A case example is Nigeria. Although, it is evident in this case that even when such community development gestures are shown to the public, these people themselves are not ready for it. That is, there is need for them to be development-conscious.
However, what must be said will be said, These corporations ONLY extort their communities with the attendant socio-economic problems which are further heigtened by unwholesome political pronucements.
It is high time these firms started doing their jobs more RESPONSIBLY
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