Leadership for global systemic change beyond etichs and social responsibility by anne

Christopher Anne Robinson-Easley Leadership for Global Systemic Change Beyond Ethics and Social Responsibility... This book is written for individuals from all walks of life who want

Leadership for Global Systemic Change

Beyond Ethics and Social Responsibility

Christopher Anne Robinson-Easley

Leadership for Global Systemic Change

Christopher   Anne   Robinson-Easley

Leadership for Global Systemic Change

Beyond Ethics and Social Responsibility

ISBN 978-3-319-38948-6 ISBN 978-3-319-38949-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-38949-3

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Christopher   Anne   Robinson-Easley

CEO

Enlightening Management Consultants, Inc

South Holland , Illinois , USA

This book is written for individuals from all walks of life who want to stand the dynamics of how to drive deep system change in a world that continues to be fragmented; a change that incorporates the fundamental constructs of ethics and social responsibility However, before we begin, please allow me to formally introduce myself and the structure of this book

THE INSERTION OF SELF

I have had various roles in my career In my last position, I was the Vice- President for Academic and Student Affairs at a community college in Illinois I also reached the academic rank of Full Professor of Management, and I served fi fteen years at a state university in both administrative and faculty positions Prior to that time frame, I served fi ve years at a Catholic university; also in administrative and faculty positions In addition to the years I have spent in higher education and the corporate business sector, I continue to consult to organizations in the private and public sectors and internationally teach intercultural management

During the twenty-one years I have spent in higher education, I have taught ethics and related topics at undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels Yet, what largely informs my perspectives in addition to my aca-demic training is that I worked in corporate America in various manage-ment and leadership positions for over two decades prior to entering higher education

My research, consulting, and training have afforded me the opportunity

to travel internationally, although the predominance of my experiences

PREFACE

vi PREFACE

has largely been in Europe and the French West Indies But what is most important about my background is the fact that I am a trained organi-zation development professional, with a doctoral degree in organization development, whose lens is focused on how to design and implement deep and holistic change

My personal and professional journey thus far has been rich and erated by other attributes As you read, you will see the evidence of my journey from a very personal perspective My experiences have framed

mod-my perspectives as to how we can produce change in our global nity; a change that is focused on ameliorating issues that have signifi cantly stretched the social fabric of our world

Throughout the years, I have personally experienced and professionally worked to address far too many of the issues I discuss in this book Equally important, as a researcher I have also learned that if we are to bring about change, we have to consider the proposition that our world is not value neutral As a result, this book as well as others I have written is in fi rst and third person You see, the social fabric of our global environment is being

torn, not just stretched at the seams We cannot continue to marginalize

people, wreak havoc on our environment, and place far too many children

at risk daily Our global village has to change

Therefore, to understand the complexities of the requisite change, I respectfully posit that our personal lens and experiences when juxtaposed

to, or working in concert with views from peer scholars serve as important foundations for understanding how to bring about change that will take

us beyond our comfort zones

So, mentally, spiritually, and metaphorically walk with me as I urge a collective gathering to begin the change process Across the globe our tenets regarding ethical behaviors and sound social responsibilities have

to change, because if they do not, the social fabric of our society will tinue to be torn to the point that we will not recognize our world—a fear many now have

South Holland, IL, USA

I continue to be grateful to my Creator as He continues to guide me in my writing And I am grateful to my children for their inspiration and encour-agement and to the very special person in my life who has encouraged me

to keep growing and speaking my truth

I am also thankful for friendship As I have continued to write over these past years, my friend, Mrs Dortha Brown, has continued to be a beacon of light, offering encouragement as well as tirelessly reading my work and providing the constructive feedback I need

I am also grateful for my experiences The forty years I have worked in business and higher education have been very enlightening I have wit-nessed as well as experienced events and situations that I wished I had never encountered Yet, they have been signifi cant opportunities for learn-ing Through it all, the most important lessons I learned were my respon-sibilities for righting the wrongs I saw Each of us has a purpose in life and

a role to play

We live in challenging times and as each day passes, the challenges become more intense When I began writing this book in 2014, the global circumstances I addressed were intense However, in between my begin-ning this book and the fi nal submission of the manuscript to the publisher, our world continues to spiral into even more chaos—a situation that is

very similar to what was occurring when I wrote Beyond Diversity and

Intercultural Management In between my beginning that manuscript

and submitting it to the publisher, our world experienced very chaotic events that centered on issues of a failure to value humanity In the USA

we were spiraled into an ugliness that centered on the killing of a young

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

seventeen-year-old man, Travyon Martin In countries such as Egypt, Turkey and Brazil people were demonstrating about issues that concerned their basic human rights

And now, as this book goes to press, in the USA we are in the midst of

a Flint Michigan scenario that brings new meaning to the concept of social responsibility, a presidential race that has gone beyond the boundaries of ugly (to the point where other countries are questioning the rhetoric that

is emerging out of the USA), along with continuing issues that are said

to challenge the basic human rights of people in Turkey, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries Added into the equation is an organization, known among other names as ‘ISIS’, that is taking international terrorism

Everyone has a purpose and a role to play For me, I am a teacher as well as an organization development change agent and for many years I have been a writer I use to write according to the parameters set forth by the Academy That is what we needed to do to get tenure Tenured and promoted to the rank of Full Professor, I now write to teach and hopefully inspire a level of cognitive dissonance that will move people to new levels

of action

For many years, I have been privileged to teach ethics and social sibility from many vantage points and through many lenses However, the most important vantage point I have taken throughout those years is one that has allowed me to teach my students how to understand the systemic issues we see from a systems perspective and as an outcome … learn how

respon-to change the system!

I am grateful for the graduate and undergraduate students I taught throughout the years I have been blessed to have students in the classroom who represent our global society Through the questions they asked and the discontent they expressed throughout the years, we critically exam-ined past, current and emerging issues For many, they represented the discontent they felt but may not have found a venue in which they could articulate their feelings Equally important, the way in which I forced their view of the issues concomitantly forced the concept of systems thinking, which resulted in their understanding and learning how to posit change

As I wrote this book, I focused on engaging all audiences I want to

be clear: changing how we treat people socially and responsibly across the globe is everyone’s responsibility Even those who are victimized should be prepared to challenge themselves and deconstruct why they have accepted their current state Until we learn to stand up for ourselves, people across the globe will continue to be victimized As Frederick Douglas said (a quote I will repeat again in this book):

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress 1

I pray that the words I write will stir souls across the globe I pray that

I will continue to have the strength and wherewithal to be provocative Most important, I am grateful to all who have always encouraged me to speak my truth

Friends and family are truly gifts from our Creator!

NOTE

1 http://www.africanamericanquotes.org/frederick-douglass.html , Frederick Douglass, Civil Disobedience Manual

1 Introduction 1

Part I The Issues and Parameters of Plausible Change 15

2 Our World, Our Lens, Our Choices 17

3 Through the Lens of Business Ethics 41

4 The Current Landscape 53

5 The Friedman Versus Korten Argument: Are These

Dichotomies Still Valid in the Twenty-First Century? 87

Part II Through the Lens of Ethics and Social

Responsibility: Imagine a World of Change 105

6 Reclaiming Our World: The United Nations Global

Compact in the Midst of a Vision of Change 107

CONTENTS

xii CONTENTS

7 Leaders as the Linchpins of Change 127

8 Living the Ideal: A Proposed Model for Change 143

9 Living and Sustaining the Ideal 177

10 Concluding Comments 181

xiii Fig 8.1 Evoking phenomenal global change 157

LIST OF FIGURE

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

C.A Robinson-Easley, Leadership for Global Systemic Change,

Yet, I cannot believe that we have not seen these events, attitudes and resulting atrocious actions coming I believe many have chosen to close

their eyes When I wrote my book, Beyond Diversity and Intercultural

Management , (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), and as I researched and wrote

this book, I became alarmed at a level I had not experienced before So many people are having their humanity desecrated while the rest of us can

be seen as idly standing by and watching

The social circumstances of our global society have to push people to rethink how we live; a question that is fundamental to a perspective of normative ethics (Hartman et al 2014 ) The framing of this question is vital to understanding our values, which are defi ned by our moral systems Our morality, personal integrity and resulting attitudes which frame our personal and business ethics have to come under scrutiny if we are going

to change our world ( 2014 )

How we should live in community is a question posited for many diverse organizations and institutions, such as our global corporations Embedded

in this question are more questions regarding justice, public policy, laws,

civic virtues, organizational structure and political philosophies—areas in which corporations have substantive infl uence (2014) These questions and their underlying constructs also challenge the many projects that are already underway. As this book has reached its fi nal stages of production, we are witnessing presidential candidates in the 2016 presidential race debate many issues which are foundational to this country Yet, dismally what we also are witnessing is that many consider the rhetoric of the Republican candidate

to be antithetical to the basic foundations upon which the United States was built; a rhetoric that is so offensive to national and international lead-ers and citizens that one outcome has been the international community in concert with many in the USA voicing concerns over proposed policies and resulting actions (Hosenball et al.  2016 )

In Turkey, which is situated very critically in a geopolitical sense, and

is in candidacy for entrance into the European Union, people are ing verbally and in person (often with support from outside the country)

protest-to challenge the government’s apparent shutting down of press freedom and the right to articulate disagreement These are just a couple of current issue examples These global travesties, some of which are described in this book, suggest a strong need for people to challenge how we have allowed our society to deteriorate to a level where far too many cope by numbing themselves to the daily affronts Yet, just as diffi cult to understand is the number of people that support the continuation of the status quo; an issue

we will visit in this book

There are many efforts to bring about change already in place; efforts which people have placed a tremendous amount of time and energy in structuring and implementing Yet the problem with these efforts is that they do not entail enough organizational entities and members of society

at large to make the substantive difference required on a worldwide basis There are more than suffi cient numbers of organizational entities to make

a difference… they simply are not all engaged As a global society, too many people are content to stand by and simply watch And, from indi-vidualized perspectives, many are afraid

I recently received a civic award for contacting the police when I observed

a home invasion in progress When the Chief of Police and I had a tion regarding my accepting the award, I communicated my concern about being recognized for something I believe is a fundamental responsibility

conversa-of citizens Unfortunately, he confi rmed that people for the most part will not ‘get involved’ Interestingly, this is one of the fi rst questions my under-graduate ethics students addressed two years ago: why do people turn their heads when others are in trouble? Why, as a society have we ceased to care?

Where are our morals for ‘doing the right thing’? Needless to say, that ture and resulting student dialogue was very interesting

These questions do not just reside on an individualized level, but prevail on a global basis The 2014–2016 goal of the United Nations Global Compact Strategy is to increase corporate participation from 8000 corporations to 13,000 corporations and other participants by 2016 1

In the United States alone, there are an estimated 22 million tions. 2 Equally challenging, many of the ‘engaged’ corporations do not appear to engage at a level that evokes the requisite change—change at an interpersonal and intrapersonal level. Yet these are critical change strate-gies for promoting and sustaining any dynamic change processes

Years ago, when I fi rst began researching and writing on organizational change, I kept in the forefront of my mind the proposition of one of our pre-eminent organization development colleagues, Dr Peter Reason, who for years was on the faculty at the University of Bath in England Dr Reason posited that orthodox scientifi c methods, typically found in the psychological and sociological realm of inquiry, may systematically and

to a large degree intentionally exclude subjects from all choice about the subject matter of the research or, in the case of change strategies, inter-ventions (Reason 1988 ) As a result, a dangerous outcome is that tradi-tional inquiry methods become not only epistemologically unsound, but contribute to the continued decline of our world, continuing to foster a mechanistic world view (Reason 1988 )

The impact of these missing change components are evident in the tiques and criticisms of the Global Compact Strategy, which is by far one

cri-of the largest and most aggressive change projects underway today, and that has the intent to ameliorate many societal atrocities; an issue I address later on in this book While I sincerely applaud the efforts of the United Nations and similarly focused organizations moving towards the end result

of global change, I also wonder if it is time to push the limits of ment with a different type of change model In other words, is it time to move beyond incremental change that is focused on addressing primarily structural areas of concern and move towards a radically designed change effort that includes people from multiple walks of life?

More importantly, is it time to move beyond structurally focused

changed initiatives and incorporate ways to engage the hearts and souls of

the people involved? There is truth in the statement that:

Liberation is thus a child birth, and a painful one The man or woman who emerges is a new person, viable only as the oppressor-oppressed

contradiction is superseded by the humanization of all people Or

to put it another way, the solution of this contradiction is born in the labor which brings into the world this new being: no longer oppressor

no longer oppressed, but human in the process of achieving freedom (Freire  2006 , p. 49)

As an organization development strategist, I quickly learned that to understand the hearts and souls of people from a very deep discursive level, you have to go beyond even the most sophisticated change strategies and engage the people at their core—insights which drove me to return

to school after obtaining my doctoral degree in organization development and enter seminary

The concept and constructs associated with ethics automatically raise the questions as to how we live as a moral society and whether or not the morality we (and ‘we’ is very inclusive) have embraced is contributing to the tearing apart of our social fabric We also have to question whether

or not organizations who supposedly engage in ‘business ethics’ have a responsibility to the greater society (corporate social responsibility) that goes beyond the limits to which they currently prescribe—and, concomi-tantly, ask when organizations are perceived as duplicitous in their behav-iors, why do consumers support those organizations?

It has been suggested that one way to engage corporate responsibilities

in change strategies is to insist that where there is severe deprivation and suffering that can be alleviated, it is morally intolerable to maintain that

no one has the responsibility to help (Miler 2001 as cited in Kuper 2004 ) Perhaps corporations do have extensive remedial responsibilities not just because they are the cause of issues or are morally responsible for so much global poverty, or because they have very close ties with local communi-ties, but because from a local to a global level, they are the most capable agents when it comes to seriously addressing the torn fabric of our global society (Kuper 2004 )

THE INTERMINGLING OF ETHICS AND BUSINESS ETHICS

Throughout this book, I will often simultaneously address business ethics and personal ethics—and both of their relationships to social responsibil-ity Academically, I understand the difference with respect to their defi ni-tions and how they are treated differently in the literature

However, my personal experiences, particularly through the lens of leadership, have suggested that if an organizational leader is lacking in his or her personal ethical behaviors, and the moral foundations from which this leader operates lack substance, it becomes very diffi cult for the organization to ethically behave As a result, we will subsequently have issues with the ‘business ethics’ Leadership behaviors and ethics, organizational culture and its resulting ethical behavior are intimately intertwined

Let me take a moment to expound upon what I mean In my book,

“Our Children Our Responsibilities: Saving the youth we are losing to gangs” (Robinson-Easley, 2012 ), I suggested that there were direct rela-tionships on a vertical level between personal vision, personal power and personal change I also suggested direct vertical relationships between organizational vision, organizational power and organizational change But, equally importantly, I posited the direct horizontal relationships between personal vision and organizational vision; personal power and organizational power; and personal change with the capacity for organi-zational change

Fundamentally, I suggested that effective leaders have to possess sonal vision, live in their personal power, and as a result, not be afraid to bring about personal change Or more, specifi cally:

The ability to see and inspire a vision will require a leader to reach in the recesses of his or her soul in order to take people places they may fear going Even though the leadership trek may be wrought with trial and error, when people feel the spirit and soul of a leader—in other words their true essence—they will follow without fear or trepidation (Robinson-Easley 2012 , p. 147)

Only then can a leader evoke an organizational vision, lead the zation to realize, actualize and effect its personal power to make that

organi-vision a reality, which can result in sustaining phenomenal organizational

change

Similar relationships can exist between ethical behavior, social sibility and leadership For example, a leader’s personal ethics will impact the organiation’s ethical foundations and moral principals. How the leader internalizes his or her personal power can impact the organiation’s result-ing business ethics.  Equally important, if the leader does not engage in

personal change, typically, the organization’s willingness to create change

in order to alter it’s ethical behavior and social responsibility strategies is unlikely

It is very diffi cult for people to be effective leaders unless they engage

in self-exploration and confront the issues that block them from living their lives with purpose while demonstrating competencies germane to effectively leading organizations and engaging in sound ethical behavior (Robinson-Easley 2012 ) Internally driven leaders challenge their moral and ethical beliefs and are not afraid to confront their own personal decay

It is not until they have dealt with their own issues that they can fully lead their organizational members and others through actions that will respect the humanity of all people (Quinn 1996 ; Robinson-Easley

success-2014 ) The same holds true for how a leader works through their cal behavior and is not afraid to challenge their foundational beliefs and morality

In 2014, I suggested the following propositions:

As our lives grow more complicated, we often fi nd ourselves engaging in behaviors that begin to tear apart at our ability to live authentically It is not until we recognize those behaviors we have internalized for what they are, will we become willing to question them and change (Robinson-Easley

2014 , p. 142)

Yet, what can complicate this introspective contemplation and questions are varying perspectives associated with our ideas as to what constitutes

a moral point of view For example, one perspective/defi nition of ethics

is that it is a dialogical academic discipline that strives to understand in a rational and self-critical manner how people should resolve various kinds

of value confl icts (Cooper 2004 ) But, can we fi rst understand and resolve value confl icts, if the foundation for those confl icts lies within the ‘self’ and we have not critically examined the ‘self’?

At the core of this endeavor is the desire to discover which moral systems are the most valid ( 2004 ) Moral values can be deemed as com-mitments people hold that help us defi ne those things that are right and others that are wrong ( 2004 ) Yet, these defi nitions do not stand in isolation They are framed by a community context; a system of shared intersubjective norms that give all members mutually understood expec-tations of how they ought to treat one another ( 2004 ) And, when you

take these concepts to the organizational level, it becomes much ier to understand how a leader can infl uence the ethical behavior of an organization

If we critically examine the relationship of the leader to the zation, he or she will often drive the culture, which encapsulates many norms and behaviors This same relationship can reside within multiple forms of ‘organizations’—countries, communities, and the varying sys-tems embedded with those entities Consequently, if we deconstruct the values that currently reside within these organizations, we should also question if the people really believe that the moral values they have inter-nalized are appropriate or is their acceptance framed by conditions (and/

organi-or individuals) perceived to be beyond their control? In other worgani-ords, has the morality of the leader overshadowed the morality of the organiza-tional members?

Perhaps a moral point of view should be impartial But is it possible given the plausibility of conditions described in the preceding paragraph?

A moral point of view is also typically defi ned as meeting publicly edged rational standards that satisfy conditions of universality, and are examined from a self-critical lens versus ideological perspectives ( 2004 ) Equally important, a moral point of view promotes generalized empathy

acknowl-and respect among all people (Cooper 2004 )

However, when we examine the conditions that exist in multiple global environments, one has to question this defi nition How can we explain, from a deep discursive level, a moral point of view that will support pov-erty, power, domination, racism, and violence? When examining the cul-

tural proclivity to accept what may be imposed moral values that people

buy into by default, are their theoretical sensitivities and perspectives, which will generally emerge from a multidimensional interpretive schema, critically questioned and examined? For example, within the USA, there

is considerable dialogue across multiple venues regarding the decline of the middle class and the continued exacerbation of poverty These dia-logues and resulting realities come across as out of the control of people who are impacted the hardest Unfortunately, this acceptance becomes a self-fulfi lling prophecy Only a minority of the masses refuse to accept this outcome as inevitable

Yet, if we critically examine the issues through the lens of social struction theory, we cannot help but question how the acceptance of poverty and domination is inculcated into a community’s consciousness

Researchers and theorists for quite a few years now have suggested that our knowledge and relationship to self, others, activity, and our world are constituted and mediated by our engagements in our world, our resulting discourse, and our social practices (Cobb 1994 ; Packer and Goicoechea

2000 ; Piaget 1972 ; Ricoeur 1992 ; Steffe and Gale 1995 ; Tobin 1993 ; Von Glaserfeld 1993 )

Perhaps to understand the acceptance of these issues, we have to stand how communities are infl uenced by the prevailing discourses that are “spoken’ by the same institutions (or leaders) that impose dominance and control For example, when wanting to understand the impact that corporations have upon impoverished communities, one only has to understand the millions of dollars a year that are spent on advertising, promotions, and in other forums that have the ability to construct a reality socially These media representations set forth a discourse that concomi-tantly informs our moral values

At this point, you might ask, why is understanding these issues germane

to questioning and/or changing global communities and why is there a suggested relationship to ethics, social responsibility and global change? The various ways in which language mediates perceptions of our world-view are primary loci of analysis Postmodern theorists cautioned against the modernist assumption that rational processing lies behind or guides one’s outward behavior As a result, we should never assume that our language is culture free (Gergen 1994 ) Our language has determining capacities As a result, when it is tied to social relations, identities, power, culture, and social struggle, the language that permeates a society pro-duces a particular version of social reality (Alvesson and Karreman 2000 ; Chia 2000 )—a social reality that then interrelates to how we view our world morally

Discourses from a community’s past can shape present and future behavior in the form of established societal beliefs, theories, and stories (Marshak and Grant 2008 ), and even acceptance as to what is morally right or wrong Equally important to understand, if a leader has the sphere

of infl uence, he or she can set forth a prevailing discourse that in may have been completely antithetical to what the organization (however we describe ‘organization’) believed in the past The unfortunate aspect of this socially constructed dynamic is that all leaders are not acting in the best interest of their people, which is why a critical examination of the

‘self’ is important If you, as a leader are in a position of power, you have

an obligation to introspectively assess what drives your belief systems and resulting moral behaviors

When we fail to examine our discourse and the discourse of those that lead us, we also fail to understand how we have allowed negative dis-courses to inform our moral principles (one only has to re-review global history to fi nd validity in these propositions—e.g Hitler, Mussolini, and even current global leaders) However, it is very important that when

we look to understand the etiology of the conditions that represent our global environment, we do not assume a reductionist role and assume that the cause and effect are simple issues

When we desire to understand how we develop and enact our moral values, we should seek to understand how inequalities in power determine the resulting language This perceived disequilibrium most defi nitely will impact one’s ability to control the production, distribution and consump-tion of particular texts (Oswick et al 2000 ), which can be viewed as refl ec-tive of our moral beliefs that underpin our behaviors

The ongoing negative dialogues on issues of race and ethnicity within the United States suggest that this country is in a serious moral battle In various forums, there are multiple discourses as to what should or should not be considered socially acceptable when it comes to police brutality and the multiple deaths of Black men and women At the same time, Muslims are being verbally attacked at unprecedented levels Dialogues as

to which ethnicities should be allowed to immigrate into the country are being articulated in multiple forums Yet, in the midst of the discourse, the important question is which ‘voice’ will prevail, and will that voice

be contingent upon how much power and domination those articulating

a particular view point possess Equally important, will the domination

of that voice result in moral acceptance of the behaviors that have come under close national scrutiny?

The USA, unfortunately, is not alone in having these issues The same scenario holds true for other countries undergoing varying levels of strife When world leaders chose to label a particular sector of people as bad or terrorist and develop a prevailing discourse to support those proposition,

it is amazing to witness the buy-in And, while I have discussed examples

on a larger level, I have also witnessed these same behaviors in smaller organizational contexts

But how often are leaders challenged or questioned regarding their sonal agendas, issues, values, or ethics associated with their promulgated

discourse? In other words, do people recognize privatized agendas and how often are those agendas challenged?

We have no choice but to engage in this higher level of integrated thought and action Dysfunctional moral values and the resulting failure

to act are issues that permeate institutions and society at large—issues I will more closely examine in the following chapters And, I respectfully suggest that when these analyses are done, people will question what they have accepted They will emerge open to investigating their desires for alternative realities with respect to their present social contexts And they may just say: enough is enough—and go on to insist upon change Leaders across the world should seriously question how we, as a global society, make decisions regarding and accept the outcomes of conditions that continue to stress our existence You see, I do believe that there is signifi cant truth in the proposition that the unexamined life is not worth living 3

THE INTENDED OUTCOMES OF THIS BOOK

My intention in writing this book is to drive a different conversation and resulting understanding as to how we can invoke change I intention-ally raise issues that challenge prevailing praxes and, most important, I strongly suggest that true change will result from our inculcating into the change processes not just a select few, but people from all over the world united around a common agenda of reform It is critical that we hear the voices of people who are impacted by ethical issues and believe in the need for focused and intensifi ed social reform—a reform that would examine our lives, issues and underlying assumptions and moral values through

multiple lenses If authentically done, this examination will cause

produc-tive cogniproduc-tive dissonance that has the ability to unite people from varying

walks of life

I propose to organizational leaders across the globe that if there is going

to be change in our world, it has to begin with them Equally important,

the change that is necessary for our torn social fabric needs to go beyond

their current efforts And I pray that people begin speaking to the issues from a different perspective when addressing possibilities for change and, more importantly, their roles and responsibilities for driving change Last but not least, the model that is suggested is a beginning strategy that I also hope people will take, re-modulate, but more importantly begin implementing in a continuous improvement context

I have never written a book that just addressed or rehashed the issues And, while the change models I have suggested emerge from my vantage point, they are starting points I tend to become frustrated when I read

a book that only reiterates what I already know I do not need people to continue telling me how bad a situation is through their writing What I will resonate with is when they can cognitively map a process for making

a difference The map may not be perfect, but hopefully it will provide a context for, and juxtaposition to, the issues that help me to understand better how the road map can look

This is what I have strived to do in this book I have respectfully ined the work done by the United Nations on global reform, and I have a tremendous respect for what they have done and what they have proposed

exam-as next steps I have hopefully provided a context for taking their work to another level—one that employs strategies that emerge from the praxes of organizational behavior and organizational development in concert with tenets of spirituality and mindfulness

Just as the leaders of today’s organizations are critical actors in this ticular play of life, so are the ‘everyday’ people As a global society, we have

par-to question our morals and how we have allowed ourselves par-to become

so disconnected from one another We do not ‘see’ one another from a perspective of understanding individualized situations; and as a result a disconnect emerges Or, to bring this concept back to an earlier example,

if the crime is not being committed on or towards me, why should I call the police? This is not an acceptable answer in any societal environment

I know a different dialogue is possible I teach this dialogue in my rooms and I also know that no matter how small, everyone has a role and responsibility for producing  change The responsibility does not just lie

class-on the shoulders of CEOs, but I do believe it does begin with them and similarly situated organizations

I also know that the leaders of our worldwide organizations have the position, power and fi nancial resources to envision a different world More importantly, I believe when we begin a different conversation, the dia-logue begins a change towards our tolerance for poverty, injustice, dis-crimination, decimation of our environment, and the many other issues that are plaguing our globe

Research continues to demonstrate the power of dialogue The tive energy associated with waking up and understanding that our lives can be better and that we can move beyond just an artistic expression of discontent to a well-developed strategy that engages multiple forums of

stakeholders is what creates a new vision of freedom in our world … a freedom that is:

… The creative passion for the possible Freedom is not just turned towards things as they are, as it is in domination Nor is it directed only to the com- munity of people as they are, as it is in solidarity It reaches out to the future, for the future is the unknown realm of possibilities, whereas present and past represent the familiar sphere of realities (Moltmann 1999 , p. 159)

Therefore, I employ you to walk with me as we vision a different world through a lens of business ethics and social responsibility that is moved to

a higher level than any we have previously encountered Strategize with

me as I suggest ways to take our present efforts and build upon them, and, most importantly, believe as I do that our world deserves better You see,

I truly believe, as William Shakespeare suggested many centuries ago, that

‘it is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in our selves.’ 4

NOTES

1 http://unglobalcompact.org/docs/about_the_gc/UNGlobalCompact Strategy2014- 2016.pdf

2 http://www.manta.com/mb

3 is-not-worth-living

4 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamsha101458.html

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(pp. 223–238) Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

PART I

The Issues and Parameters of

Plausible Change

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

C.A Robinson-Easley, Leadership for Global Systemic Change,

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-38949-3_2

CHAPTER 2

Our World, Our Lens, Our Choices

Over the past few years, my perspectives on change have dramatically changed When I wrote for the academy, my focus was primarily on the utilization of management, organizational behavior, and organization development change strategies designed to produce  primarily structural change in the environments in which I either worked or consulted Yet, there was a deep burning in my soul that strongly suggested something was missing

Despite having the best design strategies in place, as I worked in the

fi eld I felt that colleagues and I might be missing the engagement of the hearts and souls of people who were active actors in the change processes Equally important, I wondered how many of us really understood what

it means to feel so psychologically subjugated that you give up all hope

of having your world change For many, life has become an experience of defeat with no hope of a real change—particularly for those who believe in their hearts that they do not possess the power to bring about or demand

a change in their lives

Yet, emerging research streams that investigate and theorize in the areas of spirituality in the workplace, organizational justice, and the devel-opment of hopeful organizations and societies, have continued to grow (Easley and Swain 2003 ) People want to understand what constitutes good organizational citizenship behaviors and how to bring people back into sharing governance, power and decision making in both the public and private sectors ( 2003 ) As a result, there is discussion in various change

management literatures regarding a need for new hope, a reconnection

to basic values and, in addition, an appreciation of the value of a strong emphasis on interpersonal awareness, where questions that address how

to drive deep personal transformational change are examined in concert with traditional leadership theories and models (Quinn 1996 ; Senge et al

1999 )

In response to the growing body of defi cit vocabularies produced by critical and deconstructive methods, scholars have also called for construc-tive approaches to social and organizational science that hold increased potential for enhancing the human condition by recreating vocabularies of hope, thus leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the drivers

of one’s decisions and subsequent actions (Ludema et al 1997 )

Despite the intense search for alternative ways to engage people in

a world that continues to be torn, our progress is questionable, which means there is a need to examine the guiding praxes we employ to pro-duce change in our world Equally important, there is also a need to ques-tion if we have failed to examine critically the moral principles we now employ across the globe

What has changed in our world? Albeit a rhetorical question, the answers appear to suggest that painfully little has changed We still face looming issues that appear to result from where we stand with respect to our morality and ethical behaviors. And, the question still remains as to how we build an equal playing fi eld for our most important resources… our children and women across the globe; evidenced by the work that has and continues to be done by the United Nations and international civil society organizations

“Our Children, Our Responsibilities: Saving the youth we are losing

to gangs” (Robinson-Easley, 2012 ) addressed my doctoral research, which resulted in the completion of my dissertation in 1999 and subsequent years

of studying youth and gang violence A resounding fact that stood out for

me when I began my research was that there were no inhabited continents

in our world that did not have a gang problem Globally, we were losing our children all over the world to youth gang violence; and we are still, with the problem, particularly in the United States, continuing to grow

We are failing similarly to turn around issues of discrimination Accusations of racial profi ling in the United States that are leading to deaths of people of color, particularly African Americans, is a growing issue despite the work that has been done on the civil rights front And, as

a woman who is also of color, I have to ask the question: why are women

still fi ghting discrimination in the workplace? There are many global tiatives, such as the United Nations’ Women’s Empowerment Principles: Equality Means Business (a set of principles for businesses offering guid-ance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community), 1 that are working on a global level to address the inequities women still face in the workforce… even in the twenty-fi rst century The development of the Women’s Empowerment Principles includes

ini-an international multi-stakeholder consultation process, which was launched in March, 2009 The principles are designed to emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and wom-en’s empowerment They are informed by real-life business practices and input gathered from across the globe 2 But why should we have to state a

‘business case’ for equality in the workplace?

… if we re-visit the propositions of the Hudson Institute in the late 1980’s, women were cited to soon become a signifi cant percent of the U.S work- force However, as previously stated, women still make (in the same jobs) less than men and we are still “talking” about equality for women domesti- cally and globally What locally and globally has really changed? (Robinson- Easley 2014 , p. 120)

Is there really a separation between social responsibility, diversity and intercultural management challenges or are we discussing two sides of the same and/or similar coin (Robinson-Easley 2014 )? We have options We can simply opt for equality as an integral part of our moral behavior (Yes,

I understand that in many countries, equality for women is not grounded

in the religious and cultural fabric of those societies However, those are not the nations or cultures I address.) Or, we have the ability to plant the seeds of true transformational change, as opposed to allowing our world

to erupt into a crisis (Robinson-Easley 2014 )

How do we even understand the issues beyond a surface level? For

me, I made the decision to go to seminary I wanted to move beyond the concepts and constructs associated with traditional change processes and learn in a spiritual context how to reach the hearts and souls of people I wanted to take a deep look at our morality in concert with our spirituality and varying theologies and cosmologies

I have not completed my walk through seminary, but because I already possessed a doctoral degree, my seminary allowed me to take the courses I believed were germane to rounding out my learning I intend to go back

because the knowledge I obtained from seminary helped me to stand better the critical constructs that could make a difference in our world As a result, my personal goal is to obtain another doctoral degree—

under-in theology My experiences under-in semunder-inary, under-in addition to my non-sectarian experiences, inform my perspectives and voice

Yet, equally importantly, seminary was my refuge from a world that continues to be cold and in many instances uninviting When I speak about bringing the whole systems into a change process, I refl ect upon my seminarian experiences Most of us in our classes came from varying and different backgrounds But we had much in common We were able to vision a better world and wanted to understand how we could contribute

to bringing forth that better world As a result our dialogues were rich and very supportive Because we shared a common vision, there was safe space to engage in vivid debates and propositions as to each of our roles and responsibilities

I believe when you marry the knowledge of whole systems change with understanding how people feel within the deepest recesses of their souls, you will fi nd that there are no limits to what can be done in our world. And, as you engage in this work, almost automatically you will dis-cover the varying theologies and cosmologies that have sustained people for centuries The writing and consulting work I have done as a result of

my new perspectives have driven me to engage actors in strategies that require their examining and coming face to face with their pain and result-ing blockages

We daily grapple with issues such as youth in developing countries being forced to work an inordinate number of days per week, which disal-lows their ability to obtain a quality education The factories they work in are run by corporations whose leaders may have never visited these work-sites and as a result have no idea of the conditions young children face Yet people who are marginalized across multiple countries and equally importantly their children do not see viable ways out of their situations

We are constantly bombarded with issues that rise out of youth ing to gang environments and the resulting violence, because their social systems are failing them An unfortunate outcome is the incarceration of youth who are subsequently subjected to the prison systems, which have become very successful enterprises developed and ran by businesses And, we daily live with the outcomes of the breakdown of the edu-cation system in major inner cities across the USA, which is rendering youth incapable of competing in a global workforce, yet teacher unions and their respective state governments have gone to ‘war’ over issues that

defy logic. Just a small sample of these issues include adequate personnel coverage for overcrowded classrooms, suffi cient numbers of books, sup-plies and technologies, keeping open schools which are being closed in communities that face overcrowding, safe passage across gang territories

as a result of school closings, and the hiring of qualifi ed teachers versus the laying off of more experienced teachers In the midst of that war, over the course of the past four years, thousands of teachers in the United States have been displaced from their jobs or have opted to leave the profession

CORPORATIONS AS A PRIMARY NEXUS OF CHANGE AGENTS

Corporations hold immense power in our world No longer are tions assuming ties to a particular geographic setting Because they are global in various organizational structural forms (e.g transnational, mul-tinational, international, etc.), their reach is extremely broad They daily interact with governments and in many instances, particularly in devel-oping countries, they shape global politics Yet, there are various areas

corpora-of ethical concerns that are both internal and external to corporations However, the concept of business ethics has more of an external emphasis

that considers the gap between organizations’ ethical actions and

behav-ior in their business practices and society’s perceptions of those practices (Svensson and Wood 2011 )—issues that continue to plague our global society Therefore, closing this gap is important

Viewing the problem of closing that gap through the lens of ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility is appropriate for entities that hold such a massive control over our environment However, I do not dismiss the role and responsibilities of civil society and society at large in a change process, and as a result also address how actors from various envi-ronments have critical roles to play in producing deep systemic change There are many ways to examine the actions of an organization You can simply look at the issues through the lens of management practices, human resources, and/or organizational behaviors However, when you introduce ethics into the conversation (and I am not suggesting that the lens is an either/or view; a perspective that will be addressed later), you are also examining questions such as: What should the organization have done? What rights and responsibilities are involved? What good will come from the situation? Is there fairness involved—are actions just, virtuous, kind, loyal, honest, and trustworthy (Hartman et al 2014 )? (Questions which certainly will cause conversations to emerge regarding the gaps and the enormity of those gaps.)

Yet, overarching this conversation regarding just and virtuous actions,

etc., is the reality of the power corporations possess—a reality that places

the concept of a gap into a different perspective On one end of the tinuum of power and political/social policy domination, are issues of the relationship between political and economic power and its confl ict with true democracy—a confl ict manifested by a relationship we do not always visit:

Corporate globalization is neither in the human interest nor inevitable It is axiomatic that political power aligns with economic power The larger the economic unit, the larger its dominant players, and the more political power becomes concentrated in the largest corporations The greater the political power of corporations and those aligned with them, the less the political power of the people, and the less meaningful democracy becomes (Korten

2001 , p. 142)

My fi rst serious experience with the magnitude of that gap emerged ing my employment with Union Carbide Corporation, where I worked during the Bhopal, India disaster—a travesty that is cited in numerous ethics books

In Beyond Diversity and Intercultural Management , I addressed this travesty from the viewpoint of diversity and ethics More specifi cally, I

suggested:

Albeit a rhetorical question—why are we still compelled to make the

busi-ness case for treating people equally and with dignity and respect? What

is the value proposition in the reverse; when people employed within the organization-regardless of its domain, do not experience equality? I often ponder how organizations and their respective leaders can actually believe that their organization will prosper in the midst of so much pain felt by their employees? (Robinson-Easley 2014 , p. 125)

The plausible outcomes seem simple—the privilege they may desperately hold on to, which positions them to not want to understand their world as

it truly exist could be a contributing dynamic to what can eventually cause them to lose privilege For example, I have often wondered if the same safety training Union Carbide applied to people in the United States was applied

to the workers in Bhopal, India Was there even a perceived need to train on the same level? I do not have the answers for those rhetorical questions, but

I do have my perceptions based upon my being an actor in that environment

when the tragedy occurred However, what I do know was that the comes of Bhopal, India not only caused deaths and injury, but decimated a company that had for many years been a giant in its industry, causing many people in this country to lose their jobs, and for those in power, their privi- lege (Robinson-Easley 2014 , pp. 125–126)

Eight thousand people died in this incident and another 200,000 were seriously injured 3 You see, there were many ‘human resource’ issues and management practices associated with this case, but from the viewpoint

of an actor within the corporation, there were ethical issues that had to

be factored into the equation that were also integrated within the human resource, management and organizational cultural contexts Yet, these ethical issues were also said to be tied to management’s strategies towards cutting costs—the interplay between economics and human rights Equally critical, when you factor in the economic issues and the fact that the people most impacted by the Bhopal disaster were poor people, many of them living in shanties outside the plant, more questions about the morality that guided the actions of leaders at this facility emerge I cannot help but wonder whether or not the same cost-cutting strategies would have occurred if there had been a different demographic of worker? Through my experience, having had human resource responsibilities for several gas plants in one of Union Carbide’s larger divisions, my response would be a resounding ‘No’

So, what happened and, more importantly, will we ever know why it happened? In 2011, Global Research reported the following:

While most American’s were getting ready for lunch, nearly all of Bhopal’s one million residents were sleeping at 10:30 AM (11:00 PM Bhopal, India) According [to] BBC, Ryman Khan was cleaning the pipes with water which lead to the MIC storage tanks Although a routine function for Ryman Khan, Union Carbide failed to provide a vital instruction which would have directed him to use a small piece called a slip blind A slip blind is a fl at, round piece of metal that fi ts between two pipe fl anges to stop the fl ow of water in its line if there are any leaks in the pipe valves Water which can cre- ate a violent reaction to the MIC chemicals raised the temperature where the catastrophic chain of event started As the pressure and exothermic reaction increased inside the MIC Storage tank, a refrigeration unit which served as another safety precaution to cool the MIC storage tank had been drained of coolant for use in another part of the plant and is the fi rst of four safety sys- tems that would have avoided the catastrophes A second safety system, a gas vent scrubber could have helped to neutralize the toxic discharge from the

MIC tanks however it had been placed on standby The third safety system which went off and had failed is the alarm which had been turned off by the plant managers because they did not want to fear the residents The fourth safety device which would have worked is by burning off the gas that had escaped however the gas fl air tower was not working and has not worked for three months before the catastrophe, a sign Union Carbide over looked safe precautions (Peterson M.J.) 4

Clearly, the tragedy of Union Carbide Corporation in Bhopal, India tinues to be a warning for large corporations doing business in developing countries It is suggested that the Bhopal incident and its aftermath was

con-a wcon-arning thcon-at the pcon-ath to industricon-alizcon-ation, for developing countries, is loaded with human, environmental and economic liabilities 5

But what has always plagued me in this case is the ‘why?’ Why did ple believe that it was okay to short-circuit safety precautions in a develop-ing country, which were mandatory and routinely inspected requirements

peo-in US plants? What were the prevailpeo-ing attitudes towards the people? What were the underlying moral issues that made it ‘okay’? Years later, there is continuing litigation associated with this case that is still not settled, and that addresses ongoing outcomes of this crisis:

Victims of the 1984 Bhopal poison gas disaster refused to let the embers die on their U.S lawsuit against alleged water polluters Union Carbide Company (UCC) when their lawyers this week fi led arguments with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that the company behind the deadly leak of methyl isocyanate was continuing to foul local wells from its plant located in the area (Lakshman 2015 )

What is interesting when one reviews the abundance of law suits that have been fi led since the initial incident is how the people of Bhopal inter-twined issues of carelessness with issues of racism For example, one suit’s main allegations included:

1 Union Carbide demonstrated reckless or depraved indifference to human safety and life because of the design, operation and mainte-nance of its MIC facilities and safety mechanisms in Bhopal

2 UCC pursued a systematic policy of racial discrimination in the design, construction and operation of the Bhopal factory

3 Union Carbide demonstrated reckless or depraved indifference to human life in the manufacturing, storage, treatment and disposal

practices at the UCIL plant, resulting in severe contamination of the soil and water in and around the UCIL plant

4 Union Carbide and Warren Anderson were and are fugitives from the lawful jurisdiction of the Bhopal District Court, where criminal charges remain pending against them [Note: Anderson died in 2014] 6

Various US laws and supporting legislation such as the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment were cited

as supporting documentation for these allegations 7

MY AWAKENING

My fi rst ‘serious’ academic awakening regarding the massive role of porations in these types of ethical issues—and also ones with less human capital collateral damage—was in my fi rst year as a doctoral student in organization development We were required to read Dr David Korten’s book, When Corporations Rule the World (Robinson-Easley 2014 ) Korten’s propositions regarding the ethical issues of corporations as they pertain to a multiplicity of issues—particularly global economics—were eye opening I still use his book (an updated edition) in my ethics classes And, while some may feel Korten’s propositions lie on an extreme edge,

cor-he was and still is clearly acor-head of his time ( 2014 )

Korten attributes the depletion of natural, human, social and tional capital almost exclusively to the ‘Midas curse’ of a global fi nancial capitalistic system He also addresses social de-capitalization factors, which specifi cally incorporate human rights abuse, gender bias, and human health insecurity (Gladwin 1998 )—issues similar to those that the people

institu-of Bhopal continue to cite as causal issues regarding the tragedy caused by Union Carbide These factors may be more directly related to patriarchy, ethnic strife, political fragmentation, rapid urban development, and other similar issues ( 1998 )

Regardless of how we frame the conversation, the fact remains that our world is in crisis and the issues are deep The breakdown of economies across the globe continues to spiral people into levels of abject poverty To understand the criticality of these issues, the challenges of globalization are making it necessary to conduct a thorough investigation into the con-ditions of human life as they stand today (Wulf 2013 ) When we examine these conditions, whether in industrialized or developing countries, there are serious concerns that require immediate remediation

Daily, people in our world face poverty, suffering, war, terror and the exploitation and destruction of nature; conditions which appear to be related to colonialism and capitalism ( 2013 ) But if viewed only through the traditional lens of ethics and social responsibility, we fail to see deep change in place: systemic change processes that can, over time, completely eradicate these problems And, when we speak of time—the lives that con-tinue to suffer point to the need for change within an expedient time frame What we see far too often are ‘conversations’ regarding the limits to which corporations (and other entities) should act as critical change agents; conversations that do not address the fact that, in developing countries, children are working over-long hours that prohibit their ability to get the education necessary to help their countries grow, and that the existence of sweat shops challenges the world’s basic values (a point I previously made and will continue to reiterate) We are losing ground with our most valu-able resource: our children Yet to some, it is okay

Strategies which address the structural aspects of change also need

to engage the actors in deep discursive examinations of why they have allowed these conditions within their society to exist Is it okay to accept people’s compliance with unethical work conditions, wages and hours just because they are not economically in a position to demand more?

In today’s rapidly developing technological societies we cannot afford to have uneducated children who also have had no exposure to today's tech-nologies Just as important, there is no justifi cation for exposing people

to daily work environments that in far too many cases cause the medical conditions that dramatically shorten their life spans This is compounded

by the fact that far too many people come to work in environments fi lled with safety hazards and other conditions that kill the human spirit Our rapid growth in many sectors requires an educated and techno-logically developed workforce (McClintock 2001 ) Yet, a few years ago, the International Labor Organization estimated that close to 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 work full time and grow up without schooling and 60 percent or more of those working children live in Asia, mainly South Asia, with a further 32 percent located in Africa (McClintock

2001 )

The remaining percentage of child labor issues reside in ized economies, largely in agriculture enterprises, services and small-scale manufacturing that subcontracts to larger enterprises ( 2001 ) While there are many complex issues associated with child labor that are impacted by the lack of governmental regulations, by family infrastructures and by

economic needs, the conditions to which children are exposed and their working hours can in fact be regulated by the employing organization ( 2001 ) In other words, the corporations responsible for hiring the chil-dren can control the environments in which these children work and the length of their working day Therefore, one can ask if the actions of these corporations that do not control the environments in which children work are just, fair and virtuous Are they acting within the moral parameters of our global society? Or, are they counting on the excuse that the econom-ics of the situation will justify the work conditions they choose to impose upon the people?

Equally critical, racism, sexism, and other ‘isms’ continue to run pant through corporations, marginalizing people to a point where they are retaliating in ways that impact on the productivity and profi tability of the organizations for whom they work As a woman of color, I have worked

ram-in environments ram-in both corporate America and higher education where I faced racism and sexism Until you have personally walked in those shoes, you cannot imagine how it feels to have your humanity challenged on a daily basis I have addressed this issue in many written forums For exam-ple, in my 2012 book, I stated:

As I researched issues plaguing African Americans in the academy in 2010 for a book published in 2011 that addressed the same topic—and I inten- tionally point out the dates to show that the situation has not changed—I was amazed at the consensus of African American academics and scholars regarding disempowerment, disenfranchisement, and other “isms” that continue to reside and plague them in institutions of higher education So what does this mean? The sickening reality of this is example is that dis- crimination, disenfranchisement, lost dreams and hope are impacting people throughout the African American community, from our youth to individuals who have worked to obtain the highest levels of education afforded in this country In other words, the nonsense will not stop until we say enough! (Robinson-Easley 2012 , p. 205)

My book, Beyond Diversity and Intercultural Management pushes the

con-cepts and constructs associated with issues of equal employment, diversity and intercultural management even further My reasons for writing this book were simple.  The shooting incidents that were reported to result from racial profi ling, along with very public racist statements made about the newly elected African American President suggested a need to revisit the topic of diversity and intercultural management.  As racial tensions

were becoming openly debated topics in the United States, similar sions were reported in other countries as outcomes of people's issues with cultural and class differences

Yet, when we look at difference through the lens of valuing and loving our humanity, we can signifi cantly move beyond engaging in the various diversity and intercultural management strategies and empty conversations that over the years have made questionable difference to how we globally interact with one another ( 2014 ) In other words …

Valuing diversity, managing diversity, managing intercultural relations and all the other references we attribute to evoking acceptance of one another in our global society cannot override a fundamental concept … when we learn

to value our humanity without process descriptors; we can work towards valuing one another simply from a lens of love You see … “Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the humblest imaginable” Mahatma Gandhi 8 (Robinson-Easley 2014 , p VII)

In response to these issues and the many others that plague our world,

it has been suggested that real democracy in a global society appears to

be another unresolved problem of modernity (Hardt and Negri 2005 ) Far too many people—those that impose the constraints of domination and those that experience those constraints—continue to view issues and, equally important, outcomes of poverty, power, and domination through lens and interpretative schemas that have not changed for years (Robinson- Easley 2012 )

We cannot afford to allow these issues to be unresolved problems of modernity Oppression and the resulting poverty still is an unequal geo-graphical distribution that is along the lines of race, ethnicity, and gender For example, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa account for about close

to three quarters of the global population of people living on less than

a dollar a day (Hardt and Negri 2005 ) Unfortunately, when examining issues of poverty, one of the most pervasive measures of quality of life in

an inner city or poverty striken village or town, is psychological security Poverty gives rise to insecurity because individuals who live in poverty

do not believe that the mainstream’s vision of the future is open to them (Claerbaut 1983 ) Insecurity will often times invite a level of compliance that is solely predicated upon the need to survive It does not explicitly or implicitly suggest broad-scale buy-in!

The United Nations, through the Global Compact, has focused

on addressing many of the burning issues by identifying the role that

businesses across the globe can , but often do not play Yet, the practices

addressed by the Global Compact (and similar agencies that want to make

a difference in our world) are largely continuing due to the role of big business

It is possible to shift our paradigms regarding ethics and social sibility When we choose to view those burning issues (and others just as challenging) described by the United Nations Global Compact through a different ethical lens that expands our paradigms regarding social respon-sibility and change processes, our world can experience a level of change that has never been imagined in this century. 

THE POWER TO PRODUCE CHANGE

Many corporate leaders hold more power than their government parts Their power and impact are immense and continue to grow Let’s take a historical look at the growth of their power and impact—particu-larly their economic impact Over fi fteen years ago, Korten reported that the aggregate sales of the ten largest corporations in the world exceeded the aggregate GNP of the world’s hundred smallest countries Equally interesting, the 133 billion dollar sales revenues of General Motors (using

counter-GM as an example of corporate power) came close to the combined GNP

of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Zaire, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, and Pakistan ( 2001 )

What did these numbers mean in terms of world domination at that time? Very simply, the world’s 200 largest industrial corporations con-trolled 28.3 percent of the world’s economic output ( 2001 ) Additionally, the top 300 transnationals at that time (and Korten excluded fi nancial institutions) owned close to 25 percent of the world’s productive assets ( 2001 ) In other words, corporations rather than abstract economic forces or governments are the entities that create and distribute most of the economy’s wealth, innovation and trade; and they have the ability to raise (or not) people’s living standards (Ghoshal et al 1999, as cited in Aranzadi 2013 )

RETHINKING A ROADMAP FOR CHANGE

If we want to produce deep systemic change in our world, we should start with the people who possess the economic means to make a change that goes beyond programmatic initiatives and marginal social responsibility strategies Therefore:

Rather than accept the assumption of economists who regard the fi rm as just an economic entity and believe that its goal is to appropriate all possible value from its constituent parts, we take a wider view Our thinking is based

on the conviction that the fi rm, as one of the most signifi cant institutions in modern society, should serve as a driving force of progress by creating new value for all of its constituent parts (Ghoshal and Bartlett 1997, as cited in Aranzadi 2013 )

Leaders need a roadmap for change in order to understand, internalize and shift the relational boundaries of the systems they control Understanding the interconnectivity of these systems can help leaders identify, develop and implement a strategy for bringing forth different outcomes Yet, with-out a strategy and implementation processes that will move an organi-zation beyond compliance, organizations will continue to grapple with ethical issues

This need is global For example, in the mid 1990’s Japan began to follow a model of compliance ethics, similar to the 1980’s US response

to ethical issues, which focused on preventing scandals (Nakano 2007 ) Japanese companies established business ethics systems that closely resem-bled the US compliance models after a series of corporate scandals, which included pay-offs to extortionists ( 2007 ) These efforts continued in response to scandals in 2000, such as the Yukijirushi milk-poisoning inci-dent and Mitsubishi Motor’s defects cover-up ( 2007 )

What was interesting about the Mitsubishi Motor issue was their proposition that it was unclear to them how such a pattern of decep-tion could have gone on for so long without the knowledge of high-level executives Yet the CEO, Mr Kawasoe, said he had no knowledge

of the cover-up until it was documented in an internal investigation submitted to the government 9 The internal investigation found that employees had repaired the defects and had initialed customer com-plaints with either an ‘H’ for ‘hitoku’, which means conceal, or ‘horyu’, which means defer or hold In both cases, none of the complaints were reported to the government 10

Nakano suggested that largest cause of the failure of the ethics tems that were put into place in response to these issues was that Japanese culture, which is high context does not support a compliance- orientation ( 2007 ) What this means is that in the culture, meaning and associated value propositions are inherent in actions and as a result are not required to be explicitly documented