[Ailist] how attention to the triple bottom line relates to the culture of an organization

[Lionel Boxer]

In answer to Cheri's question: "So, I'm wondering how attention to the
triple bottom line relates to the
culture of an organization."  I wondered the same thing when I did my
PhD and the answer to that question is the answer to my PhD.

I noticed that the CEO challenges people who perceive they have a right
to ignore attention to the triple bottom line.  When they sort that out
they assign duties to attend to the triple bottom line.

One CEO - I wish I could tell you of which multinational corporation,
but it is a big one that is often spoken about when peole cite a
sustainability champion - told me that the first person he had to
challenge about rights was HIMSELF.  That is, he had to realise and
accept that he had it all wrong.  Interestingly, a CEO told me this same
thing in 1990 when we were talking about quality management/TQM; in that
case the CEO said, "the biggest mistake I made in my career was to say
TQM is a 'lot of rubbish' (he used stronger more colourful language that
was once an accepted for of speach in the previously blokey Australian
industry)".

So, I call these things (sustainability/triple bottom
line/quality/OH&S/EEO/etc etc) OBLIGATORY AND EXTERNALLY IMPOSED issues.
 This answers my original question, from which my PhD question was
framed;  I wanted to know why some of my clients dealt with what they
asked me to help them with properly and others exhibited an absolute
dearth of action?

In my myopic and personally satisfying view of the world, culture is
composed of RIGHTS, DUTIES, MORAL ORDER and ACTIONS (as informed by
various selections from Rom Harre's catalogue of works).  Certainly,
there are other definitions of culture, but in terms of understanding
what CEOs need to do to properly attend to triple bottom line my
framwork is very helpful.

In the most basic brief explanation I can give you, triple bottom line
will not be attended to appropriately if people:
- have a preception of inappropriate rights to ignore attending to
triple bottom line
- do not have specific duties assigned that require them to attend to
the triple bottom line
- are influenced by a moral order that does not effectively guide how
to deal with the triple bottom line
- witness actions by their superiors that are contrary to dealing with
the triple bottom line

The answer to your question corrects those four problems in the
previous paragraph so that people:
- have a preception of appropriate rights that involve attending to
triple bottom line
- have specific duties assigned that require them to attend to the
triple bottom line
- are influenced by a moral order that not effectively guides how to
deal with the triple bottom line
- witness actions by their superiors that reinforce dealing with the
triple bottom line

See my framework: http://intergon.net/tsw/sustainableCEOs.pdf 
You can read about it in my book: http://intergon.net/tsw 

I have applied my framework as I have explained it above to a variety
of OEI issues I deal with and I find that it works quite well.

That is my belief and I am sticking to it for now.

Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
Research Fellow - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
Centre for Management Quality Research
my sustainable living festival slides: http://intergon.net/free.html
Free stuff: http://intergon.net/free.html
Upcoming events: http://intergon.net/events.html
Visit: http://www.nontoxiclife.com.au

>>> "Cheri Torres" <cheri at mobileteamchallenge.com> 10/03/2007 1:27:08
pm >>>

So, I'm wondering how attention to the triple bottom line relates to
the
culture of an organization.

Hmmmm....

Cheri

-----Original Message-----
From: Lionel Boxer [mailto:lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au] 
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 6:37 PM
To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu; Cheri Torres
Subject: Corporations attending to the triple bottom line

In my PhD I interviewed CEOs who were attending to the triple bottom
line, but I cannot say who they were.  

However, in the course of my research I spent a day at Griggs (the
makers of Dr Marten boots) near Birmingham, England.  At the time they
were attending to the triple bottom line.  I had been told about how
the
owner of the business embraced the local community, the national
community and the global community with an interest in social and
ecological issues.  So much did he contribute that he was able to
arrange at about one month's notice for HRH the POW to open the soccer
stadium that he rebuilt for the local community.  An aid of HRH the
POW
assured me that Griggs was only able to make such an arrangement in
such
a short time, because of the respect for his community service.  At
that
time (I am not aware whether or not they still are) Griggs was a
significant supporter of the Prince's Trust.  Griggs also embraced the
local working men's club when he was approached for an 18,000 UK
pounds
loan.  Rather than loaning them money he took over their hall and
rebuilt it and a company cafeteria, paid for membership of all company
employees in the club, and gave the club use of the facility rent free.

It is not that Griggs gave money, but how he contributed to worthy
causes; once when he was involved in embracing the community he was
quoted as saying; "Everyone is happy - good".

I also visited Cadbury Chocolate in Birmingham and in London. 
Cadburys
was founded by Quakers.  That society is - by nature - attending to
the
triple bottom line.  I would say that Cadburys has always attended to
the triple bottom line.

Because John Elkington is on the board of Shell, I would suggest that
Shell is attending to the triple bottom line.  You never really know
if
corporations that big are truly attending to anything, but they have
stopped some of the inappropriate actions that John Elkington records
in
his book CANIBALS WITH FORKS.  If you are unaware of John Elkington,
he
began as an activist and was eventually recruited by various
corporations.  This is all explained in CANIBALS WITH FORKS as well as
his second book The CHRYSALIS ECONOMY (see my website under the
Sustainability heading for these and other books:
http://intergon.net/phd/dev.htm).  He business is SustainAbility. 
See:
http://www.sustainability.com/ 

Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
Research Fellow - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au 
Centre for Management Quality Research
my sustainable living festival slides: http://intergon.net/free.html 
Free stuff: http://intergon.net/free.html 
Upcoming events: http://intergon.net/events.html 
Visit: http://www.nontoxiclife.com.au