Minna Takala and David Hawk
Corporations are playing a major role in the current societal change. They are an integral part of societies in which they operate and they directly and indirectly are part of the lives and wellbeing individuals. Social responsibility is a popular term in current business management, but how to create environment that enhances and values a sense of responsibility and appreciation both in societal and individual levels?
Economic structures are changing. Intensive cooperation, collaboration and competition are creating global network constellations that are continuously transformed. These global, networked, extended enterprises expand and shrink, form alliances and merge, spin-off, sell or close their units and outsource. These networks have desires and abilities to effect development of societies globally. When expanding they seek favorable environments for their operations with includes: markets, qualified employees and efficient and safe infrastructures. For some reason the importance of the societal role in corporate operations seems to be attaining more value. Corporate leaders are making strong statements related to societal development, such as educational policies and need for broad-based societal infrastructures. Good corporate citizenship, human and ethical conduct, closer connections to society, and concern for environment and nature are being emphasized. This is happening in home and host countries. Bad news travels fast so this trend may be for selfish reasons, and thus some of these expressed concerns only be cosmetic. They may only be for purposes of annual reports or in marketing materials.
None-the-less, there is a growing need to better understand customers, suppliers and employees. There has always been a lack of highly qualified people, but now they seem to be even more valuable to a firm. Investment on corporate education and the number of corporate universities are increasing. Creation of better working conditions for employees, and even for the personnel of suppliers and customers, requires participation and empowerment on a broad basis. Learning, working and service environments are becoming integrated by ICT (information and communication technology) solutions. This is happening within enterprises and with networks of customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. Traditional power structures are endangered by the process that is leading to distributed decision making, greater participation and empowerment of many.
This paper discusses the changing role of corporations in the societal and individual levels. The challenge is to create appreciative environments that integrate social, psychological, physical and virtual (ICT) environments. If done well, these can facilitate negotiation, sharing of knowledge and mutual learning. Examples from the corporate world are provided.
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Minna Takala and David Hawk, "Transformation of Corporations: Towards Appreciative Service Systems", Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the System Sciences, Jennifer Wilby and Janet K. Allen, editors, at Asilomar, California, July 8-13, 2001.
[click here for the ISSS 2001 conference]
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