Organizational leadership for the common good
Balancing economic viability while striving for social and ecological sustainability
Multistream (common good) | Mainstream (orthodoxy) |
---|---|
Emphasis on multiple forms of well-being for multiple stakeholders | Emphasis on materialism and individualism, primarily for shareholders |
Meeting needs/interests of all stakeholders | Meeting needs/desires of shareholders |
Provide goods or services to improve the human condition | Provide goods/services that people want & max. profits |
Organizations provide employment and livelihood | Members have role in making organization successful |
Outward (from organization) and longer-term orientation | Inward (toward organization) and shorter-term orientation |
Balance needs for self with others and ecological systems | Primacy of needs and wants for self beyond other needs |
Interest in sustainable systems | Often becomes extractive & unsustainable |
Adequate profits, plus people and planet (wellth) | Profit maximization as bottom line (wealth) |
Effectiveness and searching for significance | Efficiency for sake of maximizing productivity |
Collaboration (share good ideas) | Competition (increase market share at expense of others) |
Consider place of organization within the whole | Specialization more of focus than broader context |
Whole-life balance within broader meaning and purpose | Work/wealth-centric approach, spurning spirituality |
More relational | More rational |
Metrics more qualitative (more challenging to assess) | Metrics more quantitative (simpler to assess) |
Share (and give up) control | Retain control at all costs |
Confidence grounded in others | Confidence grounded in self |
“we can do it together” | “I can do it, with your help” |
Honesty is an end in and of itself | Honesty is a means to an end |
Sustaincentrism and egalicentrism (our way + our future) | Egocentrism (my way, now) |
Sustenance economics | Acquisative economics |
Concern for people | Concern for task |
Organization-Specific Responsibility (b/c it serves others) | Corporate Social Responsibility (b/c is increases profits) |
Look out for the “least of these…” (employees and others) | Select and retain only the best and brightest |
Leaders deflect praise to others | Leaders seek, and welcome, recognition |
Servant leadership (strong & self-confident, not weak) | Controlling, top-down, and uni-directional leadership |
Driven by concern for others (proximal and temporal) | Driven by high emphasis on individualism/materialism |
Sources: Dyck (2005, 2010), Schroeder (2005), Neubert (2010), among others