The task of organization building is a Herculean one. It starts with a shared sense of purpose. Talented individuals come together to work ‘under one roof’ only when the collective charter is a promising one and fulfils as many of their physical, mental and spiritual needs as possible.
Once the institutional mission has been crystallized, a vision is framed in order to provide a sense of direction to the enterprise. This requires an informed ‘peep’ into what lies ahead. A guide map for the future is charted out. In doing so, an overall sense of balance is maintained between the demands of the external environment and the competencies and aspirations that reside internally within the system.
Finally, a strategy to attain the mission and vision is formulated. The people of the organization work wholeheartedly, towards the implementation of the business plan. They put in their best efforts to attain the outlined goals and objectives, resulting in success.
However, in the course of doing business, several tricky choices must be made from moment to moment. Every time an employee comes to a crossroad, he/she is faced with multiple options. These call for an expression of preference for one course of action over another. The cultural and ethical values of the organization become the reference point around which the individual makes a choice from among the numerous available alternatives.
Values are the instrumental principles that guide action. The values practised by the organization from day to day serve as the frame of reference around which strategic and operational decisions are taken. They constitute the salient expressions of collective intent. In this way, values act as the pivot around which the organizational work revolves.
There is little that is wrong or right about any chosen set of values; the results that arise from their practice always speak for themselves. The age-old natural principle applies, ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’. However, transparency is important. The gap between the ‘espoused’ values and the values-in-action should be minimized.
Framing, implementing and championing a set of values that people can live and work by is the central task of corporate governance. The accountability for governance rests at the apex level of the organization. It is the chairperson of the governing board of the organization, institution or enterprise that holds the ultimate responsibility for corporate governance.
As the ‘governor’ of the institution, so to say, the chairperson provides a guiding framework of values within which the operational and strategic work of the enterprise takes place. He/she also creates a platform upon which the various role holders can demonstrate competence and channelize their talents.
Corporate governance represents the mechanisms and procedures by which corporations are directed. It denotes the principles that identify the distribution of rights and responsibilities among its different stakeholders. Governance also includes the processes through which the institutional objectives are set and pursued, within the context of the social, regulatory and the competitive environment.
Corporate governance is essentially concerned with holding the balance between economic and social goals and also between individual and communal goals. The governance framework encourages the efficient use of resources. It also emphasizes the accountability for the stewardship of those resources. The aim is to mutually align the interests of the individuals, the corporations and the larger society as closely as possible.
Values and ethics are the central concerns of corporate governance. Values are principles held for their own sake, without any particular end in mind. They act as the defining elements of the individual personality, and reside at its deeper levels that transcend the world of words and logic.
An important value that relates to organization building is whether to adopt a constructive or a critical approach to management. Another relates to whether the organization must ‘make’ or ‘buy’ talent. But perhaps the most important choice may be stated akin to Hamlet’s dilemma, ‘To engage or to exploit—that is the question!’
Exploitation has been practised in society across the ages and is conveniently looked upon as inevitable. But when the chairperson bats for engagement, he/she indirectly bats for the very ‘humanity’ that characterizes the human being.
The choice of engagement over exploitation eventually benefits all the stakeholders of the organization. In particular, the employees and associates of the organization are the most positively impacted.
In return for a wonderful and humane work context, people put their heart and soul into the enterprise. In a deeply engaged organization, the human spirit is, thus, authentically witnessed in action.
All that has been enunciated in this book relates to how the dream of building happily engaged organizations might be realized. However, building engaged organizations is ultimately a choice.
May you exercise that choice! The world will be a better place as a result. Individuals will be happy and enterprise will create prosperity.
In the words of General Colin Powell, ‘A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work’.