The first responsibility of an executive is to be responsible towards the institution. Every institution whether it is a business, hospital, university, military or other organization thrives in a society and a community. Community influences the inside of an organization and the organization influences the community around it. Institutions have a dedication to be socially responsible to succeed today and beyond. However, there are some limitations of being socially responsible. The executive that manages an institution that is performing poorly yet allocates resources to the social problems of the community is not focusing on the priorities in turn negatively impacting society.
The institution in society needs to perform in order to benefit the community. The first social responsibility of an institution is performance. The hospital must make sure all patients are attended to effectively, the university needs to make sure that their students are trained to be the leaders of tomorrow and the business needs to ensure profitability in order to continue to do business. Performance of the institution means benefits for society and true social responsibility, the responsibility to perform.
Executives also need to look towards the resources allocated toward the future. Profit is a means to keep a business running and operating; however, profits put towards social problems and events needs to be tracked and not mis-allocated. The manager’s responsibility is to be responsible to the public and shareholders by making sure profits are allocated first to the institution before being socially responsible. Engaging in social activities, donations or charities without analyzing future profits may make you the idol of the community, but not for the stakeholders of the organization when the company is in financial turmoil.
Finally, an institution needs to look at the social tasks that fit into its mission and value statements. An executive team that makes cigarettes deciding to help fund an anti-smoking campaign or a university promoting events to help recruit for the military will not be successful, as they will not be passionate about the event and will unlikely assign good people to the task. An institution “dedicated” to a social event that goes against or does not properly fit the core values will end up doing more damage than good.
In conclusion, the first social responsibility for any institution is for the executive and management teams to be responsible for the institution first. It is understandable for the community to ask for more from the universities, the schools and the businesses, but the executive must always keep in mind the priorities needed to sustain the institution and in effect sustaining the communities around it. A bankrupt business can not hire employees, sustain their workforce or provide donations unless it is performing and fulfilling the function of why the institution exists.
Jorrian Gelink
Management Architect
