Why do companies behave irresponsibly? -2

So how is the internal environment of an organisation influencing CSR? First I'll convince you that it is important. Look at Shell and BP: 2 of the best companies in the World for CSR (apparently); Shell had to revalue its oil reserves 2 years ago in a transparency disaster and this year BP has had an oil spill in Alaska from pipes that used to be inspected by 4 people but now only by 2 (to cut costs) .

Its clear that many of the best run global companies still have not mastered CSR by integrating it into their culture, despite valient attempts to. It seems that I should try to remember something about the module on 'OB' -Organisational Behaviour that I sudied at University, but I cannot! Anyway once again it shows that if you learn something in real life you'll remember much more. So what have I learnt? (and lets hope I'll remember!)

detachment. I have mentioned this before, and it is hugely important that you see the impacts from your actions. So many people don't even know what their impacts are, let alone try to ackowledge what those impacts might mean if they were aware of them. Will the BP person who originally decided to cut the oil pipe inspectors from 4 to 2 realise what has happened? Or was (s)he sitting in a head office, has now switched jobs or (if (s)he read the news) is (s)he blaming the accident on something else?

individualism. People tend to have individual targets and goals, and this is what they focus on. This detracts from seeing the bigger picture or caring about what other people are doing... or even thinking if what you are doing is related to someone else or not. As long as you do what your job is properly, then that's ok? Probably not, since it won't leverage any synergies in the company, it won't create the best solution for larger problems and it will only create a sense of responsibility to yourself, not to the organisation or to society.

reward and punishment. Punishment is always used too much, and is rarely effective. Reward is a better motivator, yet is rarely motivating anyone towards sustainability or responsible actions. You reward a sales person for increasing sales this year, you don't care whether those sales will be re-sold next year. Similarly you'll reward someone for a project completed on time, but won't think that they should write a report on how they did that which could help someone else repeat that accomplishment or consider the impacts of the project 5 years down the line (by requiring a post-project completion impact report or something). Companies need to reward in the right way in order to create the culture they want, and if they are serious about creating a sustainable, successful, organisation, their reward should support this.

misalignment. I find is fantastic that organsiations have values, goals, strategies and plans. Yet are they aligned? Are you rewarding employees for exhibiting the values you want to encourage? Are the goals sustainable and related to a long-term plan -what is their impact? Its fine to increase sales by 20%, but what will that do? Make people 20% fatter? Make employees work 15% more overtime? Reduce costs by 25% from your supplier who then goes bankrupt or pays their employees 25% less and so reducing product quality or requiring you to change supplier the following year, incurring the necessary switching costs? Will this growth generate bigger bonuses to employees who might then get poached by another company due to their success? All kinds of issues should be considered. I don't know if a framework exists in order to consider these -but maybe one should be! Life and Business is complicated -but it should be possible to make it simple: align, motivate and achieve.

decision-making. Also mentioned before but something i am becoming more intrigued in. What are the improtant factors when making a decision? Why will someone 'take short-cuts' or cheat? Who needs to be consulted for a decision to be made, and if everyone involved all has different motives might the outcome be a compromise for everyone and unsatisfactory for everyone at the same time? Is a decision based on the past, present or future, and how can you measure either: is a projection reasonable or is it biased?

I am sure these kinds of issues play a very important role in an organisation -i guess they are not very well understood. I think they need to be better understood for each of us to be responsible leaders, and for our organsiations to be responsible leaders.