Is success a social responsibility of organizations?

Last night I went for a walk with my girlfriend through the street of Amsterdam and I felt immensely lucky. I think it is a blessed to be able to walk at night and enjoy the little streets and the markets without worrying too much about gettingt robbed or assault.

The tranquility gave us the chance to have a good conversation on leadership, maybe we touched too many topics but I think they are all worth to keep somewhere. So, here is the first one:

The Social Responsibility of Organizations on increasing the employee, family and community self esteem

On a workshop, my girlfriend and colleagues were given a real life study case: “My best production line employer during the day shift will always come to me –Production Manager- before making a decision like stopping the line. At night, he will make those calls himself and so far I have to say that they were all correct. I still wonder why he keeps coming to me for approval and what can I do to make him realize he can make those calls himself”.

When I first heard this, I thought: “Oh well, this is a typical case of low self esteem. Maybe the best he can do is to work slowly with him. Every time he comes the manager should ask him what would he do, agree with him and later on greet him for the good work and let him know he can make those decisions by himself. I am sure after a few times he will just go ahead and do it himself”.

Then my girlfriend told me that the solution they used, successfully, was given a promotion to the employee to “Line Manager”. With the title on hand, he felt more confident of making those calls and the other workers more willing to follow him.

What I missed, as well as many people in the workshop, was to consider the background of the production floor, the people who work there, their needs and ambitions.

Indeed, the problem was on self-esteem but the way to build it up was done especifically considering the context and keep it in mind that the solution need it to help the employee as well as the company.

This conclusion made us wonder about the responsibilities of organizations in building the self-esteem of employees, families and communities.

Let’s take the case of Costa Rica on which multinational companies like Intel, P&G, HP, IBM, Hospira, Abbot have settled in the country having a major impact on the PIB.

A whole generation of young professional are being hired, trained and develop with worldwide quality programs. But the most important aspect, from my point of view, is that they are given the opportunity to compete and succeed in the global arena.

These young professionals are perceiving themselves as winners, people that can make positive change and they are bringing that mentality back home, to their children, their siblings, their parents and their friends spreading a wave of success that may end up shaping the community where they live.

I believe that organizations have the responsibility to be successful and to spread that success consciously among their employees and partners to generate a critical mass of people that are aware that they are the ones that can make the change they need in their life and in their society.