LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS

                                                                                          Collaborative Leadership and Interdependency
                                                                       Profits for Productivity or Self-interest?

       We live in an interdependent world. More than ever before Banks and Manufacturing Companies are doing business on a global scale with their survival dependent on the trust and confidence of consumers and other businesses worldwide. No business operates in a vacuum and every product, service and transaction is determined by the level of trust and confidence companies are able to generate collaboratively. Global interaction and interdependency are everywhere. Even in an intensely competitive environment how well businesses operate to collaboratively build their organizations, employees, products and services determines their level of success in the marketplace.                  

       However, there are those who have taken advantage of the highly competitive aspects of the marketplace to focus only on profits and self-interest at the expense of others instead of working to build productive organizations. Instead of using the profits of their companies to build their organizations and investing in the development of better products and services, these individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of their own employees and society. This self-interest and lack of the ability to work collaboratively as a team putting the interest of the organization and others before their own self-interest has created a culture of business executives on Wall Street and throughout the marketplace who have undermined free enterprise and damaged the economy. In an interdependent world these abuses of free enterprise put our entire global economy at risk. Even though it has been suggested that these people have been demonized because they are trying to make a profit, clearly, they have demonized themselves by using the profits for their own enrichment at the expense of their organizations. The results of this self-interest have been catastrophic with increasing numbers of golden parachutes for CEOs who have run their businesses into the ground and large bonuses for executives who have brought their companies to the brink of bankruptcy. This new executive culture has little concern about the impact of their actions on others as long as they benefit financially.

       Our forefathers of democracy who put their country before their own interest and our hard working immigrant ancestors would be appalled by the level of self-interest and greed that has taken world economy down a dangerous road. In other countries of the world such as Japan, profits are put back into the companies to sustain growth and build better products and services. In the United States profits are used primarily to pay off investors and reward top executives. This process has nothing to do with building better organizations or healthy competition. It is a system of selfish abuse of profits that is destroying our companies, bleeding our democratic government and undermining our economy. There is a better way to operate our businesses and organizations that involves greater focus on collaboration and teamwork in order to put the interests of the organization, employees and society first, before self-interest.

       This team-oriented collaborative strategy built on democratic values is lacking in our educational system as well as our business culture in America. We must find a way to incorporate this important collaborative and democratic approach into our business strategies as well as our educational curriculum. If we are not teaching these team-oriented democratic values in our schools, our graduates will not know how to practice them in the workplace. The context of free enterprise built upon democratic values must become part of every curriculum in our schools in order to change the present culture of thinking in an over-aggressive competitive society.

       This is the situation that we find ourselves in today living with a culture of business leaders who only learned the value of self-interest. It has become a culture of “I will get mine and you can get yours if you can and forget about the organization.” Their thinking is, “If it (the organization) survives, fine. If not, we will walk away rich and move on to do the same in the next organization.” Some of this destructive greed may have existed under any circumstances. However, if we were able to teach in our educational curriculum the important aspects of building teams, collaborative learning, and critical thinking that require putting the team or organization first in order to succeed, then, these individuals would have had, at the very least, a better alternative strategy to consider. And, fortified with these learned collaborative leadership skills they may have made better decisions when it came time to consider developing the catastrophic Credit Default Swap (CDS) and Sub-Prime Mortgage Lending and Investment Systems. In any case, it is not too late to begin teaching and developing a new culture of business executives who understand that we live in a high synergy interconnected world. And, this fact requires business and economic decisions or strategies that reflect a concern regarding the implications for society and the impact on everyday people.

       Our democratic system totally supports this collaborative team-oriented approach as our founding fathers built the participatory framework of democracy in order to put the people first. And, this is clearly outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. What we have failed to do is to follow through with the implementation of these collaborative and democratic values in our schools and places of business. A greater effort is needed to teach these team-oriented democratic values and incorporate them into our schools and businesses. If we succeed at this effort, our schools will be able to provide better curriculum with cultural democratic context and role models that will motivate students and create better learning outcomes. And, our students and future leaders will be better able to build successful collaborative organizations and businesses that are fully interdependent and able to adapt and sustain themselves in a changing economy.

 Copyright 2009, Global Leadership Resources: For teaching or classroom use only.

 Note: This article is based on the ideas, concepts and examples found in the books, Collaborative Leadership and Global Transformation and The Price of Freedom by Timothy Stagich, Ph.D.

                                                                                   Discussion Questions

1. Why is collaborative teamwork so important for both productivity as well as profits in building organizations?
2. How has self-interest undermined healthy competition and misused profits?
3. What is the “self-serving business culture” that is undermining productivity and the development of business organizations? How can it be changed?
4. What are some of the ways businesses in other countries invest profits that help build better organizations? Why are U.S. businesses not doing the same thing?
5. Discuss ways for transforming the “self-serving business culture” into a more collaborative team-oriented and democratic business culture.
6. How does global interdependence affect the way businesses operate?
7. How are global interdependence, synergy and democracy related in building better organizations and businesses?
8. How can education make the difference in changing the “self-serving business culture” to a more “collaborative, team-oriented business culture?”
9. Discuss ways to incorporate collaborative and democratic values into the curriculum of education?
10. How do you think the founding fathers of American Democracy would view the abuses of Free Enterprise by the “self-serving business culture?” What would they do about it?