Why We Are Not Responsible Toward the Environment

DR. ICHAK ADIZES is an expert in change management for organizations. Here he shares some of the reasons why companies are not changing their actions in relation to the environment, even though everyone knows we are facing an environmental crisis. He also offers simple solutions that will bring change.

- Ichak Kalderon Adizes

At the February 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, the founder and president of the Forum criticized the economic theory and business practice that view shareholders as the clients of a business organization, the ones for whom the organization exists to provide returns on their investments. He believes this is an outdated theory. Organizations should have more than one entity to satisfy: community needs, worker welfare, and social responsibility should all be goals as well.

This is not a new idea. There has been an awakening in the population at large that sees profit, exclusive profit growth, as evil. Organizations should act responsibly toward the environment and society, which could mean agreeing to limit profits that the company produces if they are at the expense of those interests.

I believe that these emerging theories and statements are valid and legitimate, but they will remain theories. Condoning profit orientation per se will not work. The existent power structure of the system will continue to direct behavior toward profit orientation, albeit with some philanthropic contributions and lip service to social responsibility.

If you want to change the course of a motorboat, it is not enough to stand on the deck, look at the map, and point in a new direction. Nothing will happen until you change the relative power of the left engine versus the right engine. I believe these new eco-political theories of social responsibility will remain on paper because the power structure the dynamics of the economic system - has not changed.