Quadruple Bottom-Line Transformational Stakeholder Audit

Quadruple Bottom-Line Transformational Stakeholder Audit

¥ Action-Research Group Project¥

Purpose of the Project:

The purpose of this project is to give you experience identifying, analyzing, and transforming stakeholder relationships in business and in life. While the project does involve a corporate organization, it is not solely constructed from an exclusive for-profit point of view. Corporations are best managed by considering the widest perspective possibleÑthe Quadruple Bottom-Line: 1) Social, 2) Spiritual, 3) Environmental, and 4) financial balance, integration, and well being.

Firm-centric views of management ignore vital interrelationships in the Ecological Web of Stakeholder Relationships (see table below). Such narrowly focused practices of management generate results that are oftentimes unsustainable, uninventive, and stultifying to human evolution. Conversely, those managers who utilize holistic stakeholder management skills generate results that are more sustainable, creative, and inspire the highest possibility of transformation for person and planet. This project will give you a taste of what it is like to ÒmanageÓ from this more encompassing, powerful, and enjoyable perspective.

Project Definition:

When choosing your project, first identify some area of interest to your group. Perhaps you are interested in some aspect of stakeholder relations like employee spirituality; environmental consumerism; corporate subsidization/welfare; globalization and fair trade; community/cooperative corporate ownership or employee ownership; gender or diversity; genetic engineering; urban education or development; alternative health care; socially responsible investing; government regulation of spirituality, social life, the environment, or our economic system; etc. These and other issues can be located on the Web schematic below (fill in some of the blanks as an exercise to see how it works). The challenge is to simultaneously go deeply into a particular Ecological Web of Stakeholder Relationships without sacrificing its integrated, interconnected, and wide-ranging natureÑthe whole organizes the parts; pull one thread of the tapestry and the entire shape reconfiguresÑfor better or for worse!

The Ecological Web of Stakeholder Relationships

Quadruple Bottom-Line Factors

Stakeholders

/ Social / Spiritual / Environmental / Financial
1) Government
2) Local/Global Community
3) Consumers
4) Natural Environment
5) Employees
6) Owners
7) Others?

For example, if your group chooses to examine suburban sprawl/urban withdrawal, you would first need to figure out which empty boxes (stakeholder relationships) are salient, that is, most actively in relationship (or fallen out of relationship). The local community would have a deep concern for maintaining social and spiritual harmony as well as environmental sustainability in light of growth. Business owners and employees would be interested in short-term financial returns such immediate development yields. Consumers would weigh the financial impact of moving to suburbia with social, spiritual, and environmental quality of life factors. Government would be seen as a mediator, balancing the quadruple bottom-line factors for all involved stakeholders.

The connections are endless, as complete interconnectedness is the basis of Reality and Nature, even higher and more profound organizing principles than business! Whatever project and its particular focus you choose, the overall goal of the project is to incorporate as much of the Web as possible into your inquiry and transformative action plan. Ultimately, when you make your recommendations for strengthening, expanding, and evolving the Web, such an expanded awareness and analysis will be invaluable for enhancing the balance, integration, and fullness of the Quadruple Bottom-Line.

Project Methodology:

ÒYou reap what you sowÓ is a guiding mantra for this project. How you frame your projectÑdefinition, questions, interviewing techniques, observational methods, assumptions, theses, etc.Ñwill determine your results. The very nature of your inquiry process will determine what you find. Thus, establishing a viable, rigorous research methodology is part of the project. You will be provided no Òboiler plateÓ or Òcookie cutterÓ formula to Òfill in the blanks.Ó Instead, the exercise of crafting your research strategy, conceptual framework, interview protocol, report rationale and format, intended outcomes, etc. will help develop your stakeholder management skills. In lieu of a predetermined structure, below are several guidelines to help shape your project.

Project Guidelines:

1.The ultimate goal of the project is to enhance the well being of the total field of stakeholder relationships as outlined in your Web analysisÑthis is a transformational project, changing the system under consideration in some palpable manner.

2.Frameworks, typologies, ethical arguments, questions, etc. from the text should be utilized to shape your project. For example:

Identifying the Stakeholder ÒWeb of RelationsÓ (74) (Chapter 3):

1.Who are our stakeholders? (74-79)

2.What are our stakeholdersÕ stakes? (79-81)

3.What opportunities and challenges do our stakeholders present to our firm? (81-82)

4.What responsibilities (economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic) does our firm have to its stakeholders? (82-83)

5.What strategies or actions should our firm take to best manage stakeholder challenges and opportunities? (83-85)

6.How do we maximize value to our social, environmental, financial, and spiritual Quadruple Bottom-Line? (from Quadruple Bottom-Line Field Project)

Quadruple Bottom-Line objectives should be strategically evaluated (Chapter 18):

1.Is the strategy internally consistent?

2.Is the strategy consistent with the environment?

3.Is the strategy appropriate in view of available resources?

4.Does the strategy involve an acceptable degree of risk?

5.Does the strategy have an appropriate time frame?

6.Is the strategy workable? (597)

3.Projects should be mimetic of the course structure and processÑwe are working in creative, fully balanced and integrated project groups, nurturing our relationships for maximum ÒreturnÓ on the Quadruple Bottom-Line.

4.I will provide an array of resources to assist you. My web page ( will be a rich resource for information about social and environmental auditing/reporting and other helpful areasÑthese will provide a basis for your project design and execution. While knowledge of financial auditing and reporting is commonplace and easily accessible, I will help you develop the spiritual dimension of your audit.

5.Methodologically, you are expected to interact with your Web and its people and dynamics in some tangible, meaningful way. Participating in or observation of the Web under study and conducting interviews are three principal methods. Successful projects are not produced through hands-off, Òlibrary researchÓ-only methods. While intellectual knowledge is necessary to incorporate and ground your project, it is not the principle vehicle for producing this project. ÒAction-researchÓ means active involvement with the Web, involvement where you simultaneously learn and the Web evolves for the betterÑyour project both describes and transforms the Web you study.

6.Since we are a learning organization of stakeholders with similar interests, we cooperatively share about the projects information. (To note, ÒcompetitionÓ actually means to Òstrive together.Ó) Using Courseinfo and the Steingard website, groups can exchange information and participate in dialogical developmental feedback, creating a miniature Òknowledge economyÓ (both electronically and in person) where the entire class synergistically (1+1=?) evolves beyond its individual potential.

7.The paper will be 25-30 pages in length, double-spaced, exclusive of appendices. Outlines will be 3-5 pages. References to Steingard website materials are requiredÑthese materials should intellectually help shape your strategies, methodologies, rationale, etc. More details to follow about presentations.

8.Stakeholder involvement is key in this project. By building trusting, mutually evolutionary relationships with stakeholders, the richness and effectiveness of your project increases. You should become comfortable enough with stakeholders to request they participate in your final class presentation and dialogue about the paper.

And, of course, please be in dialogue with me about the status and process of your projectÑI would love to be of service as you create your masterpieces!

Have Fun!

1