COLLAPSE SUBDISCUSSIONRobert Bass Robert Bass 7:29pmOct 15 at 7:29pmManage Discussion Entry Hi Marcus, Thanks for the discussion. I would like to ask you to elaborate further on a couple of portions...

Robert Bass

Hi Marcus,

Thanks for the discussion. I would like to ask you to elaborate further on a couple of portions of your discussion. First, why is adopting or adhering to the principles good business? That is, why can it be expected to contribute to or at least not interfere with the profitability and success of the business organization? Second, would you elaborate further on what kind of opposition there might be to adopting and applying the principles in the business or organization you are considering? Please focus on specifics in this regard. For example, if you say that an organization is forced to follow universalism, what exactly do you mean by universalism? Why would that be bad or problematic? And so on.

What do you think?

Rob

Katie Hawkes

One practical argument I would make for adopting the U.N.'s 10 principles is that it could represent a universally accepted symbol of trust. From a branding standpoint, any business wanting to work internationally will be well served to be able to showcase this commitment. Beyond that, many of the principles also enable organizations to avoid legal entanglements via violation of human rights. Legalities and branding aside, I simply believe it is the right thing to do to act in people’s best interest and respect the planet as well as all living creatures and plant-life residing on it. I am also a huge advocate of organized labor, unions and workers’ rights, which are reflected in these principles as well. Two separate strikes from household brands in the U.S. caught my eye recently -- John Deere and Kellogg’s, where workers are demanding better working conditions and compensation, among other requests.

From an ethical standpoint, treating people well is imperative. From a purely business standpoint, it also has strong potential to impact the bottom line. Employee turnover has a cost, as does lower output if morale is down or people need more time off due to unnecessary stress. The cost of employee turnover includes the logistics of offboarding an employee, finding a replacement, training the replacement to get up to speed with the gap left by the former employee, executive time spent determining the cause of the turnover, and knowledge loss based on the former employee’s context and time with the company (Duda & Zurkova, 2013, p. 2071). Additionally, employee turnover can result in loss of customers, clients, or vendors who feel loyal to the existing employees and want to see them treated well or simply prefer working with them.

If I received pushback from the organization around adopting the U.N.’s 10 principles I would expect them to be due to cost and/or necessity. Regarding cost, there is always legitimacy to weighing the potential profits and losses or any decision. However, I would hope to be able to show that costs would not be prohibitive, and well worth the outcome of treating people well. I could make the purely financial case via the cost of employee turnover or potential legal fees again as well. And regarding necessity, it is true that some leaders simply do not fundamentally care about the well-being of their employees and do view them as disposable. This would be a difficult mindset to shake, but I could again make the business and financial case for any changes. Truthfully, if someone doesn’t see the importance of valuing people and the planet, I believe it would be difficult to sway them unless you focus on reasons that benefit them personally. One 2020 article by a Harvard professor and MBA student outlines three ways you can attempt to change people’s minds:

• appeal cognitively via facts and logic


• invest time in developing a relationship with the person before making the pitch, to build rapport and understand their motivations


• bring in the supporting opinion of someone who you know they already respect

I appreciate the simplicity of these three buckets and could see it guiding me in persuading leadership.

References

Duda, J., & Žůrková, L. (2013). Costs of employee turnover.Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 61(7), 2071-2075.http://doi.org/10.11118/actaun201361072071(Links to an external site.)

Huang, L., & Yu, R. (2020).How to (Actually) Change Someone’s Mind. Harvard Business Review.https://hbr.org/2020/07/how-to-actually-change-someones-mind