Sparking Surprising Insights

While I was fascinated by these readings and enjoyed learning new concepts that surprised me, what shocked me most was my development of a strong opinion about how organisations should run and what would not only be best for the business, but for the society that they contribute to. I didn’t fully understand why I felt so strongly about whether or not a corporation decides to focus more on profits, especially as that is the world that I grew up in and have (sadly) come to accept growing up in the U.S. However I gained insights from our class discussions on these readings.

Firstly, I appreciated the dialogue created in our class, seeing everyone’s perspective, especially getting the reactions and responses from my Irish classmates as I’m aiming to learn more about the Irish political, economic, and societal landscape. Saoirse’s perspective seemed completely different from mine, which sparked an internal conversation for me - why was I so persistent on the stakeholder theory? What caused this conversation to spark such enthusiasm?

And then Karen made an excellent point about how shareholders will look to invest and build up organisations that they share values with. That’s when I realised why I felt so strongly and why I now recognise the importance of the stakeholder approach for businesses. For years, I have experienced the shareholder approach, both as an employee, a customer and simply a shapeholder. While I’m glad that these companies are making money and returning it to investors, they rarely ever put it back into the communities that they are a part of, or supposedly investing in.

When organisations apply the shareholder approach, it seems to only move money up the ladder, forgetting those who are supporting the company by working for them, giving them money, or even supporting them online through social media. That’s why when Karen mentioned values, it allowed me to gain the insight that organisations will be able to find investors, even if they aren’t solely focusing on maximising profits for them because if investors don’t agree with the values of the organisation, they will stop their investment and find another business to support and promote. Organisations need to give their support back to the communities that best serve them as these people are the ones with everything to lose.

The Power of Purpose

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