Social Responsibilities of

Organisations
UNIT 14 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
OF ORGANIZATIONS
Objectives
After going through this unit you should be able to:
• define and explain the role of organisations towards the society
• appreciate the organisations' co-existence in the society.
Structure
14.1 The Beginning
14.2 Defining the Social Existence of the Organisations
14.3 Organisational Role Extended Towards the Society
14.4 Summary
14.5 Further Readings/References

14.1 THE BEGINNING

Organization constitute one of the most important elements that make up the social
web of modern societies. Most citizens of modern society are born in a hospital,
educated in a school, work in one organization or another, and to the degree that they
participate in religious and political activities, these too, frequently take place in the
organized contexts. In short members of modern society obtain a large part of their
material, social, and cultural satisfactions from large organizations. The way to
understand modern man and society is, therefore, to the study the organizations viz-a-
viz their, political, educational,' material and many such important functions.

The organizations are principal vehicles for societal guidance. That is, such units
especially those that a part of or link to the state are major instruments for setting,
pursuing, and implementing collective goals for nation. Goods, services and capital -
society's wealth are created and dispersed mainly by organizations. Health, education
and social services are now largely the responsibility of organizations. Whether we
can overcome the pressing problems of our time (inequality, pollution, energy crisis,
alienation and so on) depends heavily on our society's "organizational potential".
Good ideas and good intention alone cannot eliminate human miseries. Thus
organizational analysis provides a key to understanding of modern society, its
prospects for transformations.

Activity 14.1

Do you feel that the organisational analysis provides a key to understanding of

modern society. If possible do a survey of five private and public sector and
multinational organisation to examine what are their agenda towards their social
responsibilities. Make an assessment as to how serious are they in implementing
these, if at all they have any. Prepare a comparative statement and discuss in the peer
group:

…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………… 27
Organisational Dynamics
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………

14.2 DEFINING THE SOCIAL EXISTENCE OF THE

ORGANIZATIONS
Organizations play a leading role in modern world. Their presence effects some
would insist that it infects - virtually every sector of social life. Peter Drucker thus
observes: "Young people today will have to learn organizations the way their
forefathers learned farming". Ours is an organizational society - the organizations are
a prominent, if not dominant characteristic: of modern society. Organizations were
present in older civilizations - Chinese, Greek, Indian - but only in modern
industrialized societies do we find large number of organizations engaged in
performing may highly diverse tasks. To ancient organizational assignment of
soldiering, public administration and tax collection have been added such as
discovery (research organization) child and adult socialization (schools and
universities), resocialization (mental hospitals and prisons), production and
distribution of goods (industrial firms, whole sale and retail establishments),
provision of services (organizations dispensing assistance ranging from laundry and
shoe repair to medical care and investment counselling), protection of personal and
financial security (police department, insurance firms, banking and trust companies),
preservation of culture (museums, art galleries , universities, libraries),
communication (radio and television studios, telephone companies, the post office),
and recreation (bowling alleys, pool halls, national park service, professional football
teams). Even such a partial, listing testifies to the truth of Parson's statement that, "the
development of organization is the principal mechanism by which, in highly
differentiated society, it is possible 'to get/things done', to achieve beyond the reach of
individual".
The prevalence of organizations in every arena of social life is one indicator of their .
importance. Another rather different index of their significance is the increasing
frequency with which organizations are singled out as the source of many ills
besetting contemporary society. C. Wright Mills way back in 1956 pointed out with
alarm to the emergence of a "power elite" comprised of members occupying the top
positions in three overlapping organizational hierarchies: the state bureaucracy, the
military and the larger corporation. At about the same time Ralf Bahrendorf (1959) in
Germany was engaged in revising and updating Marxist doctrine by insisting that the
basis of the class structure was no longer the ownership of the means of production
but occupancy of positions that allowed the wielding of organizational authority.
Such views which remain controversial; focus on effects of organization on social
stratification systems, taking account of the changing basis, of power and prestige
occasioned by the growth in number and size of organizations.
Activity 14.2
Prepare a list of areas in the social life where you feel (at the least) the organisations
should be visible and then assess the organisations in your reach and see how many
of them achieve score more that 75%. Discuss the criteria before hand in a group of
peers.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
A related criticism concerns the seemingly inexorable growth in public sector
28 organizations. The two great German sociologists Max Weber (1947) and Robert
Michels
 Social Responsibilities of
(1949) were among the first to insists that the central political issue for all modern Organisations
society were no longer what type of economic structure prevailed - whether
capitalists, socialist or communist - but the increasing dominance of the public
bureaucracy over the ostensible political leaders.

Other .criticism points to the negative consequences of the growth of organizations

virtually in every area of social existence. Mailer (1968) writes, "civilization extracts
its thousand fees from the best nights of the man, but none so cruel as the
replacement of the good fairly by the expert, the demon by the rational crisis, and the
'witch by the neurotic female". Organizations are viewed as the primary vehicle by
which, systematically, the areas of our lives are rationalized, planned, articulated,
scientized, made more efficient and orderly, and ,managed by 'experts'. The dark side
of this progress is depicted by Rozak (1969), who defines the technocracy as "that
society form in which an industrial society reaches the peak of its organizational
integration". He writes, "under technocracy we become the most scientific societies,
yet ………….. Men through out the 'developed world' become more and more the
bewildered dependents of inaccessible castles wherein inscrutable technicians
conjure with their fate". For example, even in India, which is behind the West, the
technological intervention especially in the information technology area is only
available in a few chosen cities. The majority lives in the village where the television
gives the information but fails to extend the implication as well as applications to
major extent. The youth and other population who are at the impressionable age find
it difficult to integrate and cope with the information. Some of them flock the cities
in search of the Pandora's box, but instead of meeting the hope, most of them end up
in disaster.

Activity 14.3

Identify the issues raised in the two Foams above relating to role of organisations in
society namely the role of public bureaucracy, excessive growth and reach in
virtually every facet of society, effect on the life in general in becoming an industrial
society etc. and their impact or the rural population. Organise a panel discussion or
these topics and report the outcome. Try to crystalise the outcomes.

…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………

Still other critics have called attention to how organizational structure affects the
personality and psyche of its participants. Alienation, over conformity and stunting of
normal personality development are among the consequences attributed, not to such
special cases as prisons and concentration camps, but to every day common types of
organizations. Here one notes that these aforementioned negative views towards
organizations provide further testimony to their importance as well as their social
responsibility in the modern world.

14.3 ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES EXTENDED TOWARDS

THE SOCIETY
Like media, organizations represent extension of our selves. Organizations achieve
goals that are quite beyond the reach of any individual - from building skyscrapers
and dams to 29
Organisational Dynamics
putting the man on the moon. But to focus on what organizations do may conceal
from us the more basic and far reaching effects that occur because organizations are
mechanism - the media by which those goals are pursued. For example, when we
visit any hospital or clinic, we seek 'health' but what we get is 'medical care'. Clients
are encouraged to view these outputs as synonyms although their may be no relation
between. them. In some cases relations can even be negative: More care may result in
poorer health as immunity. Another example may be that products manufactured by
organization reflect the manufacturing process. They often reflects the need to
subdivide the work and to simplify task, and the manufacturing pressures towards
standardization of parts and personnel. Customization in genuine sense becomes
prohibitively expensive. Metal. replaces wood and plastic replaces metal in many
products to satisfy organizational, not consumer, needs.
To suggest that our organizational tools shape the products and services they produce
would appears to be a' relatively sweeping and unsettling generalization on which
might be content to rest our case. We fail to perceive the importance organizations
for our lives if view them merely as tool for achieving goals. Organizations must be
viewed as actors in their own right, as corporate persons. They take actions utilize
resources, enter into contracts. Coleman (1974) describes the rights of organizations
as they have developed gradually since the Middle Ages to the point where now it is
accurate to speak of two kinds of persons - 'natural' persons (like you and me) and
corporate or 'juristic' persons (like the Red Cross and Maruti Udyog Limited). The
social structure of modern society can no longer be described accurately as consisting
only of relations among natural persons: our understanding must be stretched to
include as well those relations between natural and corporate persons. In brief, we
must come to the recognition that society has changed over the past few centuries in
the vary structural elements of which it is composed.
Further, organizations provide the setting for 'a wide variety of basic social processes,
such as socialization, communication, ranking, the formation of norms,. the exercise
of power and goal-setting and attainment. If these generic social processes operate in
organizations, then we can add as much to our knowledge of the principles that
govern their behaviour by studying organizations as by studying any other specific
type of social system. Organizations are characterized by somewhat distinctive
structural arrangements that affect the operation of the processes occuring within
them. For example, social control processes occurs in all social groups, but there are
some forms or mechanisms of control for instance a hierarchical authority structure -
that are best studied in organizations, since it is within these systems they appear in
their most highly developed form. Thus, the study of organizations can contribute to
the basic knowledge by increasing our understanding of how generic social processes
operate within distinctive social structures.
The Social Boundaries of Organization
The problems controlling organizations in setting and policing their boundaries are
complex and subtle. Given the essence of organizations as open systems, their
boundaries must necessarily be sieves and not shells, admitting the desirable flows
and excluding the inappropriate or deleterious elements. Determining what is
desirable or harmful can be a difficult decision, in past because the criteria can vary
from time to time and from location to location in the organization.
The Boundaries of Collectivities
The collectivity can be viewed as an identifiable "chunk" of the social order. The
criteria for determining the existence of a collectivity are (1) a delimited social
structure, that is, a bounded network of social relations and (2) a normative order
applicable to the participants linked by the network. All collectivities - including
informal groups, communities organizations and entire societies - possess, by
definition, boundaries that distinguish them from other systems.
Many different indicators can help to identify the boundaries of collectively, some
30 focus attention on the behavioural structure and some on nominative. A widely used
behavioural
 Social Responsibilities of
indicator is interaction rates. Attentively, we may focus on the nature of conduct of Organisations
the activities being carried out, we would expect to observe a change in the activities
performed by individuals as they cross the boundaries between collectivities.
Organizationally controlled recruitment criteria are important mechanisms fostering
insulation of the organization from its social environment. As the number and variety
of people recruited in organizations grow its supplies new identities and sources of
power. Salient identities can also develop as the result of interactions and exchange
processes occuring among participants within the organization, and these give rise to
informal status distinctions.
There are barriers that the total institutions place between its incumbents and the
external world marks the first curtailment of self. In civil life, the sequential
scheduling of the individual's roles both in the life cycle and in the repeated daily
routines ensures that no one role the individual plays will block his performance ties
another. In total institutions in contrast, membership automatically disrupts role
scheduling, since the incumbent's separation from the wider world lasts around the
clock and may continue for years. However, except in total institution, generally the
usual kind of organizations, do not produce such role dispossession or totally
segregate the organizational roles from non-organizational one's.
Thus, by now it must be clear, the significance for organizations in the modern
society. If one wants to identify the specific responsibilities of organizations it will be
a mammoth task. However, to reorganize our thoughts towards the issue, we may
identify the responsibilities from two angles. One pertains to the social responsibility
of the organization towards its own individual self the corporate and the
responsibility towards the external environment consisting of communities, physical
and other types of environment etc. The second angle' is a more wide spread as well
as difficult one as it takes into account a wide range of issues which may vary from
context to context.
While talking about the inner social responsibilities, we would like to raise the issues
of organizational structure, its processes, its culture and the like. Here one may
examine the meaning of work in the lives of workers. The positive values of work
become issues of paramount interest and concern. During the last century technology
and legislation have changed the nature of duties and the implications of jobs for the
lives of workers. The skills have changed so have the attitudes of worker. Every
organization needs to think and understand the implications of such changes. The
"privilege" of having a job and the personal, responsibility of job holders to develop
the necessary skill and prove their worth have shifted toward the "right" to have a job
and the organizations responsibility to provide training and guarantee full
employment.
The meaning of work has also been influenced by shift in the power positions of the
employers and the employees to protest collectively and feel secure regarding the job.
Social securities provide income to retirees. and death benefits to the surviving
family members. The workers compensation benefits cover accidents long-term
disability.
Technology has dramatically changed 'the nature of work. From labour intensive
industry, the shift to slowly growing towards the capital intensive industry. Such
changes are especially in the mining, heavy machinery and such industries where the
hand and strenuous jobs are being taken care of by machines. One looks are the
prospect of having a paperless office. The psychological and social implications of
such a change has to be understand by these organization because today's worker
does not use much of his cognitive skills. The use of such skills have been left to the
top management. The stress of being mindless worker is a serious threat to the
employees mental as well as physical health. The organizations need to look into the
requirement of job design and redesign from psycho-social perspectives along with
the need to humanize the work place to keep away workers alienation.
Many managers complain that today's work force does not have the same values as
previous generations. There is a lack of work ethic. It is true that today's young
worker 31
Organisational Dynamics
who is more educated than the earlier generations do not have the same attitudes
toward importance of handwork and craftsmanship and their reasons for holding a
job is quite different. There is a tremendous uncertainty about the working values of
today's workers. It is the responsibility of both the organization and its members to
think collectively and create an appropriate work culture not only to extend the
enhancement of profit and productivity but also to give a dignified work life to the
employees.

The responsibility that are coming through the external sources is reflected in the
composition of work force in the form of minorities and female employees. Of course
the political and economic uncertainity is also a significant factor but the
organizations (except the political one) can only contribute indirectly. It is now very
important to understand interactions in groups composed of people of different
cultural categories or states. Four groups can be identified on the basis of various
proportional representation of kinds of people. Uniform groups have only one kind of
person, one significant social type. The acquire salient statuses such as sex, race or
ethnicity. Skewed groups are those in which there is a large preponderance and one
type over another. Few of the skewed groups can be called as tokens because often
they are treated as representatives of their category as symbols rather than
individuals. Next tilted groups begin to move towards the less extreme and less
exaggerated effects. They begin to become individuals differentiated from each other
as well as a type differentiated from the majority. Finally the balanced group - which
is reflected by culture and interaction. In today's world the major concern is
emanating from the skewed group especially the women in organizations. The use of
term 'token' for minority members especially women is rather prevalent. The
proportional scarcity of women is not unique to them, the uniqueness lies with them
entering the all-male fields of occupation. The proportional rarity of tokens is
associated with three perceptual phenomena: visibility, polarization and assimilation.
Regarding visibility, the women as tokens capture a large share of the groups'
awareness. Polarization of difference and exaggeration of the same is another
common dynamic. In assimilation usually there is an use of stereotypes or families
generalizations is used to. define the persons social type. Visibility creates
performance pressure on the token. Polarization leads to group boundary heightening
and isolation of the token. And assimilation results in the tokens role entrapment, All
these dynamics create a glass ceiling effect and restrict the career movements of the
minority whether it is based on gender, race, or language. The social responsibility of
the modern organization is prevent such harmful effects and optimize the resource in
its diverse forms.

14.4 SUMMARY
Organisation being the principal vehicles for societal guidance, play very important
role in setting, pursuing and implementing the collective goals for the nation. The
objective of this unit has been to explain and examine the role of organisations in the
society, to prove its social existence in the society. Surroundings around any
organisation have vital linkages (tangible and intangible) with the organisation. It
becames the duty of the organisation to discharge its due for the society, which even
in the long run will be beneficial for the organisation.

14.5 FURTHER READINGS/REFERENCES

Argyris. C and Sehon, D. (1978). Organizational Learning Reading, MA, Addison-
Westey
Baum, W.C. and Tolbert, S.M. (1985). Investing in Development : Lessons of world
Bank Experience. New York;? Oxford Univ. Press.
Chatrabarti, S.K. (1996). Management by Values Delhi, Oxford Univ. Press.
32 Dayal, I.(1977). Change in Work Organizations : Some Experience of Renewal of
Social System. New Delhi, Concept
 Social Responsibilities of
D'e.Souza, K.C. (1984). "Organizations as Agents of Social Change". Vikalpa, 9, 233- Organisations
247.

Khandwalla, P.N. (Ed.) (1988). Social Development. .A New Role for the
Organisational Sciences, New Delhi, Sage

Mehta, P.(1983-84). "Parlicipatory Education of Rusal Workers". People's Self

Action for Socio-economics Development. NLI Bulletin-9.

Pareet, U. (1968). Motivational Paradigm for Development". Jous. of Soc. Issues 24 :

115-122.

33