Changing Society pour World Business Dialogue

Abstract

There are some cases of urbanites coming back to rural life –however, the main trend is the direct opposite. People are used to living in the anonymity of our modern cities. Sociologists have shown that this zeitgeist of fractured and anonymous urban communities is determental to human development. There are many indicators of this, such as the expanding consumption of anti-depressants. Peter Drucker’s essay has a nostalgic tone, it puts the stress on the role of non-profit organisations as a solution to The Modern Condition. This essay will adopt an optimistic tone, emphasizing the role of non-profit organisations but will also consider the role of corporations, governments and, above all, the role of individuals. To illustrate this idea, the stories of two young men will frame the roles the different organizations can play.


Essay


The first story is that of Obatala. He comes from a little village in Nigeria, the most populated country of Africa. He had seen the women of his village struggling to survive, when they received the financial help from the special Governmental Food Security Program; with the scant resourses they had, they opened their eyes and found an opportunity to transform the loan into viable businesses. Obatala, did not complete the requirements to obtain the loan and his elder brothers were already trying to work on their parents’ farm. He opened his eyes but could not find a role in the village, so he decided to follow the trend and go to the city. So he goes to Lagos, with his savings in his pocket and his will.

Marco comes from San Francisco in Assisi, Italy. where he used to play tambourine in the village band every Sunday in front of the Basilica. At eighteen He moved Torino, where he studied economics. here he joined the student community and was a member of clubs such as Lista SINISTRA@UNITO, promoting change in society through students’ protagonism. For his last year, he went to London in an exchange program and now has his first job in the City with a small consultancy.

Peter Drucker says :“The business enterprise is clearly (…) a "society" rather than a "community."” This is true if we only focus on the first goal of the firm, but if you consider it as the pretext for a working place, a gathering place for people who have the same goal, then it has the potential to form communities. Most firms have a department dedicated to creating links between the employees. They broadcast the same information amongst them, and try to organize social events. More and more companies include these ideas in their social responsibility. They started by organizing sports days or trips. Now community involvement’s days are the preferred option. The design of the working space is also crucial. Open spaces, in reasonable measures, do enable the creation of synergies. Management is also a variable of the equation for its role is to set the etiquettes between the employees. These practices have been of benefit to all the parties: The firm has created a more collaborative atmosphere, and the people feel better related to their environment, part of a community. But of course, management cannot be too intrusive into people’s lives because for some of them, working for the firm is just a way to earn their living. Then the problem is time. Everyone acknowledges that getting up at 5 am and being back home at 10pm is not a life…but how many people have this kind of life? Then why not have two people instead of one working on those positions that require so much presence? Is it possible to set a limit to cost killing? To stop job cuts for profit?

But the consultancy where Marco works is too small to have a dedicated person to organize the company’s social life. He does not feel like making friends of his colleagues although now he is living in a new area and needs to make new ones.

What can NGO’s or associations do for Marco? By definition, those structures enable people to gather around a common interest. They can also be created with the aim of enabling social linking or fostering of better relationships. A major city like London has a website dedicated to a time bank organization that “directs you to an assortment of organisations and projects around London, who are in need of volunteers. London offers a variety of opportunities, ranging from mentoring refugees to media training young people, helping children to read to regenerating your local environment”. The program “Changing streets” appeals to him. It is about provoking change in your local environment. The program was deemed to be genuinely effective by TimeBank and BBC London. Marco contacts the organisation in order to receive the package and instructions.

Meanwhile Obatala is thinking of his strategy to find a position in his home. …Hometown associations?…But he wants to enjoy the new freedom of being in a city , without the strings of his heritage, simply being himself. If he did not manage to get a work by himself, then he could go and see this association. These associations support members’ welfare, invest in developmental projects, organize the hometown’s celebrations among the diasporas and/or provide support through relief materials in time of need.

Grand Ma was always talking about the action of destiny in our lives. She believed in something higher that ruled over human beings. Obatala had dreamt he was driving a car on the seaside when he suddenly lost its control in a curve. The car drove off the cliff into the ocean. He was still in the car but did not know where – was he stuck on a rock? Was he floating on a calm sea? – until two new characters appear. He remembered well the relief of seeing other human beings. Obatala interpreted this dream as a message putting the stress on the importance of relying on people. After long hours walking in the city in search of job offers, he sits in a café. A man is smiling at him. Obatala engages the conversation. The guy is working for the Ministry of Environment. He exposes to Obatala all the job opportunities that exist in this new sector, bound to develop, supported by the government.

Governments in developing countries still suffer from bad reputation, and are commonly accused of corruption. If the sums they dedicate to development programs are not optimal, the programs still exist.

In developed countries, such a centralized entity cannot really initiate local links. Government can foster local initiatives with preferential taxation, or other economic rewards. Some of the initiatives that should be supported: organic farming and community supported agriculture, co-housing but also systems such as time banking or local currency systems, sustainable tourism and charitable organizations.

Whether it is in a developing or in a developed country, Government can also play a major role in the way people conceive the world, through education. The clear goals of education in a country have to be commonly agreed. School is supposed to train individuals for the different roles they will have to play in the society; that is to say, today, in their roles as:

- A link of the chain (how the individual relates to each other; “interdependence”)
- An agent for the evolution of societies structures,
- An agent for the evolution our species
- A citizen of a country and a citizen of the world
- A member of a family
- A worker
- A consumer

Educational programs at the time Obatala and Marco, in their respective countries, were studying did not teach about all these roles. Of course, they could have arrived in those towns and remain by themselves, but, by chance, they both had learnt through experience that one is nothing without others. If the two characters of this story do not fall into depression and loneliness, it is thanks to their greater awareness enabling them to go towards others and interact. All the private or public organisations in the world cannot do anything for a person that is not aware of his/her interdependence on others.

Thanks to his conversation with the man in the Café, Obatala is now in charge of finding new clients for a waste management company. He learns allot in his new job and is now able to send back money to his village. Thanks to colleagues he has found a room in a family’s apartment. Marco has read the instructions he received and has been attending meetings. He has started applying the guidance and found new milestones in his new community. And he is now thinking of applying those principles in his workplace.

The first step always comes from the individual. Once adults, let’s forget the formula our parents taught us and we teach our children: “Don’t talk to unknowns”. Let’s talk to unknowns and reveal all the opportunities of Exchange.


Sources


The essay is also a product of a thinking process started with the writing of the research paper on Corporate social Responsibility. This explains that a lot of sources could quoted but we limited it to the most recent and important readings.

Books:
L’éloge de la fuite, Henri Laborit
La nouvelle grille, Henri Laborit
L’ère du verseau, Marylin Ferguson
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
International Forum on Globalization: Alternatives à la mondialisation économique.

Websites:
Rural-urban migration in Nigeria: consequences on housing, health-care and employment. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
http://pripode.cicred.org/TEAMS/SUMMARY/NG1.htm
http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=50208: Migration dynamics and changing rural-urban linkages in Nigeria
Reports of the French Economic Mission in Nigeria
www.fao.org
www.wikipedia.org
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/pays/nigeria
http://www.nigerianembassy.nl
http://london.timebank.org.uk