Article by Charles Handy on the benefits of creating a hospitable environment for both employees and clients in organizations, and how working for a cause beyond profit can make for a more rewarding business. Handy begins the article discussing how volunteer organizations have become “social businesses” because they are businesses in the conventional meaning of the word. Specifically, Handy notes, they are concerned with turning inputs into outputs as efficiently as possible for the benefit of their clients. However, since non-profits do not have dividend pressure, such organizations are increasingly turning to commercial businesses and consultancies for help and advice to sustain themselves into the future. At a minimum, Handy notes, they often need to discover more about roles, responsibilities, and the art of sensible delegation. He goes on to remark how a hotel chain, influenced by the hospitality doctrine of St Benedictine, is concerned with the bottom line in their profits, chaining items in their rooms to prevent theft. Handy closes the article describing how keeping shareholders happy is an important feature of the modern economy and contemporary capitalist society, but hardly ranks as a worthy cause in itself. Instead, he argues, people need to find something else to commit themselves to.
Handy, Charles B Early, John-Paul Benedict, Saint, Abbot of Monte Cassino Shaw, George Bernard Capitalism Capitalists and financiers Nonprofit organizations Institute of Directors
Source
Article by Charles Handy on the benefits of creating a hospitable environment for both employees and clients in organizations, and how working for a cause beyond profit can make for a more rewarding business, 1993; Charles Handy Papers; Box 20, Folder 7; 1 page
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