Triple Bottom Line

Spiritual Leadership satisfies one’s spiritual needs for calling and membership. Emerging research on the spiritual leadership model plus developments in strategic scorecards, performance measurement and quality, e.g., Baldrige Award Criteria, also gives evidence that satisfying these spiritual needs in the workplace is necessary to maximize the triple bottom line.

The Triple Bottom Line

Emphasis on social environmental and economic sustainability has become a focus of many Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development published a landmark action plan for environmental sustainability. The commission defined sustainability as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." Companies are now challenged by stakeholders including customers, employees, investors and activists to develop a blueprint for how they will sustain economic prosperity while taking care of their employees and the environment.

Socially responsible companies such as the Body Shop, Timberline, Proctor and Gamble (P&G), Weleda, Starbucks, and Ben and Jerry’s are widely acknowledged for having vision and values that go beyond short-term profit while growing a sustainable enterprise that also places great emphasis on employee well-being. These organizations demonstrate the qualities of spiritual leadership that positively increases spiritual well-being and, ultimately, produces increases in employee well-being, sustainability, and performance excellence - the triple bottom line or people, planet, and profit.

People. In terms of people or enhancing employee well-being, Mainstream medical research during the last 20 years tends to support a positive relationship between spirituality and health and has begun to recognize the power of spirituality in maintaining health.. Therefore, individuals in work groups that experience high levels of spiritual well-being have higher levels of positive human health, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction.

Spiritual Leadership incorporates recent developments in workplace spirituality, character ethics, positive psychology and an emerging consensus on the values, attitudes, and behaviors necessary for positive human health and well-being (See Table 1). Those practicing spiritual leadership at the personal level will score high on life satisfaction in terms of joy, peace and serenity.  In other words, they will:

1. Experience greater psychological well-being.
   
   
2. Have fewer problems related to physical health in terms of allostatic load (cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, declines in physical functioning, and mortality).

More specifically, those practicing spiritual leadership and their followers would have a high regard for one’s self and one’s past life, along with good quality relationships with others.  These in turn help to create the sense that life is purposeful and meaningful, the capacity to effectively manage one’s surrounding world, the ability to follow inner convictions, and a sense of continuing growth and self-realization.

Planet. Attending to the sustainability of our planet requires an ongoing commitment to sustainability that rests on the underlying assumption inherent in stakeholder theory - that overall organizational effectiveness (including profits and shareholder value) is a function of meeting or exceeding the expectations of key stakeholders. A stakeholder is any individual, group or organization that has a stake in the organization’s performance. The spiritual leadership model produces transparent organizational processes and value congruence across the strategic, empowered team, and individual levels. Organizations based in the vision and values of service and love inherent in spiritual leadership are dedicated to being socially responsible in exceeding the expectations of key stakeholders.

Sustainability that is driven by spiritual well-being both feeds into and flows from the attainment of goals consistent with the values of spiritual leadership and the need for the organization and its workers to function in society as a whole. Spiritual well-being, however, is not obtained by striving for it directly. Organizational members cannot experience a sense of spiritual well-being by trying to manufacture it. It is not produced when a company focuses on its monetary goals, but instead occurs when leadership first establishes a healthy workplace culture grounded in altruistic values and transcendent goals.  When members of an organization have a sense of belonging (membership) and a commitment to a common purpose (calling), the organization as a whole is more successful in meeting or exceeding key stakeholder expectations.

Profit. Relative to financial performance, the intrinsic motivation process in spiritual leadership that is based on vision (performance), altruistic love (reward) and hope/faith (effort) results in an increase in ones sense of spiritual well-being (e.g. calling and membership) and ultimately increases in two key organizational outcomes that positively influence financial performance:

1. Organizational commitment – People with a sense of calling and membership   will become attached, loyal to, and want to stay in organizations that have cultures based on the values of altruistic love, and

2. Productivity and continuous improvement – People who have hope/faith in the organization’s vision and who experience calling and membership will “Do what it takes” in pursuit of the vision to continuously improve and be more productive. 

There are examples of companies that place great emphasis on triple bottom line outcomes. The Body Shop is a successful international company selling high Quality natural skin and hair products. The company explicitly embraces spiritual principles and holds to high principles of social justice, straight talk, socially responsible activism, volunteerism and environmental sustainability, which inspires its stakeholders – employees, vendors, customers, and the communities it touches – locally and globally.  Timberland, the 1.5 billion manufacturer and retailer of rugged, outdoor-tested, environmentally-conscious gear for men, women and kids, is an organization of creative, hard working people who share a deep belief that people united in service can change the world. Their core values of humanity, humility, integrity, and excellence are the foundation for everything they do every day as they endeavor to make their communities better places to live.

The Spiritual Leadership Balanced Scorecard Business Model

The organizational spiritual leadership balanced scorecard business model assumes the performance of the employees in an organization—from the executive level to the operational levels - is central to effective and efficient internal operations, quality products and services, subsequent customer satisfaction and ultimately financial performance. A focus on employee learning and growth driven by organizational spiritual leadership as it relates to performance is therefore essential for organizations that wish to be successful and thrive. This results in continuous improvement in operations, higher quality products and services that lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction, which then leads to better financial performance. 

Strategic leaders -- through choices about vision, purpose, mission, strategy, and their implementation -- are also responsible for creating vision and value congruence across all organizational levels. In the figure below, the strategic management process is shown beginning with the development of a vision, purpose, and mission, followed by an internal and external analysis, which results in strategic action plans and objectives.  These objectives form basis for the leading and lagging indicators that are selected for key Balanced Scorecard Performance Categories.

Leading indicators and management metrics are usually used to measure the performance of ongoing company operations, which are depicted in the figure's input/output model. Generally, the more strategic the level of the scorecard in the organizational chart, the more results oriented and lagging are the specific measures that are reported in the scorecard. These measures comprise the quality, customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and financial Balanced Scorecard Performance Categories.  For example, the quality of a firm’s products and services are outputs that are leading indicators of customer satisfaction, which in turn, is a leading indicator of financial performance. However, quality is also a lagging indicator of the efficiency and effectiveness of the organizations key production processes.

In the bottom third of the figure below, employee learning and growth is driven by the spiritual leadership process. which is the central balanced scorecard performance category. This is because it is a leading indicator and drives the other performance categories. As shown by the dotted line from the learning and growth category to processes, employees who have a sense of well-being and are committed, productive, and socially responsible will strive to continuously improve organizational processes and produce quality products and services that satisfy customers and other key stakeholders which, ultimately drives financial performance. In turn, the learning and growth outcomes of organizational commitment and productivity, employee well-being and social responsibility are driven by the organizational spiritual leadership process. As shown by the dotted line between strategic and employee vision, strategic leaders influence employee vision.

Social Responsibility

Click Here to be linked to additional presentations on Spiritual Leadership