Corporate Responsibility and Community Development: Towards A Creative Integration
predominant
thrust of
development
has to shift
from economics,
politics or
external
machinery to
the awakening
and fulfillment
of the deeper,
higher and
inner needs
of the mind,
heart and soul
through education
and human
resources
development.
In a more psychological perspective, the first stage is the fulfillment of the needs of the physical being or the body. Second stage is the satisfactions of the needs of the vital, emotional and sensational being for wealth, power, enjoyment, status, recognition, harmonious relationship, achievement, expansion, autonomy and mastery. Third stage is the quest of our higher mental, moral and spiritual nature for knowledge, understanding, values, ideals and reconnect our souls with the spiritual source of our own being and the universe, which is the highest aim of religion.
The Role of Imagination
One of the major aims of this third stage of development is to fully internalize the triple values of French revolution in the mind, heart and soul of the people so that the outer civic liberty, equality or fraternity becomes a spontaneous expression and organization of the inner liberty, equality and fraternity, firmly established in the consciousness of the community. As the outer needs of the body and life are reasonably fulfilled, the predominant thrust of development has to shift from economics, politics or external machinery to the awakening and fulfillment of the deeper, higher and inner needs of the mind, heart and soul through education and human resources development.
The execution of this integral vision of development requires a network of institutions and organization working together in close co-operation for the total development of the community. The main players would be government organizations, NGOs, donor agencies, business, local institutions which represent the will, voice and wisdom of the people and other organizations which have specific expertise in dealing with the various stages or aspects of development. The administrative organ which governs the development process should contain representatives from all these institutions. Management of the development process requires an apex body which draws the strategic plans and goals, co-ordinates and monitors the activities of the various institutions and directs them to the targeted goals. Each institution involved in the development process, especially its leaders and managers, should have a clear perception and understanding of the integral vision and its specific role in it, even while focusing its attention and effort on some aspects, domains or tasks of development. In other words, community development has to be a co-creative process in which all the stakeholders contribute to the evolution and growth of the group. The distinguished management thinker C.K. Prahalad has more or less similar conception of development in the context of poverty-alleviation. In one of his influential books on a market-driven approach to elimination of poverty, Prahalad states:
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