The Triple Bottom Line
“Is the organization making a profit?” That is what most
stakeholders think about when they look at the bottom line. Yet, an
organization might be making a profit while dumping toxic waste into the
environment, treating employees poorly, or failing to conserve resources.
Nonfinancial performance measures such as these can be challenging to measure.
The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is a framework that incorporates nonfinancial
factors in measuring the performance of an organization. In addition to
assessing profitability, the TBL approach also assesses an organization’s
social and ecological impact.
Today’s socially conscious executive thoroughly grasps the
significance of the TBL in terms of organizational and cultural success. TBL,
which is sometimes referred to as part of the broader term corporate social
responsibility(CSR), is a measure of an organization’s financial health,
environmental sustainability, and its furtherance of social justice. One
question that can be used to assess if an organization is meeting TBL
objectives is whether or not the human experience of all stakeholders is
elevated due to its work.
To prepare for this Discussion, “Shared Practice: The Triple
Bottom Line,” review the Learning Resources for this week and consider how the
Triple Bottom Line is related to and affected by an organization’s performance.
Reflect on the meaning of corporate social responsibility and how this might
impact your role in promoting social change.
Post by Day 3, the following:
Predict how the implementation of the Triple Bottom Line
would affect your current or former organization’s performance. Be sure to
include at least two short term consequences and at least two long term
consequencesof using the TBL measurement system.
Provide an explanation of how you view the relationship
between corporate profits and social responsibility.
Describe how you (as an
executive) plan to use some of the skills learned in this course to promote social change in your organization
now and in the future.
PLEASE CITE WITH THE REFERENCE
