The Role of Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in
Organizational Excellence: The Case of Grameen Bank
Is Grameen Bank a great example of an organization that promotes social responsibility?
Explain your answer.
Grameen Bank (GB) is a great example of an organization that promotes social
responsibility. This can be seen at GB’s core activities with the goal of lessening poverty through
adoption of programs that could help the society. By means of “programs,” these are loans for
beggars, housing for the poor, scholarships for the poor children, telephone ladies, etc., as well as
providing donations during natural disasters and carrying out charitable activities. In point of
fact, GB does not express any specific mission or vision for their organization. From their
organizational values and the operational activities, it seems like they are after one mission
mostly, which can be stated as “Fighting the poverty through business” and some key visions can
include social development through poverty elimination, woman empowerment and creation of
self-employment opportunities. The Grameen Bank Project came into operation with the
following 5 objectives. These are still counted as the key objectives for the organization today
and these are: to extend banking facilities to poor men and women; to eliminate the exploitation
of the poor by money lenders; to create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude
of unemployed people in rural Bangladesh; to bring the disadvantaged, mostly the women from
the poorest households, within the fold of an organizational format which they can understand
and manage by themselves; and, to reverse the age-old vicious circle of “low income, low saving
& low investment”, into virtuous circle of “low income, injection of credit, investment, more
income, more savings, more investment, more income.” Furthermore, GB provides
comprehensive investment counseling and close supervision over borrowers’ entrepreneurial
activities so that they can make the most productive use of the loans and succeed in their
business ventures. GB encourages its borrowers to generate savings in order to buy the bank’s
shares and also advises them to get rid of century-old social vices and to live in a cleaner and
better environment.
Describe Grameen Bank in terms of Business Ethics, Axiology, Culture, and Psychology.
Business Ethics
Grameen Bank (GB) was assumed to be an ethically progressive organization however it
became a target of much ethical criticism. This is so when the code of Corporate Government
(CG) for Bangladesh provided clear principles and guidelines on the mission and vision, the
board, the role of stakeholders, human resources, conflict of interest, financial and non-financial
disclosures, and fund-raising policy and GB did not seem adopting the WHOLE stated principles
of the code and the guidelines in implementing the codes into the very structure of the bank.
However, GB tried to adjust and comply with the governance code. And the adaptation took a
long time.
The Grameen Bank is officially registered as a bank under the Bangladesh Bank Ordinance
but conceptually it is a non-governmental organization (NGO) thus it should follow the corporate
governance guidelines for NGOs. CG has been motivated by the interest of the investors for
more transparent and accountable information that could reduce the risk of investing. And, in
Organizational Excellence: The Case of Grameen Bank
Is Grameen Bank a great example of an organization that promotes social responsibility?
Explain your answer.
Grameen Bank (GB) is a great example of an organization that promotes social
responsibility. This can be seen at GB’s core activities with the goal of lessening poverty through
adoption of programs that could help the society. By means of “programs,” these are loans for
beggars, housing for the poor, scholarships for the poor children, telephone ladies, etc., as well as
providing donations during natural disasters and carrying out charitable activities. In point of
fact, GB does not express any specific mission or vision for their organization. From their
organizational values and the operational activities, it seems like they are after one mission
mostly, which can be stated as “Fighting the poverty through business” and some key visions can
include social development through poverty elimination, woman empowerment and creation of
self-employment opportunities. The Grameen Bank Project came into operation with the
following 5 objectives. These are still counted as the key objectives for the organization today
and these are: to extend banking facilities to poor men and women; to eliminate the exploitation
of the poor by money lenders; to create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude
of unemployed people in rural Bangladesh; to bring the disadvantaged, mostly the women from
the poorest households, within the fold of an organizational format which they can understand
and manage by themselves; and, to reverse the age-old vicious circle of “low income, low saving
& low investment”, into virtuous circle of “low income, injection of credit, investment, more
income, more savings, more investment, more income.” Furthermore, GB provides
comprehensive investment counseling and close supervision over borrowers’ entrepreneurial
activities so that they can make the most productive use of the loans and succeed in their
business ventures. GB encourages its borrowers to generate savings in order to buy the bank’s
shares and also advises them to get rid of century-old social vices and to live in a cleaner and
better environment.
Describe Grameen Bank in terms of Business Ethics, Axiology, Culture, and Psychology.
Business Ethics
Grameen Bank (GB) was assumed to be an ethically progressive organization however it
became a target of much ethical criticism. This is so when the code of Corporate Government
(CG) for Bangladesh provided clear principles and guidelines on the mission and vision, the
board, the role of stakeholders, human resources, conflict of interest, financial and non-financial
disclosures, and fund-raising policy and GB did not seem adopting the WHOLE stated principles
of the code and the guidelines in implementing the codes into the very structure of the bank.
However, GB tried to adjust and comply with the governance code. And the adaptation took a
long time.
The Grameen Bank is officially registered as a bank under the Bangladesh Bank Ordinance
but conceptually it is a non-governmental organization (NGO) thus it should follow the corporate
governance guidelines for NGOs. CG has been motivated by the interest of the investors for
more transparent and accountable information that could reduce the risk of investing. And, in
