eugene neck pain

Let us look at the legal concept of ownership. In a corporation, the legal owners are the shareholders. Through their representatives, the board of directors, the shareholders hire the management and everything the management does is supposed to be for the benefit of the shareholders. The board is charged with representing the interests of the shareholders to management and direct the management to behave in the interests of the shareholders. Question: do the shareholders behave as owners?

When we buy a stock as an investment, do we behave as an owner of the corporation of which we buy the stock? Do we realize what responsibility this ownership puts on us vis-à-vis the world around us? Do we investigate how the corporation benefits the world, how it treats its workers, customers, suppliers and all the other people on whom it has an impact? Do we try to influence that behavior? Some large institutional investors try to do that. However, I myself would not go to great lengths in it. I would look in the first place for the investment to benefit me, and as soon as it stops doing so I would sell the stock. As shareholders, can we ever be called to account for the actions of the corporation? No, we can’t. Is that owner-like behavior? It is not. We may be a legal owner but we are not real owners. In fact, we are much more like a lender than an owner. We make our money available for as long as it suits us and then we take it back. This type of shareholder ownership of corporations is nothing but a legal fiction; it lacks reality. Worse yet, in this fictional legal structure shareholders are not even expected to behave as owners. 

To make things more complex, according to non-profit corporate law, a charitable non-profit corporation does not have any owners. This is another legal fiction. For I have never known anything good to happen without some individual or group “owning” the act, process,  or services of the organization. Now, for whose benefit is such an organization to be run? Not surprisingly, we see that these legal fictions create enormous hurdles for the organizations  that sincerely wish to try and create an appropriate structure for their work. Because of our intimate day-to-day involvement in the world of economic and legal organizations, it is difficult for us to imagine situations that are not limited by those parameters. Many popular books and corporate consultants on organization present us with eminently rational ideas and structures it is difficult to argue with. They are so logical! But I suggest that these ideas can be very problematic in the actual reality of living organizations. 

Who then really owns a corporation?  Who carries the “ideal” of the corporation? Who are conscious of the responsibility of operating the corporation?  The answers will differ in individual cases, but I suggest that these are the relevant types of questions. And perhaps the really crucial question is: who are the people who enable the guiding forces of the organization? I would suggest it is those who behave demonstrably as owners. 

In many socially/spiritually/environmentally striving organizations we often see a core of a few deeply committed people who devote most of their waking (and possibly sleeping) hours to these organizations. Often they clearly have a karmic connection with each other that both helps them and creates challenges. They work to bring a deeply rooted ideal to reality and in this effort they are supported by an inspired staff and board of trustees. Who are the owners here? Who are the ones who enable the goals and ideals to grow? Again, there is no one answer, but usually the ones who most clearly carry the living ideal and work hardest to achieve the mission and goals of the organization are the ones who can be seen to act as the owners. I am talking of course of the founders, managers, directors – whatever their titles happen to be – who operate the organization on a daily basis. 

Interestingly, the mission and goals usually have little to do with these people themselves but, rather, are directed to a product or service for others. The founders do not run the organization for themselves but for the benefit of others. Yet, they are the ones who behave most as owners: the organization “belongs” to them in a karmic sense, they carry its ideals, they feel the responsibility this brings and know they are accountable for their actions to the "being" of the organization and to the ones they serve. And to the extent there are truly committed trustees and staff, these additional people can be considered owners as well.  

Most charitable organizations do their work for the benefit of certain categories of people, and those are its clients, not owners. It is important to distinguish between the two. Of course there are overlaps, but most of the clients usually do not behave as owners of the organization, namely carrying its ideals, exercising the responsibility its work requires and relating to the world on this basis. The clients are vital to the organization’s life, not just because of the income they provide, but especially because through their feedback they continually help the organization find its place in the world and develop its ideals and mission.  

If there is any generality that comes out of this approach it may be the notion that the organization revolves around individuals, exists through and for individuals. In order to understand an organization we must recognize the key individuals with their strengths and weaknesses. We can never successfully think in terms of groups or categories or preconceived systems and ideas when we want to understand an organization. The picture is always very complex and must be penetrated out of soul activity, consciousness and love for the individuals. And all of this comes on top of the need to act in accordance with the law of the land. 

In conclusion, the organization is owned by those who behave as its owners, who carry the ideals and vision.  The organization exists for the benefit of its clients and society and is accountable to them, and that the task of the owners is to support the "being" of the organization, the clients and society at large.