Where is moral responsibility in large organisations?

This post is prompted by the response of the BBC Trust to the events surrounding Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. The news reporting of the BBC Trust's report appeared to place most of the concern and responsibility for the broadcasting of the offensive remarks with the editorial people at the BBC. They were considered as having the responsibility to prevent this material being broadcast.

In my view, the prime responsibility for this offensive material lies with the two broadcasters themselves. The material, and the events during which it was recorded, were offensive and would have remained offensive even if they had not been broadcast. Without their initially offensive behaviour, more senior BBC staff would not have been put in a position of being expected to refuse its broadcast.

In this context, Archbishop Nichols observations about the financial system, made during a homily at a Civic Mass in Birmingham and reported here at ZENIT, are interesting. Archbishop Nichols comments on the limits that regulation should have, and indicates that regulation cannot replace virtue (though it might support it). I had a similar thought during recent calls for a windfall tax on oil producers as they announced huge profits. Quite rightly, I think those producers have an obligation in charity to share their wealth for the good of others in society - but to regulate for it by a windfall tax would be completely counter productive. It is a conversion on the part of company executives that is needed to achieve this act of communion.

The Focolare initiative of "Economy of Communion" shows the real possibilities here. But it is, of course, something that economic entities choose to join and not something that is forced by regulation. It is a function of society, as opposed to being a function of the state. It's core idea is that the profits of a company are deployed in three parts, each of equal importance:

1. Help people in need - creating new jobs and intervening to meet their immediate needs beginning with those who share in the spirit that animates the Economy of Communion;
2. Spread the "Culture of Giving" and of loving - indispensable and necessary values for an Economy of Communion;
3. Grow the business - which has to remain efficient while remaining open to giving.

More details here. An interesting implication of this initiative is the way in which it allows moral responsibility to remain with the managers of the businesses concerned, instead of being absorbed into some impersonal, "system". People can feel a responsibility for their economic activity - and have a real sense of accountability for it. Responsibility isn't just "pushed up the organisation".