2: Purpose and Sustainability – Where ARE We Heading?

It was following one of the last major global disruptions – the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2008 – that the concept of Purpose and its centrality in organisational life really came to the fore. People wanted – and needed – reassurance about the meaning of work, given the tumult of those years, the wrecking of economies around the world and the collapse of trust in the banks and the banking system. Media pundits, government officials, and financial experts told us that lessons needed to be learned and that new practices should be put in place to avoid such chaos in the future. All good stuff. Yet The Edelman Trust Barometer, which publishes an annual report on brand and reputation around the world, reported in no uncertain terms that new legislation had had little or no effect on improving people’s experience of, or trust in, financial services companies in the post-Global Financial Crash period. This is doubly concerning given the earlier introduction of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 which was signed into law by George W. Bush to ensure integrity around corporate financial reporting, as well as to regulate accountancy firms. Sarbanes–Oxley came in the wake of the Enron scandal of 2000 (involving the accountancy firm Arthur Anderson) as well as other corporate misdemeanours perpetrated by companies such as WorldCom and Tyco. So despite the miserable experience that many people went through at that time as a result of the unethical behaviour of certain parts of the banking sector, many financial institutions did not mend their ways or try particularly hard to change the dismal public view of banks in general.