CSR and Sustainability in the Graves Model

This work examines Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability from the perspective of the Graves Model and was published as part of the "FACTORY OF THE FUTURE" initiative.

Publication in TRIGOS

The Significance of the Graves Model for CSR

The Graves Model provides a unique framework for understanding Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability. It demonstrates how different value systems and developmental stages influence approaches to CSR topics.

Companies at different developmental stages have different motivations and approaches to sustainable business practices:

• Graves 3 (Red): CSR as power demonstration and competitive advantage
• Graves 4 (Blue): CSR as moral obligation and regulatory compliance
• Graves 5 (Orange): CSR as business case and efficiency improvement
• Graves 6 (Green): CSR as holistic responsibility for people and environment
• Graves 7 (Yellow): CSR as systemic integration and innovation

The Development Model According to Clare W. Graves

4.6. Development Model According to Graves

This chapter presents a psychological value development model and its application in integrating CSR into strategic corporate management. The goal of this chapter is to expand the CSR perspective for strategic corporate management and to make relevant CSR effects such as pioneering function, employee motivation, and employer attractiveness more tangible. For this purpose, the Graves value development model is first explained and then related to CSR topics. Finally, concrete applications of the model for strategic corporate management are discussed.

4.6.1. The Neuropsychology of Values

The Graves Model is named after Clare W. Graves (1914-1986), a former professor of psychology at Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., USA. Clare Graves was a colleague of the famous motivation researcher Abraham Maslow and developed his theory in direct relation to Maslow's work in the 1950s. Clare Graves had direct personal contact with Abraham Maslow, who in discussions with Clare Graves reflected on the Graves Model as a further development of his hierarchy of needs.

It was not until 1996 that two students of Clare Graves, Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan, published the Graves Model in modernized form (Beck/Cowan 1996). Don Edward Beck was a chief advisor to Nelson Mandela and accompanied the transformation in South Africa with the help of the Graves Model. Unfortunately, Clare Graves himself did not publish a book, but from 1959 onwards numerous professional publications (e.g., Graves 1967, 1965).

Values here are not to be understood as intellectual principles in the sense of a philosophical value discussion, but as neuropsychologically present, highly effective motivators for conscious and unconscious human behavior. Simply put, values are what is important to us. Values motivate us. Values can work consciously or unconsciously.

4.6.2. The Cultural Development of Values

Through the process of socialization and family relationships (Bauer 2005), collective value systems of a society also affect organizations and individuals. People learn evaluations in family and social communities. Individual value development interacts strongly with systemic and family value systems.

Evolution works according to a proven basic principle: Functioning systems are adopted and expanded. This basic principle is visible, for example, in the structural organization of the brain. The human brainstem in its current structure existed many hundred million years earlier in simple reptiles, long before the first humans existed.

4.6.3. Graves 1 – "Survival" - Individual-Oriented

The first value system originates from the time of Stone Age humans, the time of hunters and gatherers. Elementary survival values take precedence:

• Food, water, warmth, sex, and shelter

Life here is pure adaptation to nature. The senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting) are much sharper than in modern "thinking humans." The own self is only weakly perceived, all attention is focused outward on sensory perception.

4.6.4. Graves 2 – "Security and Identification" - Group-Oriented

Development leads the human race further into the experience of tribal life. The individual subordinates themselves to the tribe and the chief and receives security. The elders, wise women, shamans, and medicine men are also honored. Security and identification are thus the most important Graves 2 values.

Following Graves 2 values are relevant:

• Security, bonding, feeling "at home", preserving rituals
• Loyalty to the organization, being part of the group, belonging
• The principle of elders/seniority, past orientation
• Pride in the organization, nationalism, local ties
• "Together we are strong"

4.6.5. Graves 3 – "Power and Strength" – Individual-Oriented

Here, humans develop an individual self for the first time. The self frees itself from identification with the group and expresses itself impulsively and egocentrically. This is the value level of heroes, knights, and cowboys. Important values are:

• Strength, honor, courage, power, getting respect
• Being cool, being relentless, assertiveness
• Seeking the "kick"

4.6.6. Graves 4 – "Order and Authority" - Group-Oriented

How do you get control over roughnecks and cowboys? Here, society develops generally valid rules and laws for the first time in human evolution. The individual believes in justice and in authorities accepted by society, so that law and order are established and cowboys are tamed. Important values of this level are:

• Truth, justice, accuracy, honesty, thoroughness
• Control, discipline, obedience, reliability
• Order, loyalty, stability, clarity, structure
• Certainty, duty

4.6.7. Graves 5 – "Achievement and Profit" - Individual-Oriented

The individual recognizes the sense of law and order and now simultaneously begins to strive for personal success. They see the world full of possibilities and opportunities. Rules and laws are "interpreted in a goal-oriented manner" and partially bent. Important values of the Graves 5 level are:

• Success, entrepreneurial thinking, challenge
• Prosperity, profit, goal and result orientation
• "Being the best", growth, excellent performance
• Competition, reward, "bigger & better"

4.6.8. Graves 6 – "Team and Community" - Group-Oriented

Just as the development from Graves 3 to Graves 4 integrates the individual back into the group, from a societal perspective, the development of the Graves 6 value level causes a return to human values and a counter-reaction to the performance and profit orientation of the Graves 5 value level. Here the focus is on humanity, feelings, relationships, and group harmony. Important values are:

• Team, collegiality, harmony, relationship focus
• Being empathetic, equality, understanding for others
• Peace & love, consensus, group we-feeling
• Getting everyone's approval, community, networking

4.6.9. Graves 7 – "Freedom and Learning" - Individual-Oriented

According to Clare Graves, a new octave of the upward-open value meta-model begins with the seventh level. The Graves 7 value level is the level of systems thinking. Personal development now enters the focus of motivation for the first time in a self-referential way. Important values are:

• Systems thinking, freedom, expanding knowledge
• Personal development, self-realization, independence
• Vision, big picture thinking, uniqueness
• Learning, synergy, inspiration, recognizing connections
• Competence, functionality, usefulness
• Long-term strategies, flexibility
• Space for diversity and individual "truths"

4.6.10. Graves 8 – "Sustainability and Global Unity" - Group-Oriented

The development from Graves 7 to Graves 8 again follows the alternation from self-centeredness to group-centeredness, whereby people with Graves 8 centeredness see the earth as a holistic organism. The central values of the Graves 8 level are:

• Holistic/global thinking, sustainability, biosphere
• Synthesis, integration, for the benefit of all life
• Transcendence, biodiversity
• Future generations, global improvement
• Long-term consequences, world peace
• Holistic view, balance (emotional/spiritual)

4.6.11. CSR and Sustainability from the Graves Model Perspective

CSR projects as a concept of corporate social responsibility, oriented towards the value of sustainability, are voluntary "additional services" by companies for society and are often initiated by committed individuals. They are based on personal initiative and responsibility.

However, as emphasized in many CSR publications and project descriptions, a necessary prerequisite for corporate social engagement and the main goal of entrepreneurial action is economic success. From the perspective of the Graves Model, the value center of an economic enterprise therefore lies in the Graves 5 value level:

• Economic success through entrepreneurial thinking and action
• Mastering the challenge of global markets
• Creating prosperity through goal and result orientation
• Realizing profits
• Implementing growth and expansion strategies

These are all Graves 5 driving forces of a company. Only globally competitive and economically healthy companies are able to contribute to solving societal problems. The emphasis on personal initiative remarkably expresses from the Graves Model perspective that not state Graves 4 regulations should come into play, but companies should and want to use the motivational power of the higher Graves levels 5, 6, 7, and 8 in self-responsibility ("Motivate instead of regulate").

4.6.12. CSR and Sustainability Management in Strategic Corporate Management

What consequences arise from this perspective for strategic corporate management? Many publications on sustainability management describe that the challenge with CSR and sustainability measures lies in integrating the activities. The more strongly the measures are integrated into strategic corporate management, the more effectively they will ultimately become noticeable in their economic effect.

From the Graves Model, it becomes clear how the individual Graves levels work together in an integrated manner. Interestingly, various integration developments seem to be converging at the moment. In the 1970s and 1980s, environmental protection in companies was mostly a technological issue, with production-specific environmental problems in the foreground. Only in the late 1980s and 1990s did ecological product and service characteristics become important success and competitive potentials in many markets.

Practical Application

Integrating the Graves Model into CSR strategies enables companies to better align their sustainability approaches with their stakeholders' value systems. This leads to:

• More effective communication of CSR initiatives
• Higher acceptance among different stakeholder groups
• More sustainable and holistic solution approaches
• Better integration of CSR into corporate culture