The Social and Ethical Accountability Model©

An organisation carrying out its business interacts and forms relationships with other organisations and with people. These relationships are often complex and may be confused.

The type of relationship varies depending on the type of business being carried out. For example, the retailer’s relationship with a regular customer will be different to their relationship with say, a visiting tourist.  These relationships can be major or minor, complex or simple, permanent or temporary, and all variations in between. They are also two way, and can be multi-faceted.

The model (SEAM) is a Relationship Map which has been developed to enable a greater understanding of the nature of these relationships.  It shows the interaction between the parties, and allows a dissection to occur and the complex streams to be analysed. 

Four quadrants form the model, into which all internal and external relationships can be placed.  The quadrants are Consumer, Supplier, Employee, and Owner.

The complex nature of the relationships between these quadrants means that a person or organisation can be in one or more of these types of relationships at the one time.  For example, a member of a trading co-operative can be a consumer of goods, a supplier of produce and a part owner of the cooperative.

Get the Principles and the model in pdf format

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Last modified: 3rd May, 2010