Lecture Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy (14/e): Chapter 7 - Anne Lawrence, James Weber

Chapter 7 - Global corporate citizenship. The goals of this chapter are: Defining global corporate citizenship and observing it in practice, recognizing the many different approaches to managing corporate citizenship, understanding how the multiple dimensions of corporate citizenship progress through a series of stages,...

Chapter 7 Global Corporate Citizenship McGraw­Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2014 by The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved Ch 7: Key Learning Objectives  Defining global corporate citizenship and observing it in practice  Recognizing the many different approaches to managing corporate citizenship  Understanding how the multiple dimensions of corporate citizenship progress through a series of stages  Understanding how business or social groups can audit corporate citizenship activities and report their findings to stakeholders  Recognizing how an organization communicates its corporate citizenship practices and manifests its attention to various social performance standards, such as the triple bottom line 7­2 Global Corporate Citizenship  Refers to putting an organization’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility into practice worldwide not only locally and regionally  Entails putting corporate social responsibility into practice by    Proactively building stakeholder partnerships Discovering business opportunities in serving society Transforming a concern for financial performance into a vision of integrated financial and social performance 7­3 Global Corporate Citizenship  Concept is consistent with several major themes discussed throughout this book:     Managers and companies have responsibilities to all their stakeholders Corporate citizenship or responsibility involves more than just meeting legal requirements Corporate citizenship requires that a company focus on, and respond to, stakeholder expectations and undertake those voluntary acts that are consistent with its values and business mission Corporate citizenship involves both what the corporation does and the processes and structures through which it engages stakeholders and makes decisions 7­4 Citizenship Profile  Research by Gardberg and Fombrun argues that corporate citizenship activities should be viewed as strategic investments (like research and development)  Create intangible assets that lead to improved legitimacy, reputation and competitive advantage  Particularly true of global firms where citizenship activities overcome nationalistic barriers and build local advantage  Important for global firms to choose a Citizenship Profile which matches the local setting  Public expectations vary on factors such as environmental risk, philanthropy and worker rights  Companies that choose the right configuration of citizenship activities to match public expectations will reap strategic advantages 7­5 Management Systems for Global Corporate Citizenship  Global corporate citizenship is more than espoused values; it requires action  In order to become leading citizens of the world, companies must establish management processes and structures to carry out their citizen commitments  Could be assigned to committee of the board, senior executive committee, single executive/group of executives, or departments of corporate citizenship 7­6 International Organizations that Support Corporate Citizenship Activities for Businesses BSR (formerly Business for Social Responsibility), Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) Corporate Social Responsibility Europe Forum Empresa The African Institute of Corporate Citizenship, or AICC Africa  CSR-Asia  Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility      7­7 The Stages of Global Corporate Citizenship  Is a developmental change process, involving new attitudes, routines, policies, programs and relationships  Mirvis and Googins of the Center for Global Citizenship proposed a five stage model of global corporate citizenship  Each stage is characterized by distinct patterns of:        Citizenship content Strategic intent Leadership Structure Issues management Stakeholder relationships Transparency 7­8 Figure 7.1 Stages of Global Corporate Citizenship 7­9 Assessing Global Corporate Citizenship  As companies around the world expand their commitment to corporate citizenship, they have also improved their capacity to measure performance and assess results  A social audit is a systematic evaluation of an organization’s social, ethical, and environmental performance   A company’s performance is evaluated relative to a set of externally imposed standards The results of the audit are used to improve the firm’s performance and to communicate with stakeholders and the public 7­10 Six Benefits of Social Audits  Identified by scholar Simon Zadek  Help businesses know what is happening within their firm  Understand what stakeholders think about and want from the business  Tell stakeholders what the business has achieved  Strengthen the loyalty and commitment of stakeholders  Enhance the organization’s decision making  Improve the business’s overall performance 7­11 Global Social and Environmental Figure 7.2 Audit Standards 7­12 The Auditing Process  Companies have several choices in carrying out an audit  Internal audit: company hires and trains its own staff of auditors whose job is to inspect factories—either its own or those operated by contractors—to determine whether or not they are in compliance  External or third-party audit: company hires another organization to carry out the audit and report back to the company  Crowd-sourcing audit: company gathers information directly from workers using their mobile phones 7­13 Social and Environmental Reporting  When a company decides to publicize information collected in a social audit, this is called corporate social reporting  When companies clearly and openly report their performance—financial, social, and environmental—to their various stakeholders, they are acting with transparency  The term transparency refers to a quality of complete clarity; a clear glass window, for example, is said to be transparent 7­14 Figure 7.3 Trends in Corporate Social Reporting   7­15 Triple Bottom Line  Bottom line refers to the figure at the end of a company’s financial statement that summarizes its earnings, after expenses  Occurs when companies report to stakeholders not just their financial results—as in the traditional annual report to shareholders—but also their environmental and social impacts  Firms in Europe have more quickly accepted triple bottom line than have those in the United States 7­16 ... loyalty and commitment of stakeholders  Enhance the organization’s decision making  Improve the business s overall performance 7 11 Global Social and Environmental Figure 7. 2 Audit Standards 7 12... to a set of externally imposed standards The results of the audit are used to improve the firm’s performance and to communicate with stakeholders and the public 7 10 Six Benefits of Social Audits... scholar Simon Zadek  Help businesses know what is happening within their firm  Understand what stakeholders think about and want from the business  Tell stakeholders what the business has achieved