Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
•
conservatism in financing;
•
sensitivity to the world around them;
•
awareness of their identity; and
•
tolerance of new ideas.
Porter and Kramer (2006), however, argue that CSR, and certainly CSR reporting,
rarely seems to express a coherent strategy, often being more concerned with publicly
demonstrating a company's social sensitivity than being genuinely forward-looking.
Philanthropic activities are usually quantified in terms of volunteer hours and/or
dollars, rather than in overall social or ecological influence, with CSR largely being
justified in terms of moral obligation, sustainability, licence to operate and reputation.
These are all very important for many businesses, but fall short of properly integrating
business activity with those social issues that may foster and produce a healthy
society. For Porter and Kramer (2006: 85), social issues affect a company in three
specific categories:
•
generic social issues
that are not significantly affected by a company's operations
nor materially affect its long-term competitiveness;
•
value chain social impacts
that are significantly affected by a company's activities
in the ordinary course of business; and
•
social dimensions of competitive context
, where social issues in the external
environment significantly affect the underlying drivers of a company's competi-
tiveness in the location where it operates.
It is important that a corporate social agenda simultaneously achieves social and
economic benefits, that employees take pride in what their employer does, and to
realize that CSR needs to be responsive, strategic - in other words, doing things
differently from competitors - and able to articulate a clear and meaningful value
proposition. All businesses should have a social, ecological and moral purpose, should
seek to create shared value, recognizing that there will be some issues best left to
NGOs and governments. Porter and Kramer continue:
Supporting a dance company may be a generic social issue for a utility like
Southern California Edison but an important part of the competitive context for
a corporation like American Express, which depends on the high-end entertainment,
hospitality and tourism cluster. Carbon emissions may be a generic social issue
for a financial services firm like Bank of America, a negative value chain impact
for a transportation-based company like UPS, or both a value chain impact
and a competitive context issue for a car manufacturer like Toyota. The AIDS
pandemic in Africa may be a generic social issue for a US retailer like Home
Depot, a value chain impact for a pharmaceutical company like GlaxoSmithKline
and a competitive context issue for a mining company like Anglo American that
depends on local labour in Africa for its operations.
(2006: 85)
Criticisms of corporate social responsibility
Many NGOs and some academics are critical of CSR, suggesting there is a thin
divide between CSR from PR (public relations), with companies more:
