Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Philip Morris and bat. these companies have, however, pursued their commitments
to corporate social responsibility (cSr) in very different ways, and internal
documents suggest that they have done so for different reasons. a published analysis
of documents describing the development of cSr within Philip Morris highlights,
inter alia
, the desire to extricate its corporate image from its close association with
litigation, to combat the scale of attacks to which global businesses were increasingly
subject, and to engage its employees more effectively (Hirschhorn 2004). In the
case of bat it is impossible to separate the launch of its ambitious cSr initiative,
variously referred to as social reporting or social accountability, from the company's
perception of the wide-ranging threat to its global operations posed by increased
regulation in general and the Fctc in particular. as outlined by bat's corporate
social accountability manager Shabanji opukah (1999),
in order to relate the project on the tFI threat, I would analogise as follows—If brent Spar
and the nigerian ogoni issues were the major spark that pushed Shell to where they are
today with social accountability, then the wHo tFI threat is our spark. If the colombian
environmental and security mess was the one that drove bP amoco to committing to the
social accountability agenda, then the wHo tFI threat is our colombia. If the community
riots and challenges that rio tinto faced in australia were the ones that led to the
company's review of its social responsibility and public commitment to doing something
about it then the wHo tFI is our australian challenge … time comes when organisations
have to be shocked out of their comfort zones and shells and some of this unfortunately
may come from externally driven rather than internally inspired and value driven sources.
then for us wHo tFI presents the best opportunity to take forward the big agenda on
corPorate rePUtatIon Management.
rather than simply providing an external impetus to adopt cSr, documents
indicate that bat's heightened concern with reputation management and initiation
of social reporting was targeted toward undermining the development of the Fctc.
A strategy document emphasised the significance of such initiatives, operating in
conjunction with the extensive programme of lobbying outlined above:
the most elusive part of the campaign—reputation management will require some
searching discussion, solid research and hard business decisions. the question we need
to ask is: can the tobacco industry move itself ahead—fast enough and far enough—of
the wHo agenda to negate the need for the convention and enhance its reputation in the
process (bat 1999)?
bat's foray into cSr recognised the importance of external monitoring if
the exercise was to have any credibility. a social reporting process devised by the
Institute of Social and ethical accountability was selected as a 'universally accepted
standard', enabling an '
independently verified account
of company performance'
(Prideaux 2000). crucially, however, the greater transparency entailed by this process
did not threaten embarrassment since the company would retain control of its content
