Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

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Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

• Phil Harris, Tim Breitbarth and Andrea Insch

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Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

• Sponsored by the Journal of Public Affairs

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Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

• Sponsored by the Journal of Public Affairs
• Agenda
• Welcome
• Preview JPA special issues on CSR
• CSR Research findings/agenda
• Centre of Business in Society
• Come-together

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Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

• Journal of Public Affairs - Special Issue on CSR
• Preview 1
• "CSR The Wolf in Sheeps Clothing"

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Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

• Journal of Public Affairs - Special Issue on CSR
• Preview 2
• Responsible Business Decisions
• An Over-Arching Framework

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Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

• Journal of Public Affairs - Special Issue on CSR
• Preview 3
• Trade Unions and CSR
• A European Research Agenda

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Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

• Journal of Public Affairs - Special Issue on CSR
• Preview 4
• Safeguarding CSR in Global
• Supply Chains How Codes of
• Conduct Are Managed in Buyer-
• Supplier Relationships

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Niccolo Machiavelli

• Lived 1469-1527
• Meritocratic Rise
• Desire to Serve
• Exceptional Observer
• First Political Scientist and Political Marketer
• Strength and Direction
• Forced Retirement

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Machiavellis Epigrammatic Style

• All armed prophets conquered, all the unarmed
  perished. The Prince
• Wars begin when you will, but they do not end
  when you please. History of Florence

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Machiavellis Core Thoughts

• Liberty and the role of the state
• Virtu Vitality, Energy Courage
• Fortuna Essentially Fortune
• Virtuous men and women will know how to act when
  required

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Machiavellis Core Thoughts

• Morality - 16th or 21st Century
• Two levels of ethics - Public and Private
• Moral worth of one not superior to other
• That which would produce the most practical
  result should take precedence
• Government will have to act in ways that are
  publicly moral but privately immoral

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CSR Approaches, Findings, Agenda

• CSR as a cluster concept/ interdisciplinary
  concept
• Philosophy of business
• (Business) Ethics
• Politics
• Accounting
• Marketing Management
• Ethical approach vs. stakeholder approach of CSR
• Explicit vs. implicit CSR

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CSR Approaches, Findings, Agenda

• An explorative investigation into CSR in British
  and German multinational companies
• Europe is most alive area of CSR
  discussion/practice.
• EU see as prime regulator of CSR/Sustainability
  standards
• by Asia
• Lisbon Summit (2000), EU Strategy for
  Sustainable Development
• EU CSR is a concept whereby companies
  integrate social and environmental concerns in
  their business operations and in their
  interaction with their stakeholders on a
  voluntary basis

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ResearchProcess
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General Findings

• CSR is context-dependent, but
• CSR leads to organisational change
• CSR leads to increasing communications
• CSR reinforces the manifestation of the
  stakeholder corporation in business strategy
  and management
• CSR offers sources of competitive advantage
• CSR activities become more localised

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Specific Findings 1

• CSR or Not CSR?
• It doesnt matter what you call it. Its what
  you do.
• The reason why we have never called it CSR in
  (X) was the fact that the words corporate social
  responsibility do not translate well in the US.
  That would probably sound a bit like, you know,
  creeping red flag or those kinds of left wing
  behaviours.

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Specific Findings 2

• Foundations, Historical Development, Value Set
• (X) has always had a strong link to the
  community. You can trace through some wonderful
  quotes from (X) backing the need to be engaged
  with the community. The company is a
  long-standing culture with community engagement.
• So we have to recognize where you sit is
  generally where you are biased towards. And this
  is clearly a disadvantage for (X).

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Specific Findings 3

• CSR and Competition
• To be successful in long-term, we also have to
  take social responsibility.
• There are serious considerations of CSR as a
  bubble it means that it will soon become
  obvious who just talks the walk and who walks
  the talk.

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Specific Findings 4

• CSR Performance and Measurement
• We are talking about soft variables to measure
  increase our positive image through being a
  responsible corporation is extremely
  difficult.
• We are looking at external rating the very
  immediate measurement for us, is the media
  output.
• Sustainability has nothing to do with sales but
  a long-term increase in brand value.

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Specific Findings 5

• Stakeholder Management
• In terms of identifying them it is pretty
  obvious It is not that difficult to find out
  who they are.
• The (X), which is our union in (X) ... refused
  to meet with an environmental group The (X)
  refused to meet with any who had an environmental
  or sustainability agenda Full stop, end of
  discussion, wont meet.

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Specific Findings 6

• Internal Communication and Organisational Change
• The whole CSR endeavour can only be successful
  and efficient when all employees think and act in
  the same direction. I think, this is extremely
  important, because then every employee is an
  ambassador.
• It has to be integrated into the whole
  organisation. It is useless if it remains board
  talk and is not reflected through the involvement
  of the single employee.

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Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility

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• Feed your mind.
• Feed the Journal of Public Affairs.