|
Institute Paper Shifts the
Focus of CSR from Corporate Social
Responsibility to Company Stakeholder
Responsibility
-
October 31, 2006
Charlottesville, VA
–
Today the
Institute issued the latest publication in its
Bridge Paper
series,
Company
Stakeholder Responsibility:A New Approach to CSR.
This paper by Academic Advisor
R. Edward
Freeman, S. Ramakrishna
Velamuri and
Brian Moriarty
shows how the model of Corporate Social
Responsibility that separates the social
responsibilities of a company from its business
responsibilities has outlived its usefulness.
The paper argues that it is time
to replace “corporate social responsibility”
with an idea of “company stakeholder
responsibility,” assigning a different meaning
to CSR. In this new definition of CSR, “company”
signals that all forms of value creation and
trade—all businesses—need to be involved;
“stakeholder” suggests that the main goal of CSR
is to create value for key stakeholders; and
“responsibility” implies that we cannot separate
what we do in the workplace from ethics.
To help
business leaders to develop this new model of
CSR in their companies, the paper outlines the
following 10 principles:
|
Ten Principles for Company
Stakeholder Responsibility
-
Bring stakeholder interests
together over time.
-
Recognize that stakeholders are
real and complex people with
names, faces and values.
-
Seek solutions to issues that
satisfy multiple stakeholders
simultaneously.
-
Engage in intensive
communication and dialogue with
stakeholders not just those who
are “friendly”.
-
Commit to a philosophy of
voluntarism—manage stakeholder
relationships yourself, rather
than leaving it
to government.
-
Generalize the marketing
approach.
-
Never trade off the interests of
one stakeholder versus another
continuously over time.
-
Negotiate with primary and
secondary stakeholders.
-
Constantly monitor and redesign
processes to better
serve stakeholders.
-
Act with purpose that fulfills
commitments to stakeholders. A
act with aspiration toward your
dreams and theirs.
|
 Company
Stakeholder Responsibility:
A New Approach to CSR features a Thought
Leadership Commentary with Charles O. Holliday,
Jr. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
DuPont.
This piece provides a CEO perspective on how to
embed a Company Stakeholder Responsibility
mindset across the enterprise and in a firm’s
overall value proposition.
"Industry has to be imaginative
and proactive and show that we can accomplish
the things our stakeholders expect of us,
especially those things that go beyond the
letter of the law," says Holliday, "We reduced
our greenhouse gas emissions by 72 percent since
1990 because our stakeholders expected us to be
proactive and lead in this area."
A complete version of
Company
Stakeholder Responsibility:A New Approach to CSR
is available on the Institute Website at
www.corporate-ethics.org.
# # #
About the Bridge PapersTM
Series
Institute
Bridge PapersTM put the
best thinking of academic and business leaders
into the hands of practicing managers.
Bridge PapersTM convey concepts from leading
edge research in the field of business ethics in
a format that today's managers can integrate
into their daily decision making. Bridge Papers™
are part of the Institute’s outreach efforts and
electronic copies of series’ titles are
available for non-commercial educational use on
a royalty-free basis on the Institute Web site
(www.corporate-ethics.org).
About the Business Roundtable
Institute for Corporate Ethics
The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate
Ethics is an independent entity established in
partnership with Business Roundtable—an
association of chief executive officers of
leading corporations with a combined workforce
of more than 10 million employees and $4.5
trillion in annual revenues—and leading
academics from America’s best business schools.
The Institute brings together leaders from
business and academia to fulfill its mission to
renew and enhance the link between ethical
behavior and business practice through executive
education programs, practitioner-focused
research and outreach.
More information
on the Institute can be found at
www.corporate-ethics.org.
Contact:
Brian Moriarty
(434) 982-2323 –
moriartyb@darden.virginia.edu
|
