What: Ethical Corporation Responsible Business Awards
When: May 3 2011
Where: Responsible Business Summit, London
Winners included: Unilever (High Performance category), L’Oreal (Innovative Reporting category ), Kingfisher (Sustainability Commercialised category).
For full list of award recipients , click here.
“The fact is, corporate reputation matters more today because brand matters more. Over the past half century, we have moved beyond markets dominated by commodity goods to a world in which it is virtually impossible to buy anything that doesn’t have some form of logo or other identity mark stamped on it. And consumers are increasingly identifying themselves with and through the brands they buy.” (Benett et al., 2009: xiii)
In Good for Business: The Rise of the Conscious Corporation
, authors Benett, Gobhai, O’Reilly and Welch look at the changes that corporations must make to grow and thrive in a more informed and questioning society. They highlight the four cornerstones of a successful as well as conscious business:
Purpose Beyond Profit
Humanized Leadership
Corporate Consciousness
Collaborative Partnerships
Some corporations mentioned in the book include: Nike, Google, Whole Foods, DuPont, Wal-Mart, Procter and Gamble, GE, Microsoft, and Apple.
Title: Good for business : the rise of the conscious corporation
Authors: Andrew Benett, Cavas Gobhai , Ann O’Reilly & Greg Welch
Publication info: New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Availability: Click here
In the 1980s, Johnson and Johnson’s, best known for its range of baby products, was in the news for the wrong reasons – a number of deaths caused by cyanide-laced capsules of Johnson and Johnson’s Tylenol. But the company’s quick response by recalling the product won it praise. This case study of Johnson and Johnson is recorded in The global corporation : sustainable, effective and ethical practices : a case book. Another company associated with babies that is featured is Abbott Laboratories. The chapter on Abbott looks at its commitment to HIV/AIDS research and community outreach programmes.
Besides these 2 corporations, others highlighted in the book include ExxonMobil, Procter & Gamble, Nike, McDonald’s, Unilever, etc.
This compilation of case studies and corporate best practices ends by looking at the frameworks for corporate and managerial ethical decision-making.
Title: The global corporation : sustainable, effective and ethical practices : a case book
Editors: Laura P. Hartman and Patricia H. Werhane
Publication info: New York : Routledge, 2009.
Availability: Click here.
Values-based service for sustainable business : Lessons from IKEA
Towards the end of each year, one thing you will most likely find in your letter-box, apart from the credit card bills for all that Christmas shopping, is the IKEA catalogue. With 2 branches in Singapore, this Swedish retailer of furniture and household goods with hard-to-pronounced names, has a reputation for low prices and innovative designs. You probably have one or two IKEA items in your home; I know I have more than a couple.
How is IKEA able to offer its wide range of functional furniture at such affordable prices? This book, Values-based service for sustainable business : lessons from IKEA, looks at how the values-based business model of IKEA has helped it sustain its profitable while still fulfilling its corporate social and environmental responsibility. Other values-based service companies, like Starbucks Coffee Company, Swedish clothing retailer H&M (soon to set up shop here in Singapore) and Body Shop are analysed for comparison.
Title: Values-based service for sustainable business : lessons from IKEA
Authors: Bo Edvardsson and Bo Enquist.
Publication info: London ; New York : Routledge, 2009.
Call Number: HD9980.5.E28 2009
Availability: Click here.
The authors have also published an article on the same topic in Managing Service Quality, Jul 2007, Vol. 17 Issue 4, p385-403. Access the article in Emerald database here.
The principles of sustainable development have much in common with those of CSR and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. A company pursuing sustainable tourism is, by definition, socially responsible while CSR incorporates some of the fundamental tenets of sustainability.
Henderson, 2007, p231
Henderson, J. C. (2007). Corporate social responsibility and tourism: Hotel companies in Phuket, Thailand, after the Indian Ocean tsunami. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26(1), 228-239.
This paper looks at corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the tourism industry in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Forteen international and regional hotel groups were surveyed regarding CSR activities following the tsunami.
In Singapore, NTUC is almost synonymous to supermarket. Most heartlanders fulfil their groceries needs at NTUC FairPrice supermarkets littered across the island. And with the introduction of FairPrice Finest in more upmarket locations, even expatriates are doing so as imported products, which used to be only available in specialist supermarket in town, are now readily available there.
Do you know that NTUC Fairprice is a co-operative*? At the core of its mission as a social enterprise is the moderation of the cost of living while at the same time maintaining success as a business (Frohman, 2009).
What are the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Vision and Mission of NTUC FairPrice? What are some measures it has taken to become the “Best Corporate Citizen”? What are some challenges and opportunities it faces?
Read more about the FairPrice CSR story in CSR For Sustainability and Business. Other companies highlighted in the book include
Title: CSR for Sustainability and Success
Edited by: Wong, Evelyn S.
Publisher : Marshall Cavendish Editions, c2009
Call No.: HD60.5.S55C958
Click here for more titles on the same topic.
* A co-operative, in essence, is a form of organisation in which customers share in the profits in relation to purchases. In other words, members of the co-op enjoy not only the “benefits of good-quality products at fair prices but also a share of the profits (a dividend) based on the amount of each member’s purchases” (A Dictionary of Business and Management, Oxford University Press, 2009).
Frohman, N. (2009). Best Place to Shop, Best Place to Work, Best Corporate Citizen. In Evelyn Wong, CSR for Sustainability and Success.
Delfgaauw, T. (2000). Reporting on Sustainable Development: A Preparer’s View. Auditing, 19(1), 67.
Abstract from author
The article discusses the experiences of the petrochemical company Shell Group with sustainability reporting. One publicly stated objective of “The Shell Report” is that eventually it aims to evolve into the Shell annual report including the full financial report, as well as reports on the environmental and social performance of the Shell Group, hopefully in a fully integrated manner. Shell has had the core values of honesty, integrity, and respect for people at the heart of its approach to business for more than a hundred years. They are the bedrock on which its business principles are based. After the external crises that hit Shell in the mid-1990s, intensive stakeholder contacts and internal deliberations followed. At the end of that a decision was taken to incorporate two new commitments into the business principles: a commitment to contribute to sustainable development and a commitment to respect fundamental human rights. The article author would like to highlight two additional issues: the need for standards on sustainability reporting, and the question of which parties can verify sustainability reports. Regarding the first issue, the necessity is clear and several organizations are working to develop standards..
Read the full article here.
Schouten, E. M. J., & Remm, J. (2006). Making sense of corporate social responsibility in international business: experiences from Shell. Business Ethics: A European Review, 15(4), 365-379.
Abstract from author
International business organizations are regularly addressed on their corporate social responsibility (CSR). As illustrated in this paper, it is not yet clear exactly what CSR means to organizations and how to deal with it. In this paper, the authors explore how a sense-making approach helps to understand the business challenges of CSR within an organizational context. The theories of Karl Weick are applied to the experiences of CSR in Royal Dutch Shell. The authors argue that the key to CSR in international business organizations is to engage stakeholders and start a process of joint sense-making. Three main competencies are crucial in this: the competency to engage stakeholders through listening and understanding; the creation of an organizational language so that CSR makes sense to members of the organization; and recognizing the momentum of taking action.
Schultz, M., Hatch, M., Larsen, M., Fombrun, C., & Rindova, V. (2002). CHAPTER 6: The Road to Transparency: Reputation Management at Royal Dutch/Shell. Expressive Organization, 77-96.
Abstract from author
The article presents an extensive empirical analysis of the transformation of the company Royal Dutch/Shell into a more transparent and expressive organization by the use of a comprehensive reputation management process. The authors introduce a learning model for reputation management and describe the managerial and organizational processes needed to support reputation as strategy. The models of reputation management that Shell derived from its experience show that the management of organizational reputation is inextricably linked to the management of organizational identity. In order to influence how a firm wants to be perceived it has to change who it believes itself to be. Thus, the sustainability of a firm’s reputation as an asset is also better ensured.
Read the full article here.
Livesey, Sharon M, & Kearins, Kate. (2002). Transparent and caring corporations? A study of sustainability reports by The Body Shop and Royal Dutch/Shell. Organization & Environment, 15(3), 233-258
Abstract from author
This article analyzes sustainability values reports published by The Body Shop International and by the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. The authors show how corporate discourses expressed in these precedent-setting texts both reflect and influence sociopolitical struggle over the meanings and practices of sustainable development. Specifically, the authors examine metaphors of transparency and care used to describe corporate rationales for increasing stakeholder communication, including reporting. Drawing on distinct discursive domains of business accountancy and personal ethics and sentiment, these metaphors promise to reconstruct the interface between the firm and society. Exploring the quite different assumptions on which each of these metaphors relies and their implications for corporate practices of sustainable development, the authors consider whether sustainability values reporting and the dialogue that it claims to facilitate can promote more democratic and socially and environmentally responsive corporate decision making, even as they impose new forms of managerial control.
To read entire article, click here.
The authors also presented a conference paper about The Body Shop and Royal Dutch Shell entitiled (Be)Coming Clean: Sustainable Developement Accounting as Social Construction of Greening in 2001.
Abstract from authorThis paper addresses corporate public reporting efforts of two very different companies, The Body Shop International and Royal Dutch/Shell Group, both cited as pioneers in producing “values” or “social” reports. These are early examples of an emerging report genre so-called “triple bottom line” or “sustainable development” accounting that aspires to integrate social, environmental and financial performance indicators. Our post-structuralist analysis closely examines the texts of reports by each company to show how they restore the progress myth and its narrow economic paradigm in order to deconstruct the polarity between profits and principles. Thus, they construct new premises for sustainable (i.e., legitimate and competitive) business practice. The reporting examples we choose serve different corporate motives and goals for the two companies involved; nonetheless the reports themselves share common characteristics and strategies particularly, the interpolation of sentimental discourses of “caring” and “passion” with more rationalist discourses of business economics and accountancy. Thus, they attempt to articulate connections between distinct and previously incompatible discourses, between modernist sensibilities and those that challenge them. Broadly speaking, we argue that these new forms of corporate reporting constitute a micropractice of sustainable development, a currently emerging discursive domain. In this respect, the evolving genre plays a significant role in the constitution of knowledge about the environmental problematic and institutionalization of corporate behaviors that will count as environmentally and socially responsible and responsive. Accordingly, it bears investigation for its ontological and disciplinary force, including its capacity to potentiate more democratic decision-making and communication, as well as new forms of managerial control.
Read the full article here.